rpmtl22

I have another small site with a live version in the site root and a staging version in its subdomain. I was finished needing the subdomain version so as a test I backed up the live site using UpdraftPlus, copied the backups to the staging site in the UpdraftPlus folder, chose to restore what I uploaded and was asked if I wanted to migrate then it updated the database.

It worked perfectly and now the staging site has (appears to have) the same content as the live site.

When I get a chance I’ll try the same with the multi-site where I also won’t care too much if I mess up migrating it to the staging subdomain. We’ll see if it works as well.

Like I said … I’m very new to WordPress and learning how the UpdraftPlus works.

Tried Safe Mode and it made no difference. I only have 2 plugins activated anyway (a password manager and default bookmark folder addon).

Tried turning off a few security features and that didn’t help either.

Oh well, I’ll just keep Shift-clicking the reload button when moving between pages.

I’m not asking about changing a subsite to a main site.

You yourself wrote: “You can of course migrate the content across but the URL of the main site will stay the same.“

THAT is EXACTLY what I’m asking about except the UpdraftPlus plugin displays a warning suggesting I need something additional to do this with a multi-site installation.

“UpdraftPlus warning: WordPress Multisite is supported, with extra features, by UpdraftPlus Premium. Without upgrading, UpdraftPlus allows every blog admin who can modify plugin settings to backup (and hence access the data, ….”

I only started using WordPress 3 months ago so I’m sorry if I’m not understanding what the free plugin can already do (if I’m the only site admin) and not asking my questions very well.

I revised the structure of the 2 language multi-site and installed the English version in the site root and the French version in one “fr” sub-folder. This way visitors land on the English version first and can choose to go to the French version via an easy to see link.

The following “redirect based on browser language” htaccess code worked perfectly:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Language} ^fr [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ /fr/ [L,R=302]

But it also prevents French visitors from accessing the English version as they’re always redirected back to the French when they click on the English option. As some visitors might like to see both language versions I decided to abandon the auto-redirect based on browser language.

At least I now know what works ??

Just to be clear. I have one multi-site WP install currently installed in a sub-domain (one website, 2 languages) and want to migrate it to the main domain. I’m really surprised UpdraftPlus software (even with paid add-ons) cannot do this as I thought that’s exactly what they’re selling??

I’ll go back to Googling “Move a WordPress site from a subdomain to root” to find a plugin that can do this. I’m seeing many migration plugin recommendations.

I’m going to stop poking at it as well. I’ll be back with any info I might stumble upon that might provide any insight into what’s going on. It’s easy enough to do edits on both versions at the same time on 2 monitors so it has little affect on my workflow.

Thanks for your help! ??

Thank you for the prompt reply ??

I’m already manually moving the sub-site staging to the live site successfully by editing the database (a simple db name change and a search and replace that removes “stg.”) and restoring its contents to the live site’s database and then replacing the live site wp-contents folders the “stg.” sub-domain ones. It’s not that complicated … but requires I be VERY careful when following my recipe.

I’m surprised that I’m NOT able to do this with UpdraftPlus. Or are you saying that I can do it using UpdraftPlus + UpdraftMigrator Premium + the multisite addon.

What is the “multisite addon”? Is there a subscription fee for that too?

Yes, I looked in the colour pallet and the custom colours were not there and the site header section colours were all wrong. Here’s part of what’s in the theme.json file (I removed the white space to compress the info):

"color": {"palette": [
{"color": "#006393","name": "H1 Bleu ","slug": "custom-h1-bleu"},
{"color": "#ffffff96","name": "Transparent white ","slug": "custom-transparent-white"},
{"color": "#333333","name": "Site Dark Gray ","slug": "custom-site-dark-gray"},
{"color": "#ffffff00","name": "Transparent Nothing","slug": "custom-transparent-nothing"},
{"color": "#eeeeee","name": "Light Gray","slug": "custom-light-gray"}
] },
"color": {"palette": [
{"color": "#006393","name": "H1 Bleu ","slug": "custom-h1-bleu"},
{"color": "#ffffff96","name": "Transparent white ","slug": "custom-transparent-white"},
{"color": "#333333","name": "Site Dark Gray ","slug": "custom-site-dark-gray"},
{"color": "#ffffff00","name": "Transparent Nothing","slug": "custom-transparent-nothing"},
{"color": "#eeeeee","name": "Light Gray","slug": "custom-light-gray"},
{"color": "#002f5f","name": "NavBlue1","slug": "custom-nav-blue1"},
{"color": "#004c72","name": "NavBlue2","slug": "custom-nav-blue2"},
{"color": "#20457c","name": "NavBlue3","slug": "custom-nav-blue3"},
{"color": "#175388","name": "NavBlue4","slug": "custom-nav-blue4"},
{"color": "#15456f","name": "NavBlue5","slug": "custom-nav-blue5"}
] },

Perhaps the multi-site structure prevents the theme files from installing properly? The themes need to be installed in Network Admin, activated on the network, and then activated in each site section. The root of the site has the English pages and the French are in a sub-folder named “fr”. It’s possible certain information (such as the custom colours) is not being passed properly.

