Migrating from one WordPress installation to another

When you are working on a revamp for your website and/or move to another host, one major concern is how you will be able to migrate all of the posts and information from the current website to the new one. Depending on the size of the data that you are moving, this could be a long process or a short one, but in both cases, it is rather straight-forward.

1. The first step is to do a fresh install for the latest WordPress on the new server, you can follow my step-by-step guide to getting your WordPress blog up and running. You might be tempted into moving everything as is and just updating the database credentials, etc. but a fresh installation clears your blog from many potential problems. Ideally there would be a temporary URL that you could use while testing, after which you can update the DNS for your domain and go live
2. If on a testing server, you should consider using the WP Dummy Content plugin which generates as much fake content as you want to act as placeholders and give you a clear idea of how everything will look on the final website
3. Once the look and feel is as you’d like it to be, it’s time to install the plugins that you will be using for your website. One option could be as simple as downloading the folders in the “plugins” directory on the old server, but that’s definitely not the kind of attitude you want to take with you in 2010. The best practice would be to re-install the plugins one by one from within the new admin control panel. This will give you to option of researching better alternatives to any plugins you weren’t entirely comfortable with, and also assures that you have the latest of each one
4. Your temporary testing website is now ready with all of the features and functionality, displayed via fake content. It is now time to import the content from the old website
   • From the admin control panel of the old website, go to Tools > Export to create the XML file that you are going to be carrying to the new blog. If the content is large in size (over 1,000 posts), you might want to use the Advanced Export for WP & WPMU plugin, which facilities the filtering and segmentation of the different sections of the website
   • In many cases, the XML file is too big to be uploaded directly into the new installation. Therefore, you can compress the file using the .gz compression, which is understood by the huge majority of servers nowadays. You can use an open-source application like gzip to compress the XML file to about a sixth of the original size. When you upload the file, your server will automatically uncompress it, meaning you will spend far less time waiting for the file to be uploaded
   • Besides that size of the XML file itself, you could face the problem of reaching your PHP memory limit while uploading. This basically means that your server is only allowed to use a limited amount of memory before it stops whatever it’s doing. There’s a good guide at lost-in-code that shows you how you can increase that limit
   • If the importing process goes smoothly and then suddenly stops at one point, there’s no need to panic. You can simply refresh the page, hence resending the script to be parsed and imported, and WordPress will automatically skip all of the posts that already exist. Meaning that even if it stops every couple of thousand posts, refreshing will make it pick up where it had left off
   • NOTE: Although I haven’t tried this myself, there’s an alternative method for moving the content to the new location using a desktop application such as Navicat. In which case you would enter the database information of the two servers, and the program migrates the entries from server to server
5. Final testing is necessary before you update the DNS on your domain name to make it point to the new server. It is generally good practice to work on a ToDo list with everything that needs to be done for the website to be final. Those that are urgent should be completed before updating the DNS, while the rest can be done while you are waiting for the DNS to be updated everywhere (could take up to 12 hours)

The best part of it all, is that it’s free. With the power of the open-source tools, you will always find the help that you need all over our beautiful web.

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What You Need To Know About Hosting

Web hosting is something every individual comes across at one point in time. Whether you are creating your online presence (as you should), or coordinating a website or blog for someone, you should have a clear idea of the various types of web hosting available, and the differences between them. This is a brief guide to the different kinds that will help you decide on which one is the most suitable for you.

Everyone's connected to servers

The internet essentially connects millions of servers worldwide allowing sending and retrieving data between them. If you want to create a website for yourself or your organization, you’ll need a space on one of those servers that is made publicly available. Thus, when someone visits www.yourwebsite.com, he or she is directed to the public folder on that particular server, and views the web pages created via the browser. You need a server with the basic components found in any computer. More importantly, you need to have constant power supplied to it without interruption (otherwise your website wouldn’t be accessible), and constant high-speed internet access. It is also crucial that there is an advanced cooling system, or else your server will die off after running non-stop for months on end. Purchasing your own server and hosting it at your home or office is ideal for testing and learning purposes. However, for a production site, you are bound to offloading that responsibility to those who are professionals and will take the burden for a monthly fee.

