wpTimeMachine is another useful WordPress plugin that makes it easy for you to backup your entire WordPress blog to your Dropbox account. It can perform an automatic backup of your WordPress MySQL database, themes, plug-ins and all the other files and images that you may uploaded to your WordPress folder.

After you have installed the plugin, just enter your Dropbox credentials and hit the Generate Archive button. Within minutes (the time may vary depending upon the size of your WordPress site), you should see the backups in your Dropbox folder.

How to Trigger Backups?

You may either choose to perform backups manually, as in the case above, or you can setup a cron job to backup your WordPress site at preset schedules automatically.

The plug-in can also be configured such that backups are triggered as soon as you publish a new post but use it with caution as it may put lot of extra strain of your server.

Also, you may have uploading issues if the wp-content folder is too large because the Dropbox API won’t accept files that are larger than 300MB

Related posts:

1. How to Backup and Restore your WordPress Blog
2. Moving WordPress to Another Host
3. Format your WordPress blog URL for better SEO

Backup your WordPress Blog to Dropbox originally appeared on Core Digest on November 16, 2010.

Even though there’s a couple of good WordPress search engine optimatisation (SEO) plugins available for optimising your titles and meta content, optimising every bit of your blog helps making it more visible on the search engines.

The default blog URL

The default installation of WordPress creates your URL’s with a structure of: “domain.com/?p=1 and domain.com/?p=2“. Using this URL structure clearly shows that you are not placing targeted keywords in the URL’s of your blog posts and pages.

With a simple tweak of your WordPress blog’s settings you can create optimised URL’s like: “domain.com/title-of-the-post/ or domain.com/category-name/title-of-the-post/“.

Doing it this way you can include keywords in your URL’s and search engines can directly determine what the page is about.

How to create optimised WordPress blog URL’s

So the big question is… how do you change your WordPress blog’s URL to be search engine friendly? Find simple steps below on how to optimize your blog URL’s:

1. Login to your WordPress dashboard – (usually http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/ or http://www.yourdomain.co.za/wp-admin.php)
2. Navigate to ‘Settings’;
3. and then ‘Permalinks’.
4. Check the “Custom” field….
In the custom field of the Permalinks section, add this /%postname%/ or /%category%/%postname%/ (often it just gives you the choice to click a button)
5. Pat yourself on the back for getting a bit technical!
6. The URL name will be shown under the heading in each new article that you write and can be edited.

Following these simple steps will solve your problem by obtaining search engine friendly URL’s on your WordPress blog. Every little bit of SEO helps.

Related posts:

1. Backup your WordPress Blog to Dropbox
2. How to Backup and Restore your WordPress Blog
3. Old WordPress Vulnerable to Attacks: Upgrade Now

Format your WordPress blog URL for better SEO originally appeared on Core Digest on July 8, 2010.

Please visit the official website for further details and the latest information on this plugin.

Related posts:

1. Format your WordPress blog URL for better SEO
2. How to improve blog traffic and search engine ranking
3. Changing The Site URL WordPress

Search and Replace Strings in Database originally appeared on Core Digest on July 8, 2010.

There are two occasions where you will need to access the database to alter one or both of these settings:

1. If you have tried to alter the Blog URL or WordPress URL in Settings, and an error has occurred.
2. If you have moved to a domain/subdomain with a different name.

BACKUP your database before you begin and store the backup off your site server, like on your hard drive. See: Backing Up Your Database.

 

Edit wp-config.php

It should be possible to fix the site URL using a new feature -

Add these two lines to your wp-config.php, where “example.com” is the NEW location of your site.

define('WP_HOME','http://example.com');
define('WP_SITEURL','http://example.com');

This is not necessarily the best fix, it’s just hardcoding the values into the site itself. You won’t be able to edit them on the General settings page anymore when using this method.

Thanks filosofo for the fix, implemented in 2.2.

Edit functions.php

If you have access to the site via FTP, then this method will help you quickly get a site back up and running, if you changed those values incorrectly.

1. FTP to the site, and get a copy of the active theme’s functions.php file. You’re going to edit it in a simple text editor (like notepad) and upload it back to the site.

2. Add these two lines to the file, immediately after the initial “<?php” line.

update_option('siteurl','http://example.com/blog');
update_option('home','http://example.com/blog');

Use your own URL instead of example.com, obviously.

3. Upload the file back to your site, in the same location. FileZilla offers a handy “edit file” function to do all of the above rapidly, if you can use that, do so.

4. Load the login or admin page a couple of times. The site should come back up.

5. Repeat the above steps, but remove those lines. IMPORTANT: Do NOT leave those lines in there. Remove them immediately after the site is up and running again.

