Files on Localhost, Database on Server

Question

With Wordpress, is it possible to work on localhost but have the DB on a server? So that workflow will be:

1) Work on localhost (but connected to remote database)

2) Upload JUST files via backup software daily

This would eliminate the pain of uploading the database each time (logging into cPanel, dropping DB, uploading DB, running SQL find&replace command, logging into site and updating permalinks...)

I know how to connect to the actual remote database with wp-config.php, but it results in a 404 page because (I'm guessing) it has the wrong site URL in the DB?

EDIT:

My httpd-vhosts.conf:

#wamp
<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerAdmin [email protected]
  DocumentRoot "c:/wamp/www"
  ServerName localhost
  ServerAlias localhost.com www.localhost.com
  ErrorLog "logs/locahost-error.log"
  CustomLog "logs/localhost-access.log" common
<Directory "c:/wamp/www">
    AllowOverride All
        Require local
</Directory>

#site.local
<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerAdmin [email protected]
  DocumentRoot "c:/wamp/www/site"
  ServerName site.localhost
  ServerAlias www.site.local
  ErrorLog "logs/site.local-error.log"
  CustomLog "logs/site.local-access.log" common
<Directory "c:/wamp/www/site">
    AllowOverride All
        Require local
</Directory>

My hosts:

127.0.0.1   localhost
127.0.0.1   site.local

Answer 1

Yes, the 404 is because the local and remote server URLs are different. As a solution:

• You should set the local domain to be the same as the remote server
• In wp-config.php connect to the remote DB
• When you will need to access the remote server you'll need to update the file hosts and comment out the line with your remote url
  • If your hosts file is updated on start/stop of your local server you can just stop the server and you'll have acces to the remote

If your domain name is xdirtseries.co.za you should set in vhost the server name and alias to match the domain, so that when you local server is started you'll see the local version, otherwise your online version.

ServerName xdirtseries.co.za
ServerAlias www.xdirtseries.co.za

And the hosts file:

127.0.0.1 xdirtseries.co.za www.xdirtseries.co.za

This should work :)