Shared Web Hosting

This is by far the most common of the lot. Any company with a bit of cash to spare purchases a handful of servers and places them in a data center. After that, they attract thousands of subscribers by mind-blowing prices as low as $4 a month. Shared hosting providers are very aware that 95% of their subscribers will only receive visits from their mammys and best friends the first few days, and then close to nothing till Christmas the following year. This is where the risk factor comes in.

A standard server that is designed to carry five or so medium-sized websites and online applications, is used for about a hundred. The majority are pleased with the server because they never notice when it’s down or under-performing. The exact number of clients on a given server is never revealed publicly, but suffice to say that if you are expecting high daily traffic, you’ll inevitably suffer from the dubiously legal under performance.

Servers on rack

Shared web hosting is the traditional entrance to cyber space. If this is your first time to deal with hosting, and if your website is more of a “microsite”, you can explore the various providers and make your choice. The following are the characteristics that are common between the majority of shared web hosting providers:

• Cheap: Less than $12 monthly
• Limited space: Even if they claim that you have unlimited space, you’d be extremely lucky to get away with 10GB (more than the average person would need, but significantly less than what the providers promise)
• Poor performance: Uploading and downloading video files is a no-no. But you won’ face problems exchanging documents and basic media files
• 90% uptime: Almost every single provider will promise you 99% uptime (meaning that your website will be unreachable only 1% of the time), but if you are to read the fine print, you’ll find many-a-loopholes that gives them the legal backing to leave you stranded substantially more
• Control panel: A simple administration panel that makes it easy to create email accounts, add databases, etc. You never need to worry about the actual server

Decent options include Blue Host, Dream Host and Yahoo!. There are many candidates to try out, but whatever you do, do not go with IXWebHosting. Also, stay away from lists of the best shared hosting providers -- the majority charge fees to give providers high rankings.

Dedicated Web Hosting

For large websites that attract thousands of visitors and are mainly for profit, a dedicated server is the wise choice. If slow performance or downtime means your company or organization will lose money, then shared hosting just doesn’t cut it. Dedicated server means that there is an actual server that only you are using. It’s kept in the provider’s data center, meaning you’re covered as far as cooling, power, and high-speed internet connection is concerned.The price depends on the hardware specs of the server that you are purchasing, but don’t expect to pay less than $300 dollars a month. While that might seem excessive, e-commerce websites wouldn’t mind shelling out a relatively small fee to ensure their clients’ experience is uninterrupted and perhaps encourages investment.

With dedicated hosting, you are given the choice of managed or unmanaged plans. Managed means the provider handles everything technical related to the server, including updates and maintenance, leaving you to focus on the website itself. Unmanaged means that besides the basic needs for the server to survive, you’re on your own. You’d need to install the technologies you will be using, and spend time updating and maintaing the operating system and web server running.

Commonly found in dedicated server hosting:

• Price: Expensive, but it’s all relative. Large businesses would pay anything for quality service
• Performance: Normally, you’d purchase a computer with a strong CPU, plenty of memory RAM, and a couple of spacious hard disks. It’s a powerful computer, all for you to use
• Control: whether it is managed or unmanaged, no one tells you what to do. You have complete freedom and control of your server

There are many candidates for dedicated web hosting, and generally speaking, they are far more credible than shared web hosting providers simply because it costs more, and they are dealing with demanding professionals.

Cloud Hosting

This is relatively new, especially because cloud technology has only picked up in the last three years or so. It is based on the idea that the resources are shared, and whenever a website requires more, it is automatically granted its needs. This results in accounts automatically expending and spreading across a number of servers to maintain the same level of performance, and to ensure that it stays online (as oppose to going down). On the other hand, resources are not given to those who aren’t using them, meaning nothing’s gone to waste.

The following video does a very good job in illustrating how cloud computers work:

It’s more like a genius piece of art! Beautiful and informative.

With the economic crises on the rise, many companies and organizations are keen on saving money on hosting, without sacrifising performance and quality. At about $100 monthly, you’re guaranteed to have a website that is not short of its needs, and is constantly expanding to accomodate for the increasing number of visitors. As a small to medium company, this solution is probably your best bet.

