Click. Click. Grind. zOmg. There goes my MacBook.

It happens to the best of us. After two years my battle hardened work horse of a laptop finally croaked. Specifically, it was my hard drive that couldn’t handle the constant reading and writing from disk.

Click. Click. Grind. zOmg. There goes my MacBook.

It happens to the best of us. After two years my battle hardened work horse of a laptop finally croaked. Specifically, it was my hard drive that couldn’t handle the constant reading and writing from disk.

Thanks to backups (Time Machine) all was not lost, but I did use this as an opportunity to do a fresh upgrade to the new OSX Lion. For your reading pleasure I’ve decided to document the first applications I installed.

This is the stuff I use everyday, and IMO vastly improves my daily interaction with my Mac as both a developer and regular user.

If I’ve missed something awesome let me know in the comments!

• Homebrew: The ultimate MacOSX package manager
• Notational Velocity : Super fast note taking and syncing
• Cyberduck: SFTP with style
• Quicksilver: Quick app launcher++
• Sparrow: Simplified mail client
• Dropbox: Sync files anywhere
• Colloquia: IRC client
• Adium: Chat client deluxe
• Sublime text 2: Fantastic code editor with amazing plugins
• Vagrant: Rapidly build your development server
• Virtual Box: Run virtual OS instances
• Git: Your source code time machine
• OSX Developer tools: Needed for lots of development
• TMux: Terminal multiplexor, screen slayer
• oh my zsh: Zsh is the new Bash, great for completions alone
• Emacs OSX: The one true editor
• Chrome: Best browser dev tools around, sorry Firebug
• iTerm 2: Terminal replacement with class

This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while. The big question I keep coming back to is why would an intermediate-level web designer want to switch from using WordPress to a CMS like MODX? Here’s a roundup of the top five reasons why I think designers would want to make the switch.

This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while. The big question I keep coming back to is why would an intermediate-level web designer want to switch from using WordPress to a CMS like MODX? Here’s a roundup of the top five reasons why I think designers would want to make the switch.

1. Absolute Design Freedom

MODX gives you the ability to create a completely custom design; which is great for websites that require a unique front-end design that is not limited to a template framework. This means even beginner designers can create the site they really want rather than hacking away at a theme.

I think most notable design-related MODX features are templates and what MODX calls chunks (essentially a reusable piece of HTML, such as a footer or a header) and what MODX calls placeholders. Using chunks and placeholders you can make a web page and have it powered by MODX in a matter of five to ten minutes. MODX was built in a way that you work with your HTML (or any code for that matter) rather then making you work around its template framework. In other words, you make the CMS do what you want, rather than you doing what the CMS wants.

Here’s a quick example of how a MODX template might look:

[[$header]]

[[*pagetitle]]

[[*content]] 
 
[[$footer]]

In this very basic example the [[$header]] part is a chunk, a reusable piece of HTML anf the [[*pagetitle]] is a placeholder.

2. Easy to use Add-ons

MODX has a select few Add-ons (which they offically call Extras). But don’t let the low amount put you off, the slimmer selection that MODX offers covers all the core things anyone would need to setup a website. For MODX there’s generally one add-on which does the job well enough that there’s no need for someone else to recreate the same thing.

For example, to create a blog or news website you simply install the Articles extra; or if you wanted to add a photo gallery to a page you would install the Gallery extra. The FormIt extra is for making forms.

Here’s the full repository, totally 250 extras to date. http://modx.com/extras/

3. Powerful for SEO

At the end of the day there’s only a certain extent a CMS can go to helping you with search engine optimisation (SEO). A CMS isn’t going to help you with link building, or choosing your keywords for a Google Ads campaign. But there is a handful of things MODX does exceptionally well to help with your SEO needs:

• MODX has great friendly URL support, which is human-readable URLs that search engines can crawl through. MODX automatically generates a URL related to the page title, the CMS also generates virtual folders and detects duplicates. e.g. example.com/blog/article-name
• There’s also an extra which buildings on top of this which will automatically create 301 redirects for old URLs.
• Its easy to add dynamic meta information to your page headers, for example you can setup a global keyword selection alongside a page-to-page keyword selection.
• You can easily generate a Google Sitemap to be used in the Google Webmaster Tools app.

