Better way to migrate to server?

Question

Migrating between local and server with Wordpress (SQL) is a bit time consuming, and I'm wondering if there is a better way to do it. With Drupal, there is a module called BackUp&Migrate, which lets you push SQL updates immediately from within the Drupal framework to the server. Is there something similar for Wordpress? At the moment, this is my work flow:

1) Go into localhost/phpmyadmin and make a SQL dump

2) Log into cPanel -> PhpMyAdmin

3) Select db and drop tables

4) Import new SQL dump

5) Run a Search/Replace to update strings

6) Log into the site again on the server side and update permalinks

This gets a bit time consuming if doing it often. If anyone has a better solution, I would really love to hear it!:) Thanks so much!

Answer 1

I personally use BackupBuddy (a paid solution, from iThemes.com).

For your scenario, you could install it on your local dev machine, and perform the following one-time actions:

1. Add a one-time configuration for your server as a "Remote Destination" (including FTP/sFTP credentials and target directory).
2. Copy an 'importbuddy.php' script to your remote server.

Then, whenever you want to migrate a new snapshot from your local machine to your remote server, you can with one click create a backup zipfile (either "Database Only", or "Full" which also includes all files) and have it sent to your server.

On the server side, all you'd have to do is:

• Browse to the 'importbuddy.php' script and use its friendly wizard interface, making sure to choose "Delete database tables" in the "Advanced Options." (The script automatically and properly handles search/replace, for serialized data as well.)
• Alternatively, if your local and remote environments are sufficiently "identical," and you have BackupBuddy installed on the remote server as well, you should be able to simply perform a one-click "Database Rollback" within BackupBuddy -- an operation that is usually used for backups made on that very same server.

For a non-paid alternative, I've heard good things about the "WP Migrate DB" plugin, although I have not used this myself.

Answer 2

When I discovered ServerPress to develop local and push WP sites to production, I have not looked back. The time it saves me in both set up of a local WAMP, creating of dev sites, and then loading painlessly the site to a server with a public face is worth every nickel for it. I no longer need to fuss with paths that break when going live, for example. I also Drupal and despite the module you reference, I have asked the developer of ServerPress to please fork ServerPress for use with Drupal. I encourage you to take a look at it. I tend to do things manually so it's a big deal for me to support a tool like this. I'm not sure I would encourage its use for someone who has no experience in setting up a server as it's helpful to go through the learning process. But in your use case, heck, using a hammer to push a nail is a lot faster than using the palm of your hand!