testing with new theme without disrupting users

I’m a huge fan of having a Test System as isolated as possible from your “real” WordPress system, but identical in every other way, so that testing really is accurate.

I talk about what I do here:
https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/348391?replies=5

The Theme Test Drive plugin by Vladomir Prevolac.

Yes, I too want to develop/test on my server as opposed to my desktop. I don’t think I need anything as elaborate as a reseller account (yet).

I suppose if I’m not too concerned about testing with content, I could create an empty new WP installation and test with that. Eventually, though, I would want some of my original content to test with.

So…if I want to copy the DB (not just move it) and access it with a different instantiation of WP, do the instructions in that “Moving WordPress” apply?

Also: I just found this:
Running a Development Copy
How does this sound to you?

Oy. Stop hocking me a chainick. Just get the Theme Test Drive plugin by Vladomir Prevolac.

I will try that. It looks like I’ll have to disable Super Cache first, which I don’t mind doing.

Thanks for the suggestion. (Nice new Yiddish term, too!)

I don’t know about that. I don’t use WP Super Cache but I don’t think it serves you cached pages when you are logged in.

Well, everything on my site is a Page, not a Post, so I think I’m OK.

I was using the term “pages” loosely.

p.s. Once you have it activated, you can add ?theme=whatever to any URL of your site to see how it would look in your theme.

Like this:

https://johnnasta.com/blog/?theme=VNF

So…if I want to copy the DB (not just move it) and access it with a different instantiation of WP, do the instructions in that “Moving WordPress” apply?

Just in case you are still interested, or wish to do more generic testing in the future:
Yes, these instructions apply. For a new instance of WordPress on the same domain name for test purposes, the closest to follow is the “Moving WordPress to a New Server” – “If You Want Your Old Blog To Still Work” as if you are changing domain names.

Adiant –

I’ll take a closer look at that tomorrow. The plugin didn’t work for me. I think it may have had to do with my having two versions of a plugin in my themes space. WP seems to get a little confused as to which is active.

Conceptually, the approach is to create a new database identical to your existing WordPress database, and a new folder identical to your existing WordPress folder. But each with a different name, if you are doing this on the same domain.

Make sure your database has a new user name connected to the database with full access.

Then some small changes. Change wp-config.php, updating the database name, database user name and the database user name’s password. Change the wp_options table:

the WordPress Address and Blog Address are stored as siteurl and home (the option_name field). All you have to do is change the option_value field to the correct URL for the records with option_name=’siteurl‘ or option_name=’home‘.

You’ll also probably need to do these steps:

1. If you are using Permalinks, go to the Administration > Settings > Permalinks panel and update your Permalink structure to your .htaccess file, which should be in the same directory as the main index.php file.
2. If you have problems with missing images that you’ve uploaded, you need to change the path to the images on every post directly on your SQL database. For this, follow the instructions on Tamba2’s Tutorial “Moving your weblog inside your PC”.
3. You must also check and edit ‘store uploads folder’ under Settings-Miscellaneous or all your new uploads will continue to go into the old folder.
4. Existing image/media links uploaded media will refer to the old folder and must be updated with the new location.

Above quotes from Codex (Moving WordPress)

What is the other plugin? Does Theme Test Drive work if you deactivate the other plugin? I use Theme Test Drive on pretty much every WordPress site I develop, even if the client is using a stock theme, so they can see what it will look like before activating the theme. I also use it when modifying a theme because you can modify a copy of the theme and keep the original intact. I’ve never had a case where it didn’t work and I am surprised to hear that.

adiant: thanks for the specifics. I may tackle that a little later today.

minnow: the conflicting themes are two versions of cutline. My older version is 1.1, and the new one is 1.4.3. When I tried using Theme Test Drive, it “broke” the theme I wanted to try.

Also, the way I understand it, you can’t Test Drive an existing theme…you have to upload one from a zip file. Is this correct?

UPDATE:

I just tried it again with a fresher mind, and evidently I misspoke above. I think it’s working. Will report back later.

Not sure what you mean. The theme has to exist in order for you to test it. The theme also has to have a unique name in the stylesheet. If you want to work on a copy of a theme you have to put it in a folder with a unique name and also give the theme a new name in the stylesheet. That’s probably why the plugin didn’t work for you. You probably have two sets of theme files with the same theme name.