4. Template Variables

For me, understanding the concept of MODX Template Variables was the moment when I really got how powerful MODX was.

A TV (Template Variables) is a way to add a custom field to a page, which could be assigned to just one page or multiple templates. They can be something simple such as an additional text field, a check box, or an image upload box, or something more advanced such as a query to the database or some custom PHP code.

Once you have created a new TV you then grab them in your template the same way you do with a placeholder, for example:

[[$header]]

[[*pagetitle]]

 
[[*content]] 
 
[[$footer]]

Here [[*page-image]] is our TV, in the CMS back-end we get an image upload box, where we can browse the server’s images folder to select an image, then on the front-end it outputs the URL for the tag.

When you’re a new user to MODX I recommend experimenting with TVs as much as you can, you’ll quickly realise how useful they will become.

5. There are no rules!

Well, there are a few, but what I mean here is there’s no ridged design philosophy or templating framework you have to follow. You can bend and twist MODX into anything you like. You can use HTML5 or CSS3; you can make a simple brochure site or a complex multi-page site.

Some of the extras can be used to achieve more than one result, so with just a handful of extras you can start to build almost any type of common website.

Feel free to ask questions about designing and building sites with MODX in the comments.

About the Author

Adam Wintle is a web design instructor at Web Courses Bangkok, teaching one-on-one lessons in web design beginner up to advanced level and also WordPress training. You can find out more about Adam on his personal website Adam Wintle Design and you can follow him on Twitter here.

MODX Course

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In this article, through a deep analysis, i will list all the features that THE 2012 WordPress Theme should have.

A New Year brings always a lot of new things in the digital world. New software, upgrades to make our life easier than ever or in some cases increase the number of issues we might experience with some software. The same happens in the webdesign world, where new WordPress themes are released while some others are improved, new scripts and new frameworks that blink one eye at the smartphones and portable devices.

And it’s about the WordPress world that my blogpost wants to point your attention at. And i want to do that goin’ through specific “sections” that refer to one common point, one common question: what does the ideal 2012 WordPress theme should have?

Let’s get deep into it…

Fantastic design that is easily modifiable

I’ve personally seen a lot of themes in these last two weeks, mostly for the fact that i had to write down an article for the blog and i got lost by the amount of minimalistically sexy theme available for free on the net. I’ve seen many complex themes too, expecially on the Awwward.com website. But the first thought that went through my mind has been “what if have to make some changes here and there? will these break the whole thing? Unless you know what you’re doing, you’ ll end up struggling for hours or days until some kind soul will sort you out. The best thing is to keep a balance between good lookin’ & easy-to-use. Or…minimal all the way! Remember that isn’t the number of colours or what’s moving on the screen that make a theme successful. You can use only black/white and still be able to create something unique that 16.000.000 colours can hardly beat!

Responsive design for Mobile and Tablet

Judging by how fast the technology evolves and how many youngsters (and not only!)  spend HOURS of their day on iPods, iPads, or any other PDA device running Android, iOS, Symbian, one of the requirements that a 2012 theme should be compatibility, by default. At the moment there are several plugins, like WordPress Mobile Pack , WordPress Mobile Edition , WordPress Mobile by Mobify or MoFuse WordPress Plugin  for WordPress. Having a website that’s easy accessible through PDA’s grants you a major number of visitors.

PSDs of all the pages and individual elements

I personally think that makin’ available all the pages as PSD would help newbies to practice and learn how to achieve such results. The downside is that many of these would turn into webdesigners and sell aswell their products. So might happen that if at first the request for fresh quality themes was high opposed to a low number of top designers, at some point the situation would change and turn a profitable market into a saturated one where the level of quality and lack of flaws supplied goes down to leave space to an increase of the demandr  of quantity, where the files are not certified at 100% with an high risk to incour on bugs and lots of alpha-beta versions that take months to be ready, and once released, they still keep crashing (rings a bell here).

