Fixing My WordPress Site…Need Some Advice ( PowerPress Tips)

  • Hi There:
    I have a WordPress site that I’ve been maintaining since 2005, and have the latest version of WordPress. The site, though stable over the years, has had some issues, and I’d like to clean it up and apply a new coat of paint.

    The site is at velanche.com.

    One issue that’s been bugging me for a few years is that it’s incapable of theme previews or manual maintenance mode. But really, I’d like to refresh the site.

    This is what I’d like to do…

    • Have a new URL for the site.
    • Use the old/current content, even if I have to export/import the content back in.
    • Gut out the WP installation (/wordpress), except maybe for wp-config.php.
    • Install a fresh WP package. Note: I am currently working on my new theme via MAMP, with the intention of creating a child theme from the Twenty Thirteen theme. My current theme, about 4-5 years old, is outdated and has been modified too much to be of use as a parent theme.)
    • Activate the Twenty Thirteen theme, and then replace it with the child theme created in MAMP, along with new header graphics.

    Now the one thing that’s a big unknown to me is this: for testing purposes, on the MAMP that I installed on my Mac a few days ago, I imported the WP content from my hosted site. I noticed that for my podcast posts, there are no links to them, which makes sense in that I do not have PowerPress installed on MAMP. My concern is that with the URL change, and what I’m doing above, somehow I can break the legacy/current podcast links when all is said and done. Needless to say, that will be a mess. I’d like to avoid that. Note that for my podcasts, I’m currently using Feedburner.

    The above seems sound to me, but if you can poke some potential pitfalls that you can see, I’m open to suggestions. Also, if you can offer any perspective on the PowerPress front, that would be helpful.

    Thanks so much for reading!
    Velanche

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

  • Hey Velanche!

    So, you shouldn’t need to worry about the podcast links breaking. As long as WP knows what the new site address is, everything else should take care of itself.

    And it’s easy enough to “start from scratch” with WP. Just make sure you’ve got everything backed up first. That said, if everything works, you shouldn’t need to get a fresh copy of WP —?when you update (current version is 3.7), that will get you all the latest files.

    What I would to is download an exact copy of the site to MAMP and play with it there —?plugins and everything. You won’t have to worry about destroying the entire thing then. When you get the site the way you want it, you can upload the new files and database from MAMP to your live site.

    Let me know if you need more detail on specifics here. Good luck!

    Terry

    Thread Starter velanche

    (@velanche)

    Hello Terry:
    Thanks for the reply. Apologies for the delay; I had to sit this on the back burner, and now I plan on working on the site during the weekend and into next week.

    I have already downloaded the entire site onto my computer, so I think your idea of working with it in MAMP is sound. I can set up MAMP, and I have set up WordPress before on it, but I never done it by taking a full live site, downloading it to my computer, and then making it work in MAMP. I’m only guessing, but I take it that I need to export the database from the hosted site via myPHPadmin, and then import it on the MAMP equivalent? I guess the disconnect for me is that it can’t be that simple to just have MAMP point to the local /wordpress folder and then expect the site run, yes?

    It’s been a long time since I tinkered with WP, so I gather that I might also need to make a change in wp-config.php?

    Finally, my biggest gripe about the current site’s functionality is that I’m not sure what it’ll take for me to get the theme area to work properly again. Tips on that would be good, too.

    Thanks again! Look forward to your reply.

    Velanche

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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