Intro to development sites and site migration

“Intro to Development Sites
and Site Migration”

Rick Radko WordCamp Toronto Developers
r3df.com November 3rd, 2012

A little bit about me

Rick Radko – R-Cubed Design Forge
 Software, web and app designer/developer.
 Creating custom web sites since 1996.
 Artistic and creative engineer.
 Co-organizer of: The Ottawa WordPress Group.
 If you have questions or need help, contact me
at: wpinfo@r3df.com.

Slides are posted at:
 http://www.slideshare.net/r3df
© 2012 Rick Radko, r3df.com 1

Why a “Dev” site?

A development “Dev” site:
 Safe place to work that won’t disturb a live site.
 A site where it does not matter if you:
 WSOD the site.
 WSOD – White Screen Of Death – blank page from
WordPress when you have an error in your PHP code.
 http://wordpress.org/tags/wsod
 Dump error messages.


Why a “Dev” site? Continued…

 Safely test, add and remove plugins and themes
 Plugins and themes can have conflicts with other
plugins/themes or some versions of WordPress.
 Many plugins and themes don’t clean up after
themselves and leave junk in your database.

 Public dev sites:
 Can be used for client review/demo before going
live.
 Allow clients to add content before the site is live.


Creating a Dev site for WordPress

WordPress needs a web server with PHP and
MySQL to run.
 2 common options for a dev site server:
 Hosted:
 On a sub-domain of the live site.
 On an alternate domain.
 Or a sub-domain on another site (like yours).
 “Local” web server on your pc or laptop.

 May use both local and hosted in the process of a
site’s development.

Hosted dev sites

Hosted dev sites:
 Easy for users (clients) to make updates on.
 Public, but can be protected.
 Requires an internet connection.
 Constantly moving files across the net: slow.
 Uses existing facilities. (Nothing to set-up)
 Domain can be:
 A spare domain.
 A subdomain on the client site.
 A subdomain on your site subdomain.


A hosted example

Let’s create a dev site that:
 Is a copy or “clone” of an existing site.
 Is hosted.
 Will be on a subdomain of the existing site.

Creating a dev site like this:
 Normally takes about 10-15 minutes.
 Is one of the easiest dev setups to create:
 Copying the files and database is local to the server.


cPanel

This demo will use cPanel, you may need to adjust
to use your hosting’s control panel.


Add the sub-domain

Add a sub-domain to the hosted site.


Copy over the WordPress files

Copy all of the
WordPress files over
to the demo folder.


Copy the database to a new one – “demo”

Use phpMyAdmin to
copy the database.


Fix up three things

1) You may need to add a user for the database:
 phpMyAdmin in most set-ups does not manage the
users.
 Use the Databases tool to do that.
 Just add the current
user to the new
database.


Add all privileges

WordPress recommends “All Privileges”, for the
database
user. You
can reduce
this some
if you want.


Update the config.php file

2) In config.php file you will need to change:
 The database name.
 The database user name and password if you
created a new user.
 Config.php is in the top folder of your WordPress
install, in this case: public_html/demo/.


Update the database – if needed

3) Update the database (if the domain changed).
 The database is full of links and settings with the
site domain. If the domain changes:
 Links, including the menus, will take you to the
original site.
 You won’t be able to login to admin, you will go to
the original site.
 Despite what a lot of tutorials say, DO NOT do a
search and replace in MySQL, or any text search
and replace on an SQL dump.
 If you are lucky you may get away with it, but you will
more likely break serialized data representations.

Use a script

The codex page: http://codex.wordpress.org/
Moving_WordPress has some lengthy discussion
on the topic of moving sites, but just use the script
mentioned in the change URL section.
 searchreplacedb2.php
 http://interconnectit.com/124/search-and-
replace-for-wordpress-databases/
 It’s easy to use, and does the job in one step.
 Is aware of serialization, even recursive (nested)
serialization.


Run searchreplacedb2.php

To use searchreplacedb2.php
 Upload searchreplacedb2.php to the top level
WordPress folder, public_html/demo in this case.
 Enter searchreplacedb2.php in the URL of your
browser, in this case:
demo.wpottawa.org/searchreplacedb2.php


Opening screen


The database settings

The script retrieved the settings…


Select the tables to update


Enter the URL changes


It’s done

 Over 7500 changes!!!