Colour variations of the theme

A theme which features a different color schemes could be useful both for the newbies and the well-trained web developers. The newbies can use it in its entirety, to study how it works, customize it or simply change the colour scheme and keep it as it is. The trained developer instead might use it as some sort of Swiss Army Knife, to test drive right away all the ideas (in terms of design-colour-plugins) that were, for example, previously discussed with a client. In such way he/she can have a brief overview of the time needed, costs,  and how to get the best out of it.

Custom CSS box, that overrides all other styles

There’s already something available out there as an external resource:

Short codes for:

Lighboxes

Generally, you can use a lightbox to display an image or video without forcing the user to change page. So, taking in consideration the speed on how medias are evolving (streaming platforms,  video formats,etc) having a short-code handy would definitely make things easier.

Layout

Would be a nice addition, useful when you’re working on a project and you end up with several different ideas in terms of design (might be just a color-scheme thing but also a menu/sections related thing). Giving the users the possibility to switch from one to the others would definitively improve the usability & consequentially the traffic and user response.

Media

As mentioned on the ‘Lightboxes’ section,  I think that would end up bein’ the main use for short codes.

Buttons

CSS3 already let you do that as seen here (http://www.wpmods.com/css3-buttons-with-wordpress-shortcodes/), but  having a short code handy would save you the time spent on coding it and then tweak and tweak until it looks the way you want.

Galleries

An useful features expecially on those which businesses rely on photography, from stockphotos to a proper photography site, a furniture/clothing shop or a modeling agency.  There are a lot of cool WordPress plugins that take care of photo collections such as the NextGen or  something like Gallery2 (that I’ve been using on my server). Also depends how customizable would be once set up, as one photographer might require additional or specific features that isn’t possible to obtain with the short code version, and so that will require the installation of an external gallery package.

Rotating banners

They would be useful if the theme also implements SEO features. So in this case it would be targeted mainly for those who wanna promote a business online more than simple users. There are some plugins that can handle that such as (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ad-minister/) or (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/js-banner-rotate/) that uses JS libraries to function.

Shortcodes accessible via a button on the post/page editor

These are, for example, integrated in a theme like the one in the photo above called Isabella (http://themesumo.com/wordpress-themes/izabella/)  or the Oceanic theme (http://www.wpexplorer.com/oceanic-wordpress-theme.html=) for example. More additionall ideas to come in 2012 for sure….

Custom post types

I think of them as a way to create, edit, and store information in the same way as blog posts but with much more creative control. There’s people that in the past has been waiting for WP bein’ able to handle custom post types. There are already some solution like for example (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-post-type-ui/)  or also (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-post-type-list-shortcode/)  but having this implement in a theme would be even better that goin’ through a plugin search. Thing is, a plugin version can be easily updated, while bein’ bundled as a theme, would require the user to wait for a theme update to benefit of all the internal changes, from short codes to additional features.

Code commenting

I personally love the Ajax boxes when leaving comments, you can see in realtime your comment bein’ posted as soon as u click OK. Would love to see a short code for it, would make things so easy!

Does not require additional plugins to function

That would be great but at the same time it would mean that the theme would take a lot of space on disk since it would have to contain customized libraries-files that can handle almost anything.  Maybe this could be handled in a different way, as a separate downloadable package, so that the user might choose if use the customized files or be able to choose other solutions to implement the needed features on the theme/project that’s bein’  developed. The main consequence would be a possible incompatibility between languages/formats or plain crashes. Even on the audio side, bein’ myself a musician, it’s always some sort of dark side since you never know how something deals with everything else unless you take the risk to try it out. As experience teaches…backup the project first then shred it down….