Here’s what’s on the table from the cloud hosting providers:

• Price: mid-range. Usually starts at around $100 and only increases if your consuming more bandwidth and space
• Performance: It’s no dedicated server, but it’s close enough. It always depends on the provider, but you shouldn’t be facing any issues
• Control: Depending on your package, you might be granted access to run your “virtual” account just as if you were to control a dedicated server. In many cases, you access an advanced control panel providing you with many features

Cloud hosting is becoming more and more popular. And the big guns to pay attention to are Rack Space Cloud and Amazon Web Services. The former of which is used for this website, along with a couple of dozen more. Personally, Rack Space had given me lots of problems, and I was on the verge of moving away. But they have apologized and have recently significantly improved their service. It turns out that their client-base was growing much faster than they had expected, and their infrastructure couldn’t handle it. They have seemed to have expanded appropriatly to maintain their level of service.

Other Types

There are a couple of other options that you are unlikely to come across, but should be aware of nevertheless:

• Collocation Hosting: This is when you buy your own server (you can even assemble one just like you would with a desktop computer) but store it in a data center where it is being monitored, but not controlled
• Free Hosting: Remember the Geocities days? Those might be over, but there are more and more Web 2.0 applications that grant users a subdmain using their service
• Home Hosting: As mentioned earlier, you can buy a computer, place it in a cool room with and AC and fans for cooling, and rely on the electricity coming into the house, and the ADSL used at home

In conclusion, no two types are the same. Depending on how important the content of your website is, and how much traffic you attract, there is a kind of web hosting that is appropriate for your needs. Within a particular type, there are various providers to choose from, something that you should not take lightly. Nothing’s as tedious and frsutrating as having problems with your web host and having to migrate to someone else. Therefore, take the time to examine the different options and reviews written by fellow users before investing.

You can learn more from the Wikipedia page on web hosting, as well as the information summerized in the W3Schools website.

Remember, your space on the world wide web is your right as a member of the internet community -- passing up on your opporrunity is sacrificing a priviledge that no generation in history was granted.

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Centralize Your Files on a Remote Server

As a freelancer of any sort, you’re always on the move. In most cases, you travel distances as part of your work, and have to maintain a certain level of productivity at all times. Web designers and graphic designers alike can only last so long with a laptop, mainly due to the the small screen sizes, but also because of the limited capabilities of laptops in comparison to assembled desktops. This normally results in an investment in a powerful yet affordable desktop at the central location (be it the office, home, or anywhere else), accompanied by a notebook that allows for work continuation on the road.

That particular scenario raises a number of inconveniences. First and foremost, when you initiate a given project on one computer, you have to physically transfer everything via a USB flash memory or an external hard drive of some sort. When you’re back to your original PC, you’re left pondering which files have changed and thus require being transfered back, and which haven’t, and therefore would be a waste of time moving them back to overwrite the originals. Secondly, when your work is scattered between a couple of different computers, unless you can physically access either one of them, you are left stranded with your documents out of reach. Finally, when multi-tasking with a handful of projects, you’ll inevitably become completely disorganized, significantly reducing your efficiency and productivity.

Centralization of documents

Anyone in the vast IT industry probably has his or her website on a shared server. If you don’t, then you should. Besides the fact that you can get your own web space for as low as $6 a month, it has become crucial that you have a presence on the web, regardless of your field. Remember that the web means power to the people, and investing a small monthly fee is a small price to pay for the amount of freedom that you are granted in return. After you’ve established your own website, it is now time to take advantage of your space on the World Wide Web.

Store your files remotely

If all of the important documents that were placed on your main computer were accessible from anywhere and at anytime, then life would’ve been much easier. Unfortunately, unless you’re willing to buy a dedicated IP from your ISP and leave your computer connected 24/7 with constant electricity, Internet and cooling, then that’s not an option. This is where the remote server comes in.

By placing all of your documents with your hosting provider, you can access your files from anywhere with an Internet connection. Going away for the weekend? No problem, upload all of your work on your remote server, and when you reach your destination, get a hold of any computer with an internet connection to download the necessary files and start working. This means that you might not even need a laptop if you are sure of a qualified computer for your tasks at the location you’re heading to.

