After a couple of days of working on other stuff, I finally found the time to upload my WP install to my domain. The copying and transfer process, like everything else, is relatively simple.
Here are the steps:
1. Create new database in your hosting account
Depending on your plan and your access to C-Panel, you might have to ask your administrator to set up the database for you. If you do have access to phpMyAdmin or equivalent database management system, simply repeat the same process as I've described previously in my WAMP & Wordpress setup post.
Remember you need to copy down the
- DB name
- DB username
- DB password
- DB host
Assuming the database is hosted on the same server as your domain, your DB host will be "localhost". If you are using an external mySQL database, you will be given the host address.
2. Upload local WordPress folder to domain
Take the whole WP folder on your computer and upload that through ftp to your hosting account. Alternatively, you can choose to install a fresh copy by re-downloading it off
WordPress.
3. Change wp-config file
Remember the database information you've taken down early? Open up the wp-config.php file (it's found just down the main WP folder you've uploaded) and fill the information, save and re-upload it back to the directory. Your ftp client might ask if you wish to replace the existing file, select "yes" or "overwrite". In a fresh install, you might not have a wp-config.php file, open the file titled wp-config-sample.php instead. Make the necessary changes and re-save the file as "wp-config.php".
4. Configure WP
This step ought to be familiar... Type in your domain name (or the address where your WP folder is located). If everything is setup, you will be presented with the install WordPress in 5 minutes set of dialogue boxes again. Fill everything in as usual. Create your new admin account, permalinks, template selection etc. as outlined in my WAMP & WordPress setup post again. Remember to upload your template into the wp-content folder if you used a fresh WP install!
5. Import posts and pages
Now, we need to export all the posts and pages we have in our local database. Log into your wp-admin account on localhost. Locate Tools on the left dashboard bar. Click on the arrow key to expand the group and select "Export". Under options, you probably want to keep the restricts open to "All Authors". Then hit the button to "Download export files".
Then login to the admin account on your domain's wordpress admin panel. This time click on Tools > Import. Choose to import from WordPress and select your WP export data file. Hit Okay and WP will present you with the option to create new users for authors or to remap them onto existing users. I went with remapping to prevent creating duplicate users. Hit Okay again and WP will add your posts and pages into the database.
6. Check for consistency
Finally, go through every page of your site to ensure everything is working correctly. If your css or page links uses page IDs, it's a good idea to check to see if the IDs are still the same. I didn't have any problems with my pages though. :)
And that's it! You're done.