Logo image or text

I stand on my idea that it doesn’t matter if a logo or a text has a lot of colours or a particular design. Just look at the new Pepsi logo. It looks weird compared to the one we were used to. Also think bout’how many logos  are extremely minimal that are stuck in our minds “for eternity” like the “The Times” newspaper or the Heineken green if we talk bout’ color schemes.

Integration with Google Fonts

All depends by the way its dealt with. Using the fonts directly from Google could also improve system performance, expecially on Windows since many users tend to install TONS of fonts and end up using only 10 of them, with side-effects that might go from slowing down the system to continuous crashes with the risk of losing the project the user is working at. Also, would make easier the life of everyone, since there would be no need to struggle to find out THAT specific font or pay for the licenses of fonts that might end up used just once. Btw, if you guys need all the Google Fonts , you can get them from here… http://code.google.com/p/googlefontdirectory/

SEO as part of theme

A must have features for those that want to install a blog/website without having to modify or install anything else as they’re already “SEO  enabled” since the very first run. The people wants to get involved into marketing and business even more, probably a consequence of the global crisis but that’s my point of view of course. In any case, with a bit of customization, any theme can become SEO friendly, like they explain for example here (http://yoast.com/wordpress-seo-theme/).

Language files

I still think that language files should be something that comes as external packages for the following reasons:

• Size of the downloadable package: If the needed language is only 1, having all the languages packed in a single archive might increase the download time other than ending up with 2000 files when the needed files were just 2 or 3;
• Additional languages: having each language as a separate package would benefit both the final users and the theme developers since to the very first ones would be given the choice to download or not additional data (and we know how it feel when you can choose something and you don’t HAVE to be forced to accept something ); the second ones merely for an increase of the traffic that would benefit the Google Rank;
• Easy to update: another benefit for the theme developers, as it easy to replace 1 single package on a website/ftp other than put offline the whole package to replace it;
• And if I may add one personal note: English is the main, default, international language and in the most civilized areas, there’s also people that can speak it a little.

Child theme

Considering the fact that child themes are becoming more current and the correct way to work with WordPress:

• We can create a child theme with just a folder, a style.css file and an screenshot image
• We can change only the styles in our child theme that we want to, without hacking any of the parents files
• We can create a functions.php file to add custom functions to our child theme
• We can switch off the parents functions in our child themes functions.php with remove_filter or remove_action
• When we want to change a default page layout, we copy the file from the parent and make the changes in the child themes folder
• When we need a new template page we copy the page.php to the child themes folder and create the page there
• We do not need to worry about our changes being over written when we update the parent theme
• We have a smaller set of files to work with and less code to deal with
• If we make a mistake we can refer back to the parents code as this remains untouched

Examples of page layout / design with code

This also would be a nice addition that always ends up under the “training” category, where newbies but also experience user can have a quick overview of what is possible to obtain with a specific theme and, expecially for the first ones, learn how and where to apply changes to the theme.

Screencasts, detailed documentation and support

This goes hand in hand with the complexity of the theme itself in first place as one user might PRETEND to find inside the package a Pdf file that explains all the sections and features of the theme and if not a Pdf at least an online Wiki to check whenever its needed. Screencasts could be provided too, online I mean, unless there’s someone that wants to give out themes on media such as cd,dvds or pendrives…some sort of VERY personal customization lets’ say. Support is what matters in terms of developer-client relationship. Clients deserve attention, care…if they feel left out for some reason (e.g.: a bug that can’t be fixed) they will leave the developer out too. It’s a double-cut weapon but also what really helps to create a solid, mutual respect.

So let’s see what the 2012 will bring us in terms of themes and features…..and let me add one more thing….keep always an eye on our website…cause you might see something REALLY interesting very soon

Wanna improve your design skills?

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Today’s interview is with Lennart Schoors from Belgium, who is a freelance interface designer and front-end developer.

Hello Lennart Schoors,thank you for participating in this interview! Would you like to introduce yourself?