If there is no functions.php file in the theme: Create a new text file called “functions.php”. Edit it with notepad, and add this text to it, using your own URL instead of example.com:

<?php
update_option('siteurl','http://example.com/blog');
update_option('home','http://example.com/blog');

Upload that to your theme directory, then proceed as stated above. Remove the file afterwards.

Relocate method

WordPress supports an automatic relocation method that will figure out and update those values for you automatically. This method is intended to be a quick assist to getting a site working when relocating a site from one server to another.

To use it:

1. Edit the wp-config.php file.

2. After the “define” statements, add this new one:

define('RELOCATE',true);

3. Go to the wp-login.php page in a web browser.

4. Login as per normal.

When the RELOCATE flag is set to true, the siteurl (NOT the home setting) will be automatically updated to whatever path you are using to access the login screen. This will get the admin section up and running on the new URL, but it will not correct any other part of the setup. Those you will still need to alter manually.

You should remove the additional line after the site is up and running. Do NOT leave it enabled.

Changing the URL directly in the database 

If you know how to access phpMyAdmin on your host, then you can edit these values directly to get you up and running again.

1. Backup your database and save the copy off-site.
2. Login to phpMyAdmin.
3. Click the link to your Databases.
4. A list of your databases will appear. Choose the one that is your WordPress database.
5. All the tables in your database will appear on the screen.
6. From the list, look for wp_options. Note: The table prefix of wp_ may be different if you changed it when installing.
7. Click on the small icon indicated as Browse.
8. A screen will open with a list of the fields within the wp_options table.
9. Under the field option_name, scroll down and look for siteurl.
10. Click the Edit Field icon which usually is found at the far left at the beginning of the row.
11. The Edit Field window will appear.
12. In the input box for option_value, carefully change the URL information to the new address.
13. Verify this is correct and click Go to save the information.
14. You should be returned to your wp-options table.
15. Look for the home field in the table and click Edit Field. Note There are several pages of tables inside wp_options. Look for the > symbol to page through them.
16. In the input box for option_value, carefully change the URL information to the new address.
17. Verify this is correct and click Go to save the information.
18. Delete the folder wp-content/cache (this is a new folder added with WordPress 2.0).
19. That is it.

Domain Name Change

BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THIS.

BACKUP YOUR DATABASE FIRST: Backing Up Your Database.

The following is irreversible. There is no “undo” or “undelete” button. This is permanent. Be warned that it can do harm.

 

UPDATE `newprefix_usermeta` SET `meta_key` = REPLACE( `meta_key` , 'oldprefix_', 'newprefix_' );

Related posts:

1. Moving WordPress to Another Host
2. How to Backup and Restore your WordPress Blog
3. Site Clinic: An SEO Checklist for your Website

Changing The Site URL WordPress originally appeared on Core Digest on July 8, 2010.

Easy answer for most installations:

• If database and URL remains the same, you can move by just copying your files and database.
• If database name or user changes, edit wp-config.php to have the correct values.
• If you want to test before you switch, you must temporarily change “siteurl” and “home” in the database table “wp_options” (through phpMyAdmin or similar).
  If you had any kind of rewrites (permalinks) setup you must disable .htaccess and reconfigure permalinks when it goes live.

 

Moving WordPress Within Your Site

Moving the WordPress files from one location on your server to another – changing its URL – requires some special care.

Here are the step-by-step instructions:

1. Create the new location using one of these two options:
   1. If you will be moving your WordPress core files to a new directory, create the new directory.
   2. If you want to move WordPress to your root directory, make sure all index.php, .htaccess, and other files that might be copied over are backed up and/or moved, and that the root directory is ready for the new WordPress files.
2. Login to your blog.
3. Go to the Administration > Settings > General panel.
4. In the box for WordPress address (URI): change the address to the new location of your main WordPress core files.
5. In the box for Blog address (URI): change the address to the new location, which should match the WordPress address (URI).
6. Click Save Settings.
7. (Do not try to open/view your blog now!)
8. WordPress 2.0 only: Delete the folder wp-content/cache.
9. Move your WordPress core files to the new location. This includes the files found within the original directory, such ashttp://example.com/wordpress, and all the sub-directories, to the new location.
10. If you are using Permalinks, go to the Administration > Settings > Permalinks panel and update your Permalink structure to your .htaccess file, which should be in the same directory as the main index.php file.
11. If you have problems with missing images that you’ve uploaded, you need to change the path to the images on every post directly on your SQL database. For this, follow the instructions on Tamba2′s Tutorial “Moving your weblog inside your PC”.
12. You must also check and edit ‘store uploads folder’ under Settings-Miscellaneous or all your new uploads will continue to go into the old folder.
13. Existing image/media links uploaded media will refer to the old folder and must be updated with the new location.

