how to transfer wordpress sql/database from local to live

Question

So for backing up any/all my wordpress sites i use a tool called "BACKUP BUDDY" and its a great tool and all but lately its been really buggy and today finally it went kaboom!

Usually my workflow is that i develop the site on my local machine using WAMP/MAMP. when done and ready for testing, i use the tool to backup/transfer to real server etc.

Since my tool stopped working(uploads half the content) i decided to just do it manually by installing Wordpress first on the real webserver(done), Applying my theme(done),

then exporting the database sql from the local server(done), and thereafter importing it to the real server(done) and the 2xs that ive done it the site comes up blank.(outcome equals fail)

im assuming that something has to be changed/done in order for it to work but not sure what.

Any ideas as to what im doing wrong? because as of now, if i cant do it like this, id have to manually create ALL the pages etc and its not alot but would like to know the proper method in how to do this.

Thanks in advanced.

Answer 1

I find the export tools very slow and not so reliable. If imporitng fails you probably have a timeout with your server or your dump file is too big.

Here's the way I do it, and it's much faster:

1. extract a fresh copy of wordpress code in production
2. replace the wp-content folder with the one from dev
3. copy the wp-config.php from dev and verify the database connection settings
4. do a full mysql dump of your development wordpress database
5. import the dump into your production database

6. if the domain used in dev is different from production run the following queries in production.

   UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = replace(option_value, 'olddomain.com', 'newdomain.com') WHERE option_value like '%olddomain.com%';

   UPDATE wp_posts SET guid = replace(guid, 'olddomain.com','newdomain.com'), post_content = replace(post_content, 'olddomain.com','newdomain.com');

Answer 2

I've got 3 links bookmarked for that topic, hope that helps.

1st http://wp.tutsplus.com/tutorials/hosting/migrating-a-wordpress-site-from-a-local-server-to-production/

2nd http://wp.tutsplus.com/tutorials/hosting/migrating-wordpress-across-hosts-servers-and-urls/

3rd http://wp.tutsplus.com/tutorials/scaling-caching/deploy-your-wordpress-blog-to-the-cloud/