Hi, I’m a 30 year old interface designer and front-end developer from Gent, Belgium. I have a portfolio of sorts on lensco.be and occasionally post bite-sized CSS & HTML nuggets on bricss.net.

How and why did you become a front-end developer? Did you go to any college to learn design?

I never had any formal design studies, I studied communication sciences at the university here in Gent. Coding and designing websites was just another hobby I picked up, but I liked it and started to learn more and more about it. I really believe that the best place to learn about the web is the web itself. So when I graduated in 2003, It made sense to look for a job in that direction.

Could you tell me about your most unique projects that you have worked on before, and tell us why they are unique?

In 2006 I was hired by Netlog, a then reasonably sized, local social network. I worked there as lead designer for more than 5 years and saw the company growing, eventually reaching tens of millions of people all across the globe. Coding and designing such a large scale network requires a different mind and skill set compared to most other sites, and I learned a whole lot in that period.

Can you tell us about the projects you are working on right now?

As a freelancer, I’m currently working on a lot of smaller projects, ranging from designing blogs, prototyping web app interfaces, coding mobile web apps down to making application icons. Occasionally I post some previews on Dribbble [http://dribbble.com/lensco].

What do you enjoy the most of you job?

After 5 years of mostly working on one huge website, I love the variation and freedom in my current job. If a certain project isn’t all that exciting, it doesn’t take long for another, more interesting one to come along.

What kind of skills are the most important for your work?

Though I can say I’m pretty good one the technical side, I’m still learning and researching every day. The most important skill in my eyes is passion – a sort of hunger to always know more and do better. These days I’m also learning a lot on how to work together with clients.

What kind of networks do you use to get clients?

Personally, I get most of my work through good old fashioned word of mouth. Friends, former colleagues and previous clients.

Could you tell us what’s in your personal “toolbox”? Software, apps, hardware, books. Mac or Pc user?

My dad ran an advertisment agency, so we had Macs in the house since the late eigthies. Never owned a PC. Have an iPhone and recently got myself an iPad which turns out to be an excellent device for the couch, really. In terms of software, I’m pretty happy with Coda (can’t wait for v2.0) and I do most design work in Adobe Illustrator. I’ve also been using the CodeKit betas, the perfect companion app for compiling JavaScript and LESS CSS files.

Could you mention some of your favorite sources for inspiration whenever you’re in search of an idea to get you started on a project?

I have a personal collection of saved screenshots in LittleSnapper, covering both design and interface patterns. I like pttrns.com and mobile-patterns.com for all things mobile, and then there’s Dribbble for everything else.

If any of our trainees has an interest in getting involved with interface design, what sort of advice would you give them?

Search the internet before you ask a question. No seriously: Use every free hour to read and research, but most of all, try and experiment.

If you want to see more work from Lennart Schoors go to his personal website lensco.be, you can also follow him on twitter: @lensco.

Want to learn how to make websites yourself?

Why don’t you check out the web design courses we offer at Web Courses Bangkok?

I have been working on the WCB Design Agency website to be launched on 31^st of January,2012.I have just received the logo file from the designer. They are using millimeters but I want pixels. I wanna show you quick and easy way to change units of measurement within a document in Adobe Illustrator.  

I have been working on the WCB Design Agency website to be launched on 31^st of January,2012.I have just received the logo file from the designer. They are using millimeters but I want pixels. I wanna show you quick and easy way to change units of measurement within a document in Adobe Illustrator.

Step 1

As you can see, the file is in millimeters but I want it to be 100px for the website.

Step 2

Right click on the ruler

Step 3

Then select pixels

Step 4

Dial in 100px and you are good to go.

Adobe Illustrator Course

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Documentary photography is difficult because you are going to capture the most important moments and if you miss that moment then it’s gone forever.

This is the second part of my article about documentary photography, you can read Documentary Photography – Part 1 by clicking on the link.

Documentary photography is difficult because you are going to capture the most important moments and if you miss that moment then it’s gone forever.