Remember to remove the script!

Dev site on a subdomain – complete duplicate


The site is public

In WordPress admin, under Settings -> Privacy
 Set to “Ask search engines not to index this site”

 Don’t want the dev site listed in Google etc.

May also consider password protection.
 .htaccess or maintenance mode plugins

Copying the site back

Same process to copy a revised dev site back.
 Beware: the original site may change after the
copy to dev.
 Post/page etc. updates – easy to restrict
 Comments – no control
 May need to do a database merge to
accommodate changes.


“Local” web servers

“Local” web server on your pc/laptop.
 Fast, no internet lag, no FTP’ing of files.
 All work is local on the computer.
 Easier to integrate IDE.
 No internet connection needed to use it.
 Can work anywhere you that you can take your
computer. (airplane, remote locations)
 Usually private.
 Need to install a web server


Local servers – web server stack

WAMP stack
 Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP
LAMP stack
 Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP
MAMP stack
 Mac, Apache, MySQL, PHP

*Apache is a web server


Some available server stacks

All platforms:
 BitNami: http://bitnami.org
 XAMPP: http://www.apachefriends.org
Windows only options:
 EasyPHP: http://www.easyphp.org
 WampServer: http://www.wampserver.com
Mac only options:
 MAMP: http://www.mamp.info
 Native installs
Linux only options:
 Native installs

BitNami

BitNami
 Available for all platforms
 Easiest to install:
 If you use the WordPress version.
 http://bitnami.org/stack/wordpress
 Production ready versions
 Virtual machine versions
 Cloud deployment (amazon)


Information

BitNami install tutorial on wordpress.org:
 Bit out of date, but still good
 http://codex.wordpress.org/BitNami

BitNami FAQ:
 More detailed:
 http://wiki.bitnami.org/Applications/BitNami_Word
press


A quick BitNami install

Lets see how easy it is to install BitNami:


A quick BitNami install: screen 2


A quick BitNami install: screen 5 - some details


A quick BitNami install: port 80 conflict!


Port conflicts

Possible conflicts:
 Skype
 Other web
servers
 Chat software


A quick BitNami install: port 3306 conflict!


A quick BitNami install: mail settings

Mail settings screens if you want to set them up.


Install complete!


The installed WordPress Site


XAMPP

XAMPP
 Available for all platforms
 http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
 Easy to install (not as easy as BitNami)
 More tends to go wrong during installs.
 Mimics common server setups
 NOT production ready (security)


Installing XAMPP

Detailed install instructions are available for
Windows, Mac and Linux at:
 http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html
 http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-macosx.html
 http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-linux.html

There is also a version for memory sticks:
 http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html#646


Manual WordPress install

If you don’t know how to install WordPress using
the .zip copied from wordpress.org, you should
learn.
 Most of the web server stacks do not include
WordPress.
 If you want more than one WordPress site on
BitNami you will also need to do WordPress
installs.

See codex for help with a WordPress install:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress

An additional note on scripted installs

A native install allows you to tweak settings like
the table prefix, which you can’t with a scripted
install (Fantastico, Simplescripts etc.).
 Installer applications:
 may add files to your site for “internal” tracking.
 may not install the latest version of WordPress.
 usually use default database settings for names and
table prefixes – security weakness.


Installing WordPress

The most complicated thing to installing
WordPress is setting up the database.
 It’s not that hard.
 Lots of tutorials online.
 On hosted servers you can use GUI tools like
cPanel.
 On a local server you can use phpMyAdmin
 Hosted installs usually have the DB management in
phpMyAdmin disabled.


Managing databases

This is the cPanel
Databases tool
which will allow
you to add/delete
databases and
database users.


More installing WordPress

The other question is where to put the files?
On local servers the htdocs folder is the default. But
where is it?
 Depends on the install:
 apache/htdocs is a common default
 BitNami default windows:
 C:Program FilesBitNami WordPress
Stackapache2htdocs
 Note: the WordPress “module” we installed in the demo is
in a special location: C:Program FilesBitNami WordPress
Stackapps.
Hosted servers:
 public_html

Localhost or 127.0.0.1

Default web servers setups will have your sites at:
 http://localhost/<some_name>/
 http://127.0.0.1/<some_name>/


Localhost or 127.0.0.1

While this works most of the time:
 Some things can have issues with the localhost or
127.0.0.1 address as they expect a domain name.
 It’s not very nice for using as a set-up when you
have lots of sites.
 Wouldn’t http://dev.site.demo be nicer than
http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/?
 Or how about http://client_domain.local instead of
http://localhost/clent_domain/wordpress/?


