How to: guide to moving from Newspaper to Newsmag

HI, to make this easier to find, I’m posting this in one place.
This applies to moving from Newspaper to Newsmag, but could also apply to moving from any other theme using Visual Composer, which can be tricky.

At bottom is also a how-to if you already borked (crashed) your site and are getting server 500 error or similar.

======== Christopher’s how-to theme migration =============

Try this:
1) make backup of your site files, as per usual good practices; use tools to export your database from WP panel. Backup images.

Clear cache.

2) make sure you’re running latest version of WordPress (4.1); v 3.9x has cross-site scripting vulnerability; v4.0 has bugs, fixed in 4.1.

3) switch to default theme (e.g., twenty-twelve); do this before disabling visual composer!!!!!

Clear cache again, as applicable.

4) disable ALL plugins

5) DELETE the original theme folder, delete the original plugins for theme (TD speed booster, TD social, Visual Composer)

Then follow my posts on best way to install theme:

================================================
Make sure you upload only the main theme files; don’t install the “all files” zip from ThemeForest… that has docs, psd files, plugins, etc.

You want to install the smaller of the two files on Themeforest, if you’re installing via theme panel with .zip.

BEST WAY TO INSTALL WP THEMES:
Ideal way is still to
1) unzip theme folder “Newsmag” on your HD
2) upload via FTP/SFTP to your /wp-content/themes/ folder
3) upload the plugins unzipped to /wp-content/plugins/
4) switch to default theme from your old theme [should already be done for migration]
5) turn off *all* running plugins [should already be done for migration]
6) clear your cache(s), turn off caching (!),
7) activate the Visual Composer plugin
8) activate the new Newsmag theme
9) launch the theme panel
10) reactivate only the plugins you 100% need to make sure they work (some plugins WILL NOT WORK properly with WP 4.01 until you update the plugins!).

Clear the cache in your WEB BROWSER FULLY and restart web browser; this clears any CSS/Java used by your previous theme admin, and theme, so that you see the new CSS/JS properly (seriously, this is cause for huge number of “my new theme doesn’t load right” or “admin panel doesn’t have any boxes!” errors).

If you’re running WordPress older than 4.0 be aware there is a very serious cross-site scripting vulnerability (e.g., WP 3.9.2). You should be running WP 4.0+ to use this theme properly.

This is standard practice for switching to a brand new theme and good habit to get into doing it this way to ensure you clear cobwebs on old, and cleanly move to new.

Hope that helps! 🙂

Chris

==========

ADVANCED USERS AND WP-CONFIG FILE:
if you or somebody else optimized your site for better PageSpeed score and increase dbase efficiency, by editing the wp-config.php file to add absolute paths to the theme folder, you will need to remove that line prior to doing any theme switch. Some people forget this step and immediately get a server error trying to change themes in the WP admin panel. You should be making backups of your wp-config.php folder periodically anyway and never hurts to open it and view from time to time.

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SITE RESCUE IF ALREADY CRASHED

f you already borked your install and are getting server 500 error or similar you will need to do common procedure to reset WordPress:

1) login via FTP, manually delete both Newspaper and Newsmag themes so that all that is in theme folder is default themes; this forces WordPress to restart with default theme

2) manually delete the Visual Composer plugin so there is no VC folder in plugins

3) rename your plugins folder to pluginsX

4) login successfully

5) go to theme panel and SELECT your default twenty-twelve theme to CLEAR the prior selection in dbase of the Newspaper or Newsmag theme no longer running

6) logout

7) via FTP or server side file manager, rename plugins back to plugins

8) login and make sure site is working

9) then do CLEAN install of the Newsmag theme, plugins

(admin feel free to add this to docs if you wish)

Chris

© 2014 Christopher Simmons. May not be reposted on other websites.

• This topic was modified 11 years by simchris.
• This topic was modified 11 years by Radu.

Chris S

great info here …
how about moving hosting ? would be nice a guide as good as the one above 🙂

Thanks 🙂

Heh. Well, moving hosting is not that hard, lots of guides in the WP Codex on that, I think. Since you can use the “tools” function to export your basic dbase, then import all of that at new location to your blank new dbase not big thing. I had more free brain cells that week I did the upgrade thing, and it was topical to me since I did move from Newspaper to Newsmag for ga-ga.com, and I did crash my site 🙂 (doh!)

• This reply was modified 11 years by simchris.

Just a bit off topic, but: last week Newspaper sold more copys on Themeforest than Newsmag 🙂

Hi everyone
On the topic of “PageSpeed,” I have already answered the same questions 50-100 times the past year and they are all covered in the “sticky” thread found in the Newspaper forum.

