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Hi all,
Vanilla are planning an update to the site on April 24th (next Wednesday). It is a major PHP8 update which is expected to boost performance across the site. The site will be down from 7pm and it is expected to take about an hour to complete. We appreciate your patience during the update.
Thanks all.

Site redesign best practice

  • 15-01-2014 5:32pm
    #1
    Grarog
    Registered Users Posts: 11 ✭


    Hi
    Im looking for best practice tips for redesigning a web site which will require switching from one Word Press theme to another.
    I'm redesigning my brother's electrician business site. The current theme is very restrictive and has to go. However I don't want to switch themes NOW and then figure out the new theme and layout LIVE. He cant afford to have the site looking crappy for even a day. Can I do this in some kind of "draft" mode??

    Thanks
    GR
    Tagged:


Comments

  • #2
    KonFusion
    Moderators, Education Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 2,588 Mod ✭✭✭✭KonFusion


    Set up a subdomain, like dev.mywebsite.com and build the site there. (or you could do it locally, but I like to build in the final server environment).

    When it's ready to move the site over you can just migrate the wordpress site from the sub-domain to the main domain, and delete the subdomain.


  • #3
    was.deevey
    Registered Users Posts: 1,213 ✭✭✭was.deevey


    Backup the site and develop the new one locally on your own computer with WAMP or MAMP (windows or mac respectfully).

    Personally I prefer this method, IMHO its less time consuming than dealing with minor edits, plugins and media uploads.
    Set up a subdomain, like dev.mywebsite.com and build the site there. (or you could do it locally, but I like to build in the final server environment).

    Or this - if you do, just ensure robots are turned off for this directory or risk search rank issues


  • #4
    fcrossen
    Registered Users Posts: 241 ✭✭fcrossen


    As KonFusion says, use a subdomain.

    I'd add: use a .htaccess password to prevent unwanted spidering. Make sure that the .htaccess rules allow access from the localhost and from the servers IP addresses. WP Cron and several other plugins need to be able to make non-password protected HTTP requests to the local site.


  • #5
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Your brother needs a site that will work reliably on all platforms (tablets, phones, PCs) and no doubt he would like to update pages/offers/blogs on the fly.

    WordPress can do all of this, and you own the site rather than renting it, so if there was a problem with hosting for example, you could just move the site to alternate hosting.

    There are also WordPress plugins that will allow you to preview a new theme, while showing the original to regular users. There can be problems with this workflow though, especially if you're using shortcodes built into the theme.


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