Synchronization and not manual transfer

If you use an FTP client (such as FileZilla) to upload all of your documents, and then download them from another computer using FTP, or HTTP (by visiting the exact location from the browser and downloading). That saves you the hassle of carrying around memory sticks or external hard disks where your data is stored, but you are left with the same issue of figuring out which files are supposed to stay, and which should be replaced. This is precisely where automatic synchronization comes in.

Using a synchronizing software, you can simply create profiles that mirror local directories with equivalents on a remote server. This means that if you have a folder on your hard disk named “contracts”, for example, you can create a profile so that under your website (or ideally, on a subdomain such as storage.yourwebsite.com) the same folder is created. Whenever you have completed a working session, you run the application and scan for differences. The program automatically selects the changed files on either end and lists them for you. By starting the process, you will have essentially left the program to download and upload only the changed files via FTP. Fast, efficient, and lets you get on with your daily tasks, as oppose to worrying about irritating ones.

Install the synchronizing software on every computer that you use, and when you are using one that is not yours, you can simply access the URL where the files are stored and download the necessary ones. You can use a web application to give you HTTP access to your files, such as the PHP Directory Listing Script, and therefore finding and downloading your files becomes a breeze.

Choosing the appropriate synchronizing client

Unfortunately, this is a field that is lacking options. Like everything else web-related, it is probably a temporary issue, but after extensive research, I’ve only found two powerful synchronizers. Both are commercial, albeit reasonably priced. The following are the features that were the base of my search:

• Two-way synchronization: Allowing you to upload and download, as oppose to using the remote server simply as a backup
• FTP support: This one knocked off quite a few of the candidates. It is essential to be able to synchronize with a remote server via FTP, as oppose to a physical hard disk connected to computer being used
• Interface: while an attractive appearance is not necessary, an organized display of the local vs remote files side-by-side is absolutely vital. Without an easy way of comparison, you’re wasting your time

After experimenting with a few, the following are the creme de la creme

GoodSync Pro

Screen capture taken from GoodSync.com

Never mind their 90s-style website, this is by far the best synchronization tool the world has experienced. Light-weight and extremely easy to use, this application runs smoothly and leaves no room for confusion or frustration.

At the start and end of any working session, run GoodSync and you’re guaranteed to have the most updated files in a very limited time. You can view the long list of key features on their website, but here are the ones that stand out:

• Allows for synchronization or simple backup
• Not a memory hogger, fast and does not interrupt your multi-tasking needs
• Automatically detects and fixes time shifts. By far one of the most important features
• Visual comparison avoids mistakes regrading overwriting files with others
• Timer and scheduler let’s the application do it’s job while you’re not even on your computer

At $30, you’re certainly getting a bang for your buck. The downfall that has sadly pushed me away from it is that it is only available for Windows. If one of the computers you will be synchronizing with is a Mac, then this software is no good for you. After using a genuine version for over a year, I had to move on to a competitor that offered Mac support. The disappointment was so deep, that I wrote them politely asking them to develop a Mac version, but without success.

Super Flexible Synchronizer

Gets the job done

They might have a much more professional website than that of GoodSync, but that’s probably where the loud praise would end. Super Flexible Synchronizer can be installed on a Mac, PC or Linux, making it the obvious choice for those juggling different OSs.

This application includes the basics required by anyone synchronizing with a remote server, but besides its support for the various operating systems, there isn’t too much to brag about:

• Not a very inviting interface, but gets the job done nonetheless
• Slow performance, especially when scanning large remote directories
• An incompetent time-stamping technique, potentially forcing you to upload and download the same files repeatedly (view work around below)

Although not as impressive as its $40 price tag suggests, it remains the best option for cross-browser remote server centralization and synchronization. Before you can fully rely on Super Flexible Synchronizer, you should remove the time stamp, as it is redundant and leads to the repetitive transfer of the same files:

Save yourself the hassle and remove the time stamp

1. After creating a profile, click “Edit Profile”
2. Under “Advanced Setting” to the bottom left, select “Comparison”
3. Under “When size is identical”, check “Ignore Timestamp Altogether”

What this does is tell the program that if the file sizes are identical, even if the time stamped on the given files are different (and they always are because SFS stamps when uploading OR downloading), then assume they are the same. When there is a difference in file size, it goes on to the modified date of the actual file, which means that the newer replaces the older. Otherwise, you’ll probably end up uploading and downloading the directories back and forth. This permanently solves the problem.

