Orangescale.NET

Yesterday, I needed to move a self-hosted WordPress site to another domain. The process was easy because it’s like copying all files, edit the configuration file and editing internal links in all posts. All process only took less than 15 minutes. But, that’s not the only thing. One of the important things needed is to maintain the article links — known as “permanent link”.

This is important because I don’t want to send the visitors coming from other sources (links in blog posts, shared link on Twitter or Facebook) to missing pages. It’s called “permanent link”, right? So, having the permanent link broken is not a good idea.

I came up with a simple solution: using .htacess. After moving all files and checking all configurations I put these lines in the .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^.*olddomain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

So, when visitors visit olddomain.com/path/to/article/, the browsers will go automatically to newdomain.com/path/to/article/. Easy!

If you have upgraded your WordPress installation to the latest version (right now, it’s Version 3.1), you can take advantage of its “Post Formats” feature. So, what is it anyway? WordPress Codex explains:

A Post Format is a piece of meta information that can be used by a theme to customize its presentation of a post. The Post Formats feature provides a standardized list of formats that are available to all themes that support the feature. Themes are not required to support every format on the list. New formats cannot be introduced by themes nor even plugins. The standardization of this list provides both compatibility between numerous themes and an avenue for external blogging tools to access to this feature in a consistent fashion. In short, with a theme that supports Post Formats, a blogger can change how each post looks by choosing a Post Format from a radio-button list.

This feature might be useful if you want to “format” your blog posts, especially when you want to have different output format from your WordPress theme. Just think about Tumblr service. Tumblr is very easy to use when you want to make a kind of item collections. Sometime you want to embed a video, post a link, make a regular blog post, or even embed an audio file. If you want to create a new post, you will have something like this:

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Now, WordPress installation in this domain (orangescale.net) powers my other blog — in Bahasa Indonesia, using WordPress 3.0 Multi-Site feature. I decided to use this method so that I don’t have to manage two separated WordPress installation. In short: orangescale.net and thomas.or.id are now using a single WordPress installation, using orangescale.net as the primary blog.

This method works on my blog, but I don’t guarantee that you will have the exact process depending your own installation:

• First, enable WordPress 3.0 Multi-Site feature
• You should have access to modify domain DNS record. If your webhosting provider provide “Add-on domain” feature, it should work.
• Create a new site under First Blog, you can use any address first.
• Export contents from blog you want to move using WordPress export feature.
• Import the export file you have to Second Blog.
• Copy all media files from Second Blog to firstblog.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/files/X/ (Note: “X” is the Site ID).
• Check all settings, escpecially the image locations in your posts. Later, the uploaded media files will use this path: seconddomain.com/files/path/to/image.jpg (the path might be different). If you have broken image path, check the settings and paths again.
• Install WordPress MU Domain Mapping plugin. Follow the instruction. It’s easy.
• Modify Second Blog DNS settings. Basically, you need to create an A record. Point your Second Blog domain to an IP address used by First Blog.
• Check all plugins, blog settings, and permalink.
• Enjoy!

I don’t know whether it’s an easy process or not, but here I want to show you that WordPress 3.0 Multi-Site feature can be useful. If you’re still comfortable to manage multiple blog installations, you don’t need to use this method.

It’s not a problem-free solution, of course. And it might be tricky sometimes. For example, about the plugin activation. Which plugins should be installed ‘globally’ or ‘locally’. Some plugins might work without any modifications. Here, I still have a plugin that does not work on my Second Blog. It works well on my primary blog, but not on the secondary. So far, I’m happy with the result.

After upgrading my blog using WordPress 3.0, I was thinking of taking the opportunity to have the multi-site option. Previously, I played with WordPress Multi User. So, I think it would something I’m familiar with. If you’re not familiar with WordPress 3.0 features, you can check WordPress Codex first. You can find lots of useful information there. It’s a good place to start.

Currently, this blog is already using Multi-Site feature. The setup was easy, but I want to share few things I had during the ‘migration’. By default, this feature is disabled. So, you will see no settings/option under your WordPress Dashboard menus. If you’re ready to enable this feature, the first thing you need to do is to modify WordPress configuration file (wp-config.php). Add this line of code into wp-config.php:

define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);

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I have upgraded this blog to WordPress 3.0 not long after it was available for download. Everything went without any major issues. I only use it without special hacks. One thing that makes this version a little bit different is that WordPress will bring your site offline if there is/are something not working. For example, when you’re upgrading your plugins. WordPress will temporarily bring your site under maintenance mode.

If all process were completed, you should be happy. Otherwise, you will need to do some extra works. WordPress will display this kind of error message: “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance.” You will be locked out from your admin area. Your website will be inaccessible. Solution? Easy. You need to go to login to your webhosting server, and remove .maintenance file. You can find it in your blog folder — the same location with your wp-config.php.