I was asked to program out a blog/site. Everything went smoothly using thematic framework. Then I find out that they actually want to switch out themes and basically keep everything from the old site. The new design is slightly different in look as well as functionality.
Thier current blog is pimped out to the max”I
has about 20 plugins
Has a forum with 6000 users
Subscribers/mailers
over 800 posts.
60pages.
I tried to bring int bits and pieces to the new one, and unless I am doing it wrong, it was pretty cumbersome, mainly in part due to the plugins and all the feautres they had on the pages. There are also alot of users that are aprt of the site, some kind of subscription etc.
I am trying this approach, I would love to hear some feedback or guidance.
1.) I moved the site to a new directory keeping the old one intact and running for current users.
2.) I activated the new theme, and basically have had to implement the new widgets etc etc, restyle some things etc. But the idea is to get this new theme working in additions to the bizzilion plugings.
3.) Let the user test this one out alittle and make sure it is all working savy.
4.) Move this one into new directory backing up and replacing current one.
That works, yeah.
Slightly off topic, FYI: there are a few defines, namely wp content dir and url, that allow to organize sites like so on a development server:
This allows to easily test forward and backward compatibility of themes and plugins.