It is important that you set the URI locations BEFORE you move the files.

If you forget to change the locations

Suppose you accidentally moved the files before you changed the URIs: you have two options.

OPTION 1. Suppose the files were originally in /path/to/old/ and you moved them to /path/to/new before changing the URIs. The way to fix this would be to make /path/to/old/ a symlink (for Windows users, “symlink” is equivalent to “shortcut”) to /path/to/new/, i.e.

ln -s /path/to/new /path/to/old

and then follow the steps above as normal. Afterwards delete the symlink if you want.

OPTION 2. If you forget to change the WordPress Address and Blog Address, you will be unable to change it using the wordpress interface. However, you can fix it if you have access to the database. Go to the database of your blog and find the wp_options table. This table stores all the options that you can set in the interface. The WordPress Address and Blog Address are stored as siteurl and home (the option_name field). All you have to do is change the option_value field to the correct URL for the records with option_name=’siteurl‘ or option_name=’home‘.

Suppose you accidentally changed the URIs where you cannot move the files. (but still can access the login page, through a redirection or something)

wp-login.php can be used to (re-)set the URIs:

//FIXME: do comment/remove these hack lines. (once the database is updated)
update_option('siteurl', 'http://your.domain.name/the/path' );
update_option('home', 'http://your.domain.name/the/path' );

You’re done. Test your site to make sure that it works right. If the change involves a new address for your blog, make sure you let people know the new address, and consider adding some redirection instructions in your .htaccess file to guide visitors to the new location.

Changing The Site URL also provides the details of this process!

Giving WordPress its Own Directory While Leaving the WordPress Index File in the Root Directory

Please see this article, Giving WordPress Its Own Directory, for detailed instructions.

Moving WordPress to a New Server

If you are moving WordPress from one server to another, begin by backing up your data. This includes backing up your WordPress database as well as all the core files, images, plugins, and other files on your site. See WordPress Backupsand Backing Up Your Database for more details.

• Note: If you are changing to a new server but same domain, all you need to do is edit wp-config.php and upload everything as it is to your new server.

If You Don’t Care If Your Old Blog Works

1. Download a copy of the main wordpress files from your OLD blog to your hard drive and edit wp-config.php to suit the new server.
2. Go back to your OLD blog and go to Administration > Settings > General and change the url (both of them) to that of your new site.
3. Again, download your database (but keep the old one just in case), upload this new database and the copy of the wordpress core files with the edited wp-config.php to your new server. Thats it!

If You Want Your Old Blog To Still Work

Caution: Make sure you have a backup of your old blog’s WordPress database before proceeding!

Part A – Activating Your New Blog

1. Download your entire WordPress installation to your hard drive. Name the folder appropriately to indicate that this is your OLD blog’s installation.
2. Go back to your OLD blog and go to options and change the url (both of them) to that of your new site.
3. Again, download your entire WordPress installation to your hard drive. Name the folder appropriately to indicate that this is your NEW blog’s installation.
4. Download your database once again (but keep the old one). Upload this database to your new server. It will be easiest if you use the same database name and you create a user with the same login credentials on your new server as on your old server.
5. If you used a different database name and/or user (see previous step), edit wp-config.php in your NEW blog’s installation folder appropriately.
6. Upload the NEW blog’s installation folder to your new site. Presto, your NEW blog should be working!

Part B – Restoring Your Old Blog

1. On the original server, delete your OLD blog’s database (remember, you should have a copy on your local computer that you made at the very beginning).
2. Upload your OLD blog’s installation folder to your original server, overwriting the files that are currently there (you may also delete the installation folder on the server and simply re-upload the OLD blog’s files).
3. Upload your OLD blog’s database from your local computer to the server. That should do it!

Another procedure for making copies of posts, comments, pages, categories and custom field (post status, data, permalinks, ping status…) easy to follow:

1. Install a new WordPress blog
2. Go on old blog Admin panel. Here, in Manage > Export select “all” in menu Restrict Author.
3. Click on Download Export File
4. In new blog go on Manage > Import, choose WordPress item.
5. In the page that will be shown, select the file just exported. Click on Upload file and Import
6. It will appear a page. In Assign Authors, assign the author to users that already exist or create new ones.
7. Click on Submit
8. At the end, click on Have fun

Note: using this method if there are some articles in new blog (like hello world, info page…), these will not be erased. Articles are only added. Using the former procedure the article in new blog will be deleted.