I am no longer providing any help with PageSpeed issues, as this is all covered in the sticky topic for advanced users; and for newbies, the settings/docs provided by TagDiv for the theme docs (link right side of page) will get you to the 80+ stage right away. If your score is below that then you *did not* follow the theme docs or this topic on the basics for speeding up your WORDPRESS install.

WordPress optimization is widely covered on the net – it’s not theme specific.

You need to have
a) fast hosting; $3/month accounts or “free” hosting are crap.
b) have gzip/deflate running on server
c) you need to set expiration headers in your htaccess (noted in docs)
d) you need to have an image optimization strategy (noted in docs); either via plugin and/or changing optimization setting in functions.php (covered in the sticky topic.. why not READ through it??)
e) you need to optimize your dbase regularly (wp-optimize plugin)
f) you need to limit use of things which call CSS, JS, fonts, ads, counters from OTHER SITES.
g) you need to test/explore refine some kind of caching system on the server or from a WP plugin (noted in docs)
h) high quality hosting will add mod_pagespeed
i) you need to look at manual minification of main style.css file
j) limit number of ad networks
k) limit number of plugins wherever possible
j) limit total number of images/thumbs loaded on post pages to something like 10 total; not 30+
k) use fewer module types to limit number of image sizes/thumbs; use text modules also.

When testing site with something like GTMetrix.com *READ* the information provided with examples and solutions. Only YOU can fix your own website, why ignore the info provided as so many on this forum(s) seem to do?

Advanced users:
a) local caching/loading of gravatars (I provide solution in the sticky thread)
b) mod_pagspeeed and mod_spdy if site loading via https (I offer help on that in the sticky thread and other discussion on mod_pagespeed; search forum)
c) optimization of font loading, hack theme to remove calls from headers/footers to Google and load via style.css; -or- use ONLY web-safe fonts and no Google fonts. (I also describe how to do this in sticky thread; although might need update based on current location of font calls with theme evolution/updates)
d) manual minification of other files, such as main theme functions files
e) optimization of wp-config.php file with comment removal, add paths to base URL/directory and theme directory by name (I show example in sticky thread)
f) add expiration type/ttl for custom icon font loaded by theme (betcha forgot that one!)

etc.

Learning to optimize your WordPress site is UP TO YOU TO LEARN. It’s not part of the theme. The theme supports very good speed rating IF YOU DO THE REST. The theme cannot fix your server, optimize your htaccess file, speed up time, or transport you off this rock. Google is a great resource to FIND hundreds of articles from the past decade on optimizing WordPress. You’re not the first person to do it.

Chris out.

(I am adding this here, as many don’t look at the sticky thread and/or folks in the Newsmag forum never saw that. Even so, most posting “my score is 40” clearly did NOT follow the basics found in theme docs.)

#1 TIP: don’t worry about render blocking elements until EVERYTHING ELSE is done. Those last items really only impact your last couple of points. I have 95 score with Newsmag without full optimization of the fonts or minification. It’s doable!

I can’t even access the dashboard! It’s all Blank

@iomichele
not right topic for query, but you need to FTP in to your site and remove the tagdiv social plugin. You can also do this via your filemanager in your hosting account. Good to know how to FTP though if you’re going to manage a complex WordPress site!

How about moving from one server to another? Old server has newspaper the new server has newsmag?

Do Google search for moving WordPress from one server to another.

Simplest way is using the beta “DUPLICATOR” plugin.

Or, if both servers using Parallels/Plesk or similar hosting platform, they actually have a “site migration” tool where one server FTPs the entire site to the other server. However, in that situation needs to be same type of hosting platform in most cases. Ask your hosting provider about “site migration.”

Thanks, didn’t know if there was something special that needed to be done.

Depends on the size of the site, etc.
Basically some sites you can just do the “export” tool and “import” to the new site and bingo it works.

Or, in other cases you have to move the dbase over to new server using phpmyadmin, then install the dbase on new server, then install WP and point wp-config.php at your new dbase; presumably copy over all your image folders via FTP, and do an export of your theme settings.

Anyway… DUPLICATOR works pretty well. I just did this for one site.

If both servers use same system (e.g., PLESK) — “site migration” much easier as it moves everything over including emails, passwords, folders, php settings, etc. — it’s a 1:1 snapshot.

OFFTOPIC Could you please tell me what is the main difference between the Newspaper and the Newsmag? Which of them is better?
Thanks!