I have finally created my first WP powered website and this Saturday I will be making it live! (My first ever online website, so I'm pretty excited!)
I have basically created the website locally on my Windows 7 machine using XAMPP.
My friend/client will be purchasing his hosting the day before we meet up so we definitly have it all set up and ready to go.
I have been looking all over the Internet and now feel comfortable when it comes to exporting the SQL table from PHPMyAdmin and using FileZilla to FTP the files to the server etc.
However, one of the main things I'm struggling to get my head around is can I just copy the local WordPress folder from my machine onto a USB Pen Drive, travel to his house and sort it from his computer? Or do I need to do everything from my Computer?
@Watson90 All you need is the Wordpress folder (or files) and the sql file from when you exported the database. However, when you make it live you will have to change URL's in the database.
I only had to a change 1 or 2 URL's from the database if I remember correctly. Everything else I had to change in the Wordpress admin area and the image URL's from inserting media.
@Watson90 - I've used it on numerous client sites in preparing for launch. You'll still have your backup ready to go if there are any troubles (but there won't be any).
I second Velvet Blue's Update URLS - it's one of those essential plugins I use with just about every site. I've changed my workflow to build everything on my own server and then move it once we officially launch the project. I use it literally every site launch that involves WP.
If you have trouble just post back on this thread. Once you've done one of them you'll see how it all falls into place and takes hardly any time at all.
Thanks for your help @JoshWhite, I really can't wait to get this actually online, it's crazy how exciting it is for your first time! I just want things to go as smooth as possible so my friend doesn't think I'm stupid, haha.
Sorry, could I also get an insight into this part also?
My friend has a Mac, will this cause any problems? FileZilla is available for a Mac, so hopefully not.
We will be hosting the site through Blue Host, so once we have the hosting is sorted, will I just enter the server details into FileZilla to FTP upload the files?
@Watson90 No problem. Just let us know when you get those images uploaded so we can test the difference. Oh and I renamed the files for you so all you have to do is drag and drop all of them in Filezilla (choose the overwrite option).
I ran the test and seen it as 15s, is that still pretty bad? Because its a photography website it might get huge. Is it down to the host for speed also?
Hi Everyone
I have finally created my first WP powered website and this Saturday I will be making it live! (My first ever online website, so I'm pretty excited!)
I have basically created the website locally on my Windows 7 machine using XAMPP.
My friend/client will be purchasing his hosting the day before we meet up so we definitly have it all set up and ready to go.
I have been looking all over the Internet and now feel comfortable when it comes to exporting the SQL table from PHPMyAdmin and using FileZilla to FTP the files to the server etc.
However, one of the main things I'm struggling to get my head around is can I just copy the local WordPress folder from my machine onto a USB Pen Drive, travel to his house and sort it from his computer? Or do I need to do everything from my Computer?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
@Watson90 All you need is the Wordpress folder (or files) and the sql file from when you exported the database. However, when you make it live you will have to change URL's in the database.
Thanks @ChristopherBurton :) yeah I seen that about doing a mass search for local host and changing the URLs to the site domain name.
Thanks for replying man.
I only had to a change 1 or 2 URL's from the database if I remember correctly. Everything else I had to change in the Wordpress admin area and the image URL's from inserting media.
There's a plugin called Velvet Blues Update URLs that I love using for the URL updating process.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/velvet-blues-update-urls/
@TheDoc Once you change the URL's can you delete the plugin right after?
@TheDoc thanks for that! So you definitely recommend using it? Has it ever given you any troubles?
@ChristopherBurton - yup! Just trash it once you're done.
@Watson90 - I've used it on numerous client sites in preparing for launch. You'll still have your backup ready to go if there are any troubles (but there won't be any).
I second Velvet Blue's Update URLS - it's one of those essential plugins I use with just about every site. I've changed my workflow to build everything on my own server and then move it once we officially launch the project. I use it literally every site launch that involves WP.
If you have trouble just post back on this thread. Once you've done one of them you'll see how it all falls into place and takes hardly any time at all.
I like your certainty @TheDoc
Thanks for your help @JoshWhite, I really can't wait to get this actually online, it's crazy how exciting it is for your first time! I just want things to go as smooth as possible so my friend doesn't think I'm stupid, haha.
Sorry, could I also get an insight into this part also?
My friend has a Mac, will this cause any problems? FileZilla is available for a Mac, so hopefully not.
We will be hosting the site through Blue Host, so once we have the hosting is sorted, will I just enter the server details into FileZilla to FTP upload the files?
@Watson90
"will I just enter the server details into FileZilla to FTP upload the files?"
Correct. Just go to File > Site Manager and fill out the information shown here. Usually you only have to fill out Host, Port, User and Password.
Thanks @ChristopherBurton, I have his website up and running now :)
It weren't as hard as I thought it would be!
Thanks everyone.
@Watson90 Those background images are way too big in file size.
Yeah...took an age to load.
I ran it through http://www.webpagetest.org/ and it came back with 50s overall.
The images took 30s of that.
Oops, do you guys know what size I should crop the images to, say 1024 x 768px?
@watson90 You don't have to crop them, you can compress the file size (not resolution).
I was able to get one of your images that was over 1MB down to under 150Kb
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26380646/Optimized-queen-peekabo.jpg
This is what I did:
Uploaded the image to http://www.imageoptimizer.net/Pages/Home.aspx and then downloaded it.
I took the optimized image and uploaded it to http://smushit.com which compressed the file slightly more.
You're done. Just upload the new images to your server. Remember to rename them what they originally were.
Thanks man! I'll get that done asap :)
A noob error by myself: first website actually online.
@watson90 Congratulations. Glad I could help.
@watson90 Hey, I went ahead and compressed them for you. You can download the zip file that has the original images and the optimized versions.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26380646/Images.zip
You sir, are a good man!
Thanks very much :)
@Watson90 No problem. Just let us know when you get those images uploaded so we can test the difference. Oh and I renamed the files for you so all you have to do is drag and drop all of them in Filezilla (choose the overwrite option).
Hey @ChristopherBurton, I have uploaded the Optimized images now to the server and got rid of the HUGE ones!
@Watson90 That's a significant difference in loading time.
I ran the test and seen it as 15s, is that still pretty bad? Because its a photography website it might get huge. Is it down to the host for speed also?
@Watson90 Mine was at 4s. I think it depends on your connection.
I would use a CDN service like Cloudflare (which I use) or W3 Total Cache