Moving WordPress to a New Server with Fantastico

Some webhosts use a service called Fantastico, which can install a vanilla WordPress web with just a few clicks. You can transfer your blog to one of these webs, but the steps are slightly different.

Begin by backing up your data. This includes backing up your WordPress database as well as all the core files, images, plugins, and other files on your site. See WordPress Backups and Backing Up Your Database for more details.

Make a copy of your database. You will need to edit the .sql file, and in case of errors, it is important that you work on a copy.

Begin the process of working from copies of your backups.

1. If you have changed domain, edit the backed up database file to reflect this. A simple way to do this is:
   1. Using a text editor, open a copy of the .sql database file.
   2. Using the search and replace function, find all instances of the blog’s old URL and replace it with the new URL.
   3. Repeat the process with your old email address. (For example, replacing someone@example.com withsomeone@tutorial.com)
   4. Save your changes.
2. Upload your plugins and themes from your old site to the new one.
3. Drop (delete) the database tables of the pre-installed Fantastico web.
4. Restore the database.

When you are ready to check your site, make sure to clear your cache and cookies so you will see the changes in your web browser.

Related posts:

1. Backup your WordPress Blog to Dropbox
2. How to Backup and Restore your WordPress Blog
3. Old WordPress Vulnerable to Attacks: Upgrade Now

Moving WordPress to Another Host originally appeared on Core Digest on July 8, 2010.

now the thing was to restore i have googled for restoring but every one was telling to restore by going to hosting account then configuring php my admin and sql that was totally unknown for me . the wp-db backup pluging has an advantage that it backs up your wordpress blog but it does not have nay option to restore them.

next i found a plugin WP-DBManager http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-dbmanager/

this plugin has the advantage of both backing up and restoring up your wordpress blog . let us see how to back up and restore.

1.install the plugin by going to http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-dbmanager/

2. activate it and then in your dasboard you will find DATABASE.

3.then in options click on the bakup data base and then select what you want to back up and at last click backup for backup you are done this has ceated a database which can be downloaded or it will be stored in your db folder.

4. now the most important thing is to restore you please keep your created backup downladed into coputer or on your email for safety.

if your blog is not deleted something goes wrong then simply go to databes>>manage backup database >> select the database which you wnat to restore>> click the restore and you are done.

next case when your blog has been deleted

just install a new version of wordpress

login to dashboard

install the above plugin

go to your hosting accnt open public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-dbmanager

and then upload the database you have downloaded or emailed.

when done come to dashboard and goto dtabase

>>manage database>>then select the db you have uploaded and then click on restore and you are done.

enjoy your restore word press blog

Related posts:

1. Backup your WordPress Blog to Dropbox
2. Format your WordPress blog URL for better SEO
3. Moving WordPress to Another Host

How to Backup and Restore your WordPress Blog originally appeared on Core Digest on July 8, 2010.

Let me explain. Say you are tracking an item on eBay and like to get notified as soon as someone places a new bid or if the seller helps modifies the product description or shipping cost. You can either do this by continuously refreshing that eBay auction page in your browser or simple add the eBay slice.

Now whenever anything changes in auction, it will reflect right in the favorites bar of your IE 8 browser. Click the bookmark (or web slice) to know what has changed.

Think of an IE 8 Web Slice as a mini web page that is displayed inside your browser no matter what site you are on. And unlike Live Bookmarks of Firefox, which are nothing but a plain drop down of website headlines, you have complete control over the layout and look-n-feel of web slices in IE.

How to Create IE 8 Web Slices

It is the responsibility of the website owner to develop web slices for his or her website. You have to decide what content should be made available in the web slice, how often should that be refreshed and what should be the layout (or design) of the web slice.

MSDN Library has some good documentation to help you get started with web slices including a style guide to ensure that your web slice looks good and readable inside the web browser.

You may find the documentation a bit technical in nature but dont lose heart – here a really simple example that will show you how to create a custom web slice for any WordPress blog (self hosted).

1:
2:
3:
4:

11:

An IE8 Web slice is a simple HTML web page that has the following structure. You just need to specify the title of a web slice (as that displayed on the browser favorite bar) and then change the content inside the “entry-content” class (line 7-9).

You can also define your own CSS styles as this real example – open the link in IE8 to see how the browser auto-discovers the web slice on the page by flashing the green slice icon.

If you dont have IE 8 or have trouble getting the web slice to work on your computer, here an HD screencast demo of the same.

If you have a WordPress (self-hosted) blog, here how you can create a web slice that IE 8 users can add to their menu bars.

Create a new file (say webslice.php) in your WordPress installation folder and copy-paste the follow code in the php file.