Blending server files to be used locally with MAMP & Dreamweaver CS5

  • I think I have gotten a little ahead of myself. I have my www.remarpro.com site all set up on my server, and started making edits and changes. Then I decide…hey I want to set up a local development environment using MAMP and Dreamweaver CS5.

    Well, I have my server set up with updated pages and navigation…and I have MAMP and Dreamweaver set up with a fresh copy of the www.remarpro.com.

    I have a testing server set up, and a link to my remote server all set up in Dreamweaver. What I would like to happen is to have Dreamweaver pull down all the files from the server, overwrite the local ones, and then I will be able to start in Dreamweaver with all the changes I made in the WordPress Dashboard in tact.

    However, I am afraid to do this because the wp-config file is set to local dev.

    How do I?

    1) Preserve my changes I made on the server (maybe sync over just those?)
    2) Overwrite those files locally
    3) Develop locally in Dreamweaver, but FTP to the server.

    I wish I hadn’t started online before I had this all set up, but I did, and I don’t want to lose what I have built.

    Suggestions?

    Thanks

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

  • Well, I have my server set up with updated pages and navigation…and I have MAMP and Dreamweaver set up with a fresh copy of the www.remarpro.com.

    I should think any development you might be doing locally would in most cases only affect files relative to themes or plugins. I can’t think of any reason to transfer/sync any wordpress files other than those that might be located in /wp-content/themes or /wp-content/plugins.

    Quick, efficient, and safe ( in my opinion ) is not to sync, per se, but to work on all of your modifications locally, save a backup copy of your changes locally, then upload to your live environment. Not the other way around.

    If you have already made theme changes on the live site that you want to save, it should be as simple as downloading a backup copy of the modified theme from your live server to store locally, and then placing it in the themes directory on your local server to continue development.

    Just a footnote: If you decide to make modifications to the default twentyten WordPress theme, remember that it will be overwritten when you next upgrade WordPress. You should either make your mods using a child theme (preferred method) if you stick with twentyten, or properly rename the theme, and always keep a current backup of your modified files.

    Thread Starter bodieq

    (@bodieq)

    Thanks so much for the response. Totally agree with your workflow.

    I did buy, install and begin to work on a theme. I added pages and built a navigation. Are pages stored inside a theme? If I copy the theme folder from the server will all the pages come with it?

    As you can tell, I have just dived into WordPress and I am trying to get acclimated. Appreciate the guidance.

    Alwyn Botha

    (@123milliseconds)

    >>Are pages stored inside a theme? If I copy the theme folder from the server will all the pages come with it?

    Pages and posts are stored in the database.

    Theme folder only contains the templates that determine the page layout.

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