Conclusion

To summarize, the following is what you need to do in order to centralize all of your documents on a remote server, and synchronize with the different computers that you are using:

1. Sign up for a domain and hosting with any of the hosting providers (for example, Blue Host) if you haven’t done so already
2. Create a subdomain exclusively for storage (like backup.yourwebsite.com, or storage.yourwebsite.com)
3. Install the PHP Directory Listing Script on your web server (instructions on the website)
4. Download a copy of either GoodSync Pro, or Super Flexible Synchronizer (depending on whether or not you’re syncing with a Mac)
5. Setup profiles that mirror local directories with the same but on your remote server, via FTP, using the software you chose in step 4
6. Start syncing right before and right after extensive work sessions

This solution is ideal for web designers, developers, graphic designers, or anyone always on the move while working on different computers. You could also use it to store photos, music and videos. The only problem might be the limitations of your internet connection, making it almost impossible to upload large files, as well as your shared hosting provider’s connectivity, slowing down communication with the server. As the services and features provided to us by the beautiful Web increase, organization is a must.

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Series: The Website Is Down

Very rarely will you come across videos that are as hilarious, informative and intriguing as this:

The Website Is Down is a free online video series created by technology geeks who are exceptionally good at what they do. With three episodes under their belt already, these guys have deservedly won a handful of awards. This one is the first episode from the point of view of the IT specialist, and there are a number of vital conclusions to draw from this:

• IT technicians are exceptional at multi-tasking, and all they are after is a piece of mind
• In any given company, every non-IT employee thinks that he or she is an expert and know how problems are solved
• Communication is always a miserable failure. No one has any clue what he or she is supposed to do, and how to relay the information
• Just because you are the person who implements decisions, does not mean that you are responsible for taking them. It’s the vicious cycle of all companies
• What goes on behind the scenes in the server room is nowhere near what is advertised

I personally think that the most important aspect of the video is the demonstration of the significantly large technological gap between the specialists and the regular users. It is cause for concern as fewer “Web Dude’s” possess enough patience to help the users get on their feet, and it’s only getting worse.

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MAMP: Your Needs, On Your Local Mac

As a web designer, finishing up is always a long way’s away. In fact, it’s safe to assume that in most cases, there is more work done on the remote server, than on your local machine. While this will always remain a vital aspect of any website or online application, we can help minimalize time wasted communicating with the remote server, and produce websites much more efficiently.

MAMP Logo

This can be done by installing the technologies you need locally (assuming you work with free, open-source technologies, as you SHOULD). While some tech nerds wouldn’t mind installing Apache, PHP, MySQL and all of the other open-source technologies manually, for most of the web designers and developers, this is something you do not want to waste your time on. That is why there are applications that provide you with your needs and an administration panel with just a few clicks. WAMP, for one, is an amazing tool for PC users to turn their computer into a server with everything they need. For mac users, there’s MAMP.

MAMP stands for Mac Apache, MySQL & PHP, and it does precisely that. Add MAMP to your applications just like you would with any other, and you can start placing all of your websites under the “”htdocs” folder in the application’s directory. After that, you can add the dashboard widget that gives you the ability to start running the server with a single click – it’s as simple as that.

The MAMP dashboard widget

MAMP comes packed with phpMyAdmin allowing you to add databases and create users and administrators. If you don’t want to deal with such an extensive user interface, you can always opt for the also-available SQLLiteManager, although I don’t see why anyone would have issues with the former.

So the next time your working on a website, especially CMS-driven ones, you can install everything locally, and access the files through the Finder, avoiding long tedious hours wasted between uploading and downloading files to and from the remote server. And there’s no better way to test out a CMS that you’re not very familiar with, than to install it locally, and try everything that comes to mind, knowing nothing too serious can happen.

One feature I would’ve really enjoyed, is an automatic listing of all of the folders in the “htdocs” directory on the MAMP start page. This way you could always start with MAMP page, and then click on the website that you are going to be working on. However, I think I’m just being picky, because MAMP is a life-savor that all Mac designers and developers should be using.

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