Developing Your Idea

Developing the idea about the project is the critical and most important part. A photographer needs to clarify story, the project’s idea and concept and finding the best way to approach the target and it could be achieved by spending enough time and doing some research. It maximizes the quality of the final the work.

There are some questions you need to ask yourself which helps you to establish your concept and idea; what is your favorite topic? What is your message? How you want to illustrate the message?

Clarify Your Destination

The first tip is checking the events in your city. Pick the events which are interesting for you. Map is the best guide to your destination. Be aware of the event’s time and make sure that you get to the destination on time. It’s great to be on location earlier so you can check the environment and light.

Do Not Be Shy

A documentary photographer must put shyness aside, but always be respectful to people who are around you. Do not panics to get close to people, sometimes a little smile make your approach easier. But if you are in dangerous areas and doing photography of a civil war or street battle then your safety comes first and what you need is a telephoto zoom lens. A telephoto zoom lens helps you to be in safe position while shooting the moments. This lens is really essential in documentary photography because it also helps you to keep your distance with the subject, therefore you can shoot people and get their natural behavior without letting them to see you with camera.

Some people are not comfortable with camera. Once I spent 3 hours before shooting walking around the location and give enough time to people to see me and accept me.Communication with people is important even if you can’t speak in their language. People show reaction to your body posture and the way of looking at them.

Environment vs. Photographer

I have found documentary photography as a difficult and challenging type of photography. If you are a product or fashion photographer then you work at studio. It means that light and equipments have been set so everything is under photographer’s control. But when you are shooting a street battle, nothing is in your control and you are the one who has found the ways to adapt your camera and yourself to environment and this is the toughest part.

Shooting Modes

People are walking, doing their jobs, fighting, dancing in the street, means that your subject moves so high shutter speed is critical. Depends on your subject’s speed, shutter speed would be different. In general 1/500 and up helps you to freeze the movements. But if you are in a vehicle and shooting a moving subject then set the camera’s shutter speed on 1/1500 and more. Now with this high shutter speed you also need a day light for a great shot. Sometimes sport photography mode can save your time in shooting as well but it doesn’t always work.

Be fast

When you start shooting, you and your camera will be one. At the same time, find your subject, think about the best composition and set your camera on the relevant mode and shoot. Sometimes all these works must take less than a second otherwise you miss that moment. Speed is essential in documentary Photography.

You can check some of my documentary photographs on my blog: http://nikignite.blog.com

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I first heard about WordPress mid 2011, while studying at Web Courses Bangkok, and to be honest I didn’t like it at the start.
Hey hey, Tony here from www.graphictony.com

I first heard about WordPress mid 2011, while studying at Web Courses Bangkok, and to be honest I didn’t like it at the start. But that was before I delved more into this amazing CMS and now I must say, I am truly hooked!

Large Version - Download WordPress Infographic (PDF)

How I Got Started with WordPress

I started studying at WCB with the goal of building myself an online portfolio. I am a freelance graphic designer and felt a online presence in Bangkok was essential. So I signed up, and loved the courses from the start.

Carl, is a quality instructor, very entertaining, and I was introduced to HTML/CSS with no previous experience Graphic Tony

As you use WordPress more and more, it was great to be able to use my CSS skills to change the theme to suit my end goals. Its the fun part, putting our own personal stamp on the theme to choose to use. I am still a newbie at being a web designer and WordPress, but I love this new area of design for me and I’m looking forward to working more with WP and WCB (will take another course soon!) in 2012!.

Happy new year and peace out!

www.graphictony.com

WordPress Training in Bangkok

Tony was a great trainee of ours and it is wonderful to see him hooked and creating quality web sites as a freelance graphic and now web designer.

If you want to become a freelance web designer start by taking our beginners course and at the end of the intermediate web design course you will be ready to take on paying projects.