Virtual hosts

Virtual host – vhosts are a web server feature that
lets you set up nice names “virtual host names”
for your websites.
 http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/vhosts/

To get vhosts working you need to tell apache you
want to use them.
 Find the apache/conf/ folder in your server install.
 Open the httpd.conf file. (use a plain-text or
programming editor)


Httpd.conf file

Find the line “# Virtual hosts”
 remove the “#” from the start of the line below.

to

 Save the file. (You may need to alter permissions
to be able to save it.)

Vhosts file

In the apache/conf/ folder you should also find the
folder “extra” -> apache/conf/extra/
 That is where you will find the file:
 httpd-vhosts.conf
 Open that file.

Look for a line near the top like:
 NameVirtualHost *:80
 Make sure there are no “#”s in-front of it.


Add a virtual host

For a default BitNami install (on Windows) paste
this code after any other lines for bitnami.demo:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName bitnami.demo
DocumentRoot "C:/Program Files/BitNami WordPress Stack/apache2/htdocs"
<Directory "C:/Program Files/BitNami WordPress Stack/apache2/htdocs">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
 You may need to adjust the 2 occurrences of:
C:/Program Files/BitNami WordPress
Stack/apache2/htdocs on other installs

Add another virtual host

And paste this code after that for dev.site.demo:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName dev.site.demo
DocumentRoot "C:/Program Files/BitNami WordPress Stack/apps/wordpress/htdocs"
<Directory "C:/Program Files/BitNami WordPress Stack/apps/wordpress/htdocs">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
 You may need to adjust the 2 occurrences of:
C:/Program Files/BitNami WordPress
Stack/apps/wordpress/htdoc

Save and restart Apache

Save the vhosts file. (You may need to alter
permissions to be able to save it.)

You will need to restart Apache to get the settings to
take effect.


Hosts files

To final step to make this work is to add the virtual
host to the “hosts” files on your computer
 There is a chart on Wikipedia that provides
common host files locations (dependent on your
operating system)
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file)


Hosts files

Open up the hosts file and add these 2 lines:

 Tells your computer that the 2 virtual hosts are on
your computer.

Save the hosts file. (You may need to alter
permissions to be able to save it)

Sites on vhosts


Trick to avoid domain migration issues

Add the final name of the site to your hosts file:

Set up a vhost for “somesite.com” and now you
can work locally with the final name!
 Easy migration
 BUT - blocks access to any real external site of that
name.
 I don’t use this technique as I want to access both
sites.

Migration review

We did a migration in our first example and there
we saw that it is just a few steps:
1. Copy files.
 Local copy or FTP to another server, does not matter.
2. Copy the database.
 To move servers you will need to do an SQL dump/export
and then an import on the new server.
3. Clean-up a few things.
 Database user.
 Database settings in wp-config.
 URL’s - be aware of serialization.
That’s all there is to migration!

MySQL export

To export the database to move to another server
you can use the export function in phpMyAdmin.


MySQL import

To import the database on another server you can
use the import function in phpMyAdmin.


Backup scripts

Many of the backup and maintenance scripts:
 Backup Buddy,
 InfiniteWP,
 ManageWP,
+ many others
will do site migrations.

Make sure any one you use mentions serialization.


Multisite migration quirks

Need to manually change the wp-config file. Look
for the line:
define( 'DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', ‘somesite.com' );

and update it to your new domain.

Unlike regular sites which will display, (just with
bad links) with multisite, you will get a database
error until you fix URL’s. (Use the script, note – you
need to be aware of all the different site domains,
particularly with sub-domain multisite installs, and
you may not want to change all tables at once.)

Checking for ports in use

netstat (network statistics)
 A command-line tool that displays network
connections.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netstat

netstat –an
 Shows all active ports
netstat –anb
 Shows process names.


Contact

Rick Radko
 email: wpinfo@r3df.com
 twitter: @r3designforge

Slides at:
 www.slideshare.net/r3df


Intro to development sites and site migration

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