What do you recommend?

  • Resolved hughett

    (@hughett)


    8 years, 3 months ago

    Hi. I’m very interested in using this plugin, but have some questions before I start working with it in order to make sure I take the right steps for my situation.

    I have a live/production site (www) and development (dev) site. The production site is the most up-to-date version (meaning it has newer posts than the development site). But the development site is using a new theme and is set up the way I want the production site to look and function.

    What steps do you recommend I take in order to not break anything and to make sure the production site implements the new theme and all the styling I have completed on the development site?

    Also, I have some new images on the development site that do not exist on the production site. I’d like to only include the newer images, theme and design from the development site in the export. If I export all images from the development site (which I assume is the only option for images), will it import duplicate images that are already on the production site? If so, is there a way around that? If not, what’s the best way to handle that?

    Would it be best to export the development site with specific settings and then import that into the production site? If so, which settings should I NOT include?

    Or, would it be best to export the production site as is, import that into the development site, make sure everything imported correctly, then export the development site and import everything from the development site back into the production site? Which seems like a lot more work that it should be.

    Like everyone, I simply want to make this as painless as possible without breaking anything.

    Sorry for so many questions, but I really am not sure the best way to handle this and I could really use your expert advice. Thanks in advance for your help.

    DH

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Plugin Author Pim J. Iliev

    (@pimjitsawang)

    Hi hughett,

    Thank you so much for reaching out.
    The plugin does not support sync between two websites.
    What that means is that all data in the .wpress archive will be considered latest and overwrite the site that it is being imported on.
    With that in mind, the plugin can be used to transfer plugins, themes, media files between production and development but “not” the database.
    If you perform any changes to your theme that are stored in the database, you will need to apply them manually.

    If you have files with the same names in the .wpress archive (like media files for example), the files will be overwritten. No duplicates will be created.

    The approach for media files should be the same as plugins and themes. Export them using Advanced Options and do not include the database when you do development -> production.

    Before you do any import, always create an export that can be used as a backup to restore the site.

    If database “must” be transferred, you could export just the database from your production site, put your website in maintenance or read-only mode (latter is recommended), import your database on development server, make your changes, export with the database, import on your production, restore maintenance/read-only. Don’t forget the backup in case you don’t like the result.

    The plugin has been tested on very large websites (60+GB) with different themes and plugin combinations, however, there is still room for error and in case you encounter such, our support is here to help.

    Thread Starter hughett

    (@hughett)

    Thank you, Pim. That is very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to answer.

    Based on your reply, if I want to keep any design I’ve set up using the new theme located on the development directory, I should export the files from production (everything except the database and old theme) and import them to the development directory. Then, export all of the development directory (including database) and import into the production directory.

    Sounds like this would be the only way to keep the design on the development server the way I need it while also including the latest production data.

    • This reply was modified 8 years, 3 months ago by hughett.
Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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