MAKING A COPY of the same site in subdirectory to work on it

  • Hello,

    I run a few festival websites.
    Each year I need to update the site with a new sub-directory /2014 or /2015 so I can maintain the same site structure and design, yet be able to update it for the new festival year, while the archived 2014, 2013, 2012 sites are untouched and accessible thru urls like /2012, /2013… a commonly done thing for festival homepages.

    So – here is what I did… and feeling stuck.
    My logic:

    1. Back up site and database from 2014
    2. Create /2015test sub-directory to work on before it goes live (meanwhile /2014 is the main site now and it still stays live – IMPORTANT!)
    3. Copy the exact same WP files from the /2014 site content into the /2015test folder via FTP
    4. Create new database with separate admin in cPanel
    5. update the wp-config.php and throw it back into FTP sub-directory so now that this new wp site is pointing to a new fresh and separate database.

    Right now – if I proceed the way I did on my method above, the install.php shows up, and asks to put in the new admin data – and then it reinstalls a brand new wordpress… so then I lose all the files I am trying to maintain… also, last time I came across this, my live site in the other sub-directory got affected (the pages went 404)

    QUESTION 1: To have the exact same site, do I need to export the 2014 database and then import into the new 2015 database?

    QUESTION 2: should I just let install.php do the install a new wp and then copy over some specific files/folders from the old site? > then which files do I need to copy over to create the exact same site?

    YOUR METHOD: better yet – do you have a specific suggestion? Am I missing something?

    I am just trying to simply copy and update an old site to new – but I just don’t seem to have all the answers in configuring 2 independent WP sites within the same server…

    Thank you so much for your help and expertise!
    Mika

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    To be totally honest, I don’t recommend doing any of that. You would have to maintain, keep up to date, and otherwise manage a separate WordPress installation for each year.

    Instead, maintain one site, and use page titles and categories to your advantage, that’s how most WordPress-powered events sites operate.

    For example you have a page for Schedule, and once that’s out of date, it’s re-named to 2014 Schedule, and so on.

    Thread Starter Meeker Jones

    (@mikaanami)

    Hey James, Thanks!

    I think I may do that for one of our festival sites, but for the new one – I need to run a brand new subdomain – since that is our plan already.

    So – I am back to asking the original question above!

    Thanks for your suggestions.

    Mika

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Ok, if you’re planning to do this for multiple years, you’ll be better off building a WordPress multisite network: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Create_A_Network

    You’ll have to maintain a separate site for each year, but at least it will all be running off of one installation.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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