As I can edit both versions at the same time on 2 monitors it’s easy to keep things in sync. But it would have been elegant if this had worked.

The next time I start a standard (non-multi-site) WordPress site I’ll try exporting and installing a Theme with custom colours to see if that works properly.

Thank you Rafsan for responding.

I already found those instructions (with more detail) via Google:

https://wpengine.com/resources/how-to-add-meta-tags-wordpress/#Method_2_Add_Meta_Tag_Without_a_Plugin

But with the Twenty Twenty-Four theme there’s appears to only be one “header.php” file that’s buried inside wp-includes\theme-compat\ that has “This file is here for backward compatibility with old themes and will be removed in a future version.” in its comments. Is that the “header.php” file you’re referring to??

The “Dashboard > Appearance > Theme File Editor” referenced in multiple articles has moved to “Tools > Theme File Editor” and there’s no access to editing a header.php file. It does allow editing the Functions.php file in which there are no parts that resemble the “Head” section of the Header.

I’m still looking for a way to add meta info to the Head section of the pages. Those BIG SEO plugins just seem like “overkill” for what should be a small task.

No success ??
I really expected this to work:

• Export Theme with settings
• Unpack Zip file
• Edit styles.php to change the theme name
• Rename the folder w/ revised theme name and Zipped it
• Upload/Installed it on the WordPress site
• Activated the Theme.

The custom colour pallet again reverted to the 10 default Twenty Twenty-Four colours. I checked and confirmed that the 20 colours I started with are indeed listed in the theme.json file.

I’m beginning to wonder if it might be due to a server permissions issue or perhaps some plugin is preventing the installation for completing properly. Though, as the site’s not used for a blog with comments, I’ve not installed any antivirus/antispam type plugin, just Limit Logins, Black Hole for Bots and Wp Super Cache. Or perhaps it’s a bug?

Yes … making sure one has an escape route is VERY important! The revision history feature has saved me a few times along the way (as well as making frequent backups) ??

My next test will be to install the revised (exported w/ settings) theme and see if it works as advertised. It will certainly save time replicating design changes between 2 matching sites (except for language). I’ll report back with the result. If it works, that will close this thread.

I did a bit more digging. The theme.json file in the active child theme does not contain any custom settings. When I export this active child theme (Export the activated theme with user changes) its theme.json file does contain all the customizations, colour pallet, etc…

I just re-read your original reply and I think this (Export w/ changes) is what you recommended. I will also change the theme name in the exported theme’s style.css file so it’s different from the child that’s already installed.

• This reply was modified 8 months, 1 week ago by rpmtl22.
• This reply was modified 8 months, 1 week ago by rpmtl22.

I’ve discovered that the Sibling theme reverts to the 10-colour pallet of the Twenty Twenty-Four theme instead of including my modified 10-colour pallet PLUS an additional 10 custom colours (20 colours total). Perhaps “Sibling” was not the correct option to choose. I’ll look more carefully at the different options. As the appropriate colours were missing the nav bar reverted to its default black text.

[edit] Though on further examination “Sibling” seems to be the appropriate option: “Create a new theme cloning the activated child theme. The parent theme will be the same as the parent of the currently activated theme. The resulting theme will have all of the assets of the activated theme, none of the assets provided by the parent theme, as well as user changes“.

So why did it not contain the modified colour pallet??

I was thinking what you responded after I posted the question. So both language versions can share the same Theme which will contain the Style Book customizations without affecting the site contents.

So I just gave it a try and chose to “Create sibling of (current template name)” and then gave it a new name (“name_240316“). I then saved it and then installed it.

When I activated “name_240316” all my nav link text changed to black (on dark gray) when the child theme it was created from has white nav link text. Re-activating the original child theme restores the nav bar text to the correct colour (white text on dark gray bar).

I see a whole list of “Theme Features” boxes when creating the theme. Do they have any affect on the result? They just seemed to be there to advertise the theme features if ever l wanted to share it with others.

I’m curious why a sibling theme would change the nav bar text colour?

Thanks for your recommendations. I’m already using 2 child themes of Twenty Twenty-four and each is in their respective language (En / Fr).

Perhaps I’m not understanding what a theme affects and what it does not.

If I export a modified English child theme will that not mess up my French texts when it’s applied (nav bar, header and footer texts, etc ..)?