Local to Live

Have you had a look at the Codex? https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Moving_WordPress#On_Your_Existing_Server

In general the steps are:
1- Upload all your files on your new sever
2 – Download the db
3 – Find and replace the old domain name and change to the new one
4 – Upload the new db on your server.

The only suggestion i would add is make sure you use a proper db search and replace script as just a basic search and replace doesnt necessarily moves widget (specially text) because of how wordpress db uses php serialization strings

and you could even do 1 more step that is go to tools > export
and it will export all your posts categories and content which u can import back on to your live server

This is what I’m talking about. Several people say to refer to the codex, but the codex isn’t for moving from local to live- the section on their codex which addresses doing this says “coming soon”

On one hand, you are referring to the codex, wrought with a long list of (to the layman) complicated steps – but then on the other hand, you give 4 general steps. Should I be following the codex verbatim and treating this as one server to another or should I take a generalized approach which you outlined in 4 steps?

Yes these are the 4 steps u follow while shifting
and i will add a 5th step to it is
Go to Tools > Export (u get an xml of your posts,categories, pages) which u can import onto your new site as well)

the codex is for people who want to read deeply into each and every step

Okay- so, here’s my questions with regards to each step.

1- Upload all your files on your new sever
So for this one, I just make sure my directory is wherever I want it and then just upload everything? Right now, all of my files are in xampp>htdocs In htdocs is my sites (local) directory (mysite)
So, do I just move this directory to the matching directory on my server? Will wordpress automatically install in doing this? Will my themes automatically install when doing this?

2 – Download the db
Download which db? My local db?

3 – Find and replace the old domain name and change to the new one
Find it where?

4 – Upload the new db on your server.
Upload it where on my server?

Not sure how ur server is structured
but 1: yes xamp > htdocs > yoursite
copy this to root of your server public_html (usually again not sure how your server is structured)-paste the content of (yoursite) unless you want to have something like url/yoursite

Yes it copies everything

Second : when u setup your local for > yoursite > you would have added the DB info and you would have phpmyadmin which has the DB for (yoursite) dump the sql from it (this database sql dump would have links to your localhost which needs to be found and replaced with your new domain- would suggest using a DB find and replace script to do it than just simple find and replace)

3: Once you have this dump and u have uploaded your site on to your live server – go to your server control panel create the database dump the sql save the username password and your server hostname on a document and go to your ftp/file manager > (yoursite) > wp-config.php update the database connection info with your new one

4: i also suggest and use it personally as well before shifting go to your (yoursite) dashboard > tools > export > this exports your all posts, categories, basically your content and media

Wait, what if I created the new db, and user on my server before I uploaded everything?

After I export the tools- how to I import it. When I click on the import option in wp – it only gives me a list of things to import such as blogger, blogroll, etc…but no option to import this XML file.

Do I install this wordpress importer? weird

yes wordpress importer
you would have to create a new db and copy the sql dump of your local on it.
and edit your wp-config.php to point to your new database settings

Everything is working fine- but that importer thing didn’t work well for me. Probably because I have a theme with it’s own settings.
None the less, all went well- so far….I just need to rebuild some small widgets. No problem

yea the widgets would have broken if they already existed because while you did db search and replace you wouldnt have used the proper script to do it