Creating a local WordPress website comes with a lot of advantages like speed of development, no waiting time for uploads and easy access to the site files. However the downside is when you have to move your work of web art onto the a live server. These screencasts show you how to buy a domain, setup hosting, move the website live and submit to Google. So enjoy these 30 minutes of screencasts and learn how to move a WordPress website from local to live.

Creating a local WordPress website comes with a lot of advantages like speed of development, no waiting time for uploads and easy access to the site files. However the downside is when you have to move your work of web art onto the a live server. These screencasts show you how to buy a domain, setup hosting, move the website live and submit to Google. So enjoy these 30 minutes of screencasts and learn how to move a WordPress website from local to live.

Stage 2 – Moving a WordPress Site from Local to Live

Stage 3 – Submitting Your Website to Google

1. How to Setup Hosting and a Domain

Now we have done the hard work of creating the site locally we are ready to put it live, this starts with buying a domain and hooking it up to our hosting:

How to Find and Purchase a Domain

We start by finding a domain with a little help from Who.is Suggest feature.

Once you have an idea of the domain you want we can then use Instant Domain search to help us further by looking into what else is available quickly just by typing.

Now we have the domain we want to use we can GoDaddy to purchase our domain. We are not saying GoDaddy is the best but it is one company that I know quickly gets your domain up and ready to use.

How to Connect a Domain to Your Hosting

We need a home for both our WordPress website and our domain. If you purchase your hosting fresh for your new website you will not need to do Add-on domain but skip right to the moving the website local to live below.

If however you are hosting multiple sites on your server then this is how you create a add-on domain using cPanel.

Now you have the add-on/hosting setup you can copy the Name Servers into the domain name details. Think of it as telling the postman where your post code is. The Name Server is where your server lives and we need to connect the domain by going to the domain settings and copying the two Name Servers into the settings.

Go to your hosting, find the nameservers (there will be two of them), then go to your hosting, domain settings, look for nameservers and copy the two details into the fields.

Once you click okay it will take anything from 10 minutes to two days depending on your host. So go to your website e.g. www.TheCharlieChaplin.com and check when it is live.

Next 2. How to Move WordPress Local to Live

Now we have the domain and hosting ready, we can move onto the next stage which is moving the WordPress website live.

Congratulations you have a website ready to show to the world. In this tutorial Koen and I dedicated this project to the late and great Charlie Chaplie so it’s time to submit to Google and starting getting some visitors.

Congratulations you have a website ready to show to the world. In this tutorial Koen and I dedicated this project to the late and great Charlie Chaplie so it’s time to submit to Google and starting getting some visitors.

Step 1 - How to Setup Hosting and a Domain

Step 2 - How to Move WordPress Local to Live

Create a Sitemap

To create a dynamically updating we need to install a plugin. This is a sinch by going to Dashboard > Plug-ins > Add New and then search for Google XML.

Once you install the plug-in look for Create sitemap and create your first sitemap which for us can be found at http://www.TheCharlieChaplin.com/sitemap.xml.

Submitting Your Website to Google

It will help to have a Gmail account for this next part,so if you don`t have one get one here.

Register for Google Webmaster tools > Add New Site > Choose alternate verification method > Add Meta and copy the line of code.

Now we just need to put this into the <head> of our WordPress theme. Please login to the dashbboard > Appearance > Editor > Header (header.php) > Copy the <meta… just below the <head> which will be towards the top.

Add Google Analtyics

We want to see how well our website is doing so lets install Analytics. Start by registering and by clicking the top right icon you can Add a new account:

We now need to copy this into the theme, every theme is different but new ones tend to have a place prepared for you to drop in the code. Our Elegant theme here has a nice spot under the Dashboard > Theme Options > Intergrations > Above Head

What did we just do?

1. Search for domain name and use domain suggest if you need help
2. Purchase the domain using services like GoDaddy or NamesCheap
3. Setup hosting either by purchasing a new account or doing an addon domain
4. Copy the nameservers details from the hosting to the domain (simmer for 10 minutes to 2 days)
5. Zip local files and upload via filemanager in cPanel then expand the directory
6. Use the phpMyAdmin to export the local database
7. Use Notepad++ or Mac equivalent to open the SQL file and find and replace “http://localhost” with “http://www.yourwebsite.com”
8. Create MySQL database, create the user, add the user to the database
9. Edit the wp-config and change the local details to the new database
10. With your website ready add the sitemap plugin and submit to the Google webmaster tools
11. Register for Google Apps and then add the tracking script to your theme
12. Double check all the pages on your site, grab a coffee and congratulate yourself

WordPress Training Courses

Our private classes give you the chance to make a complete quality website in just 3 lessons over a total of 9 hours. Click for more details on our WordPress Training course.

Moving a WordPress site from local to live is not easy at it has a lot of steps. Luckily this video contains them all and you can hit pause after each stage so you work along side Koen and I.Moving a WordPress site from local to live is not easy at it has a lot of steps. Luckily this video contains them all and you can hit pause after each stage so you work along side Koen and I.

Step 1 - How to Setup Hosting and a Domain

Step 3 - How Submit a WordPress Website to Google

Preparing and Uploading The WordPress Files

First we need to zip the local files ready for uploading to the server. The nice thing about using cPanel is that we don`t have to upload each file separately which can potentially take hours.

Once we have the zip file we can upload it using the cPanel File Manager. This will take some time so once it is uploading we can start exporting our local database.

First go to File Manager, find the correct directory for the add-on domain, or use the root public_html directory if you have just one website.

A Clever Way of Updating your Database

Teaching WordPress with trainees who do not yet have hosting can be a challenge as we have to create websites locally. This is great for teaching but not when the trainee wants to see their website live on the web. The reason it is difficult boils down to the WordPress database that needs updating to use the new domain i.e. change http://localhost/charlie to http://www.thecharliechaplin.com.

For a long time I battled with SQL queries and various WordPress plug-ins but still it was never perfect, they always missed something. Then I thought why not just treat the database like any other text file you want to find and replace something. So lets start by exporting the database ready for finding and replacing.

Go to your localhost phpMyAdmin, probably at http://localhost/phpmyadmin (or for Mac http://localhost:8888/phpmyadmin), click the database (e.g. charlie), click Export and at the bottom make sure you have “Save as file” selected with no compression. Once you click Go you will then download a SQL file.

Now here is where the magic starts and we use something like Notepad++. Open the SQL file, you will need something simple like Notepad or Text Edit. Once open, and this may take a while depending on the complexity of the website,

Uploading a WordPress Database

We will now log into our hosting which luckily uses cPanel. Creating a database takes three stages. First we will create the database and choose a relevant name so we know what database belongs to what website.

Once you have the database it needs a user to applications like your website can access and manage it. Move down the page and create a user name and add nice strong password. Little tip here is to copy and past the database name, username and password into .otepad document and save it away for a rainy day (especially true if you are doing client work).

Now we need to give the user permissions with the database. Select the user and then the database, when you click add you`ll see the privileges screen. The WordPress documentation recommends adding all permissions while others suggest limited access.

Well done and I understand it already feels like a lot to take in but trust me it gets easier each time you do it. Next to connect the WordPress to the database.

Connecting The WordPress to the Database

Luckily this is the easy part so first we need to the wp-config.php which is hiding deep in the zip file that should be uploaded by now.

Go to the file manager, you made need to refresh, and right click on the zip file and uncompress it.

Feel good to see the files? Feels like you are moving forward and we are.

Now three changes to the database name, username and password. We get all three from the database name we created earlier and the username password for the user. Did you save them to a .otepad? If so it is time to copy and paste:

Click save and then go to your website address, for us it is TheCharlieChaplin.com.

Stage 3 – Submitting Your Website to the Search Engines

With your site now ready and live on the web, you are ready to tell the world about it. Click to goto stage 3 and learn how to submit your website to Google.