WP Blog Host Video Tutorials » Maintaining WordPress

How To Upgrade WordPress Manually

John Hoff — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:25:11 +0000

How To Create A Simple Maintenance Page

You could always download a WordPress maintenance mode plugin, but in this case it probably won’t work. When you follow the upgrade instructions on WordPress.org, you’ll notice it says to deactivate all your plugins.

So, here’s how to create a custom maintenance page without a plugin.

Step 1

Create a simple html file and place it in your blog’s root directory. Name it something like, maintenance.html. Inside the maintenance.html file you can put anything you want. “Hi. I’m out to lunch for a few moments while the construction crew is busy at work . . .”

But why stop there? Your site is better than that. Customize the page with your site’s colors and images. Maybe add a video or your latest blog post. CSSgirl wrote some tips and shows some examples on the topic of creating a memorable maintenance page.

Step 2

Ok so now you have your maintenance.html page set up; the next step is to redirect everyone to it while you’re doing your upgrade.

Navigate to your blog’s root directory in your web hosting control panel and open your .htaccess file.

Once opened, you’re going to add this code at the top:

# Use this code to redirect visitors to maintenance.html file while upgrading
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^618\.124\.259\.25
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/maintenance.html$
RewriteRule $ http://your-site.com/maintenance.html [R=302,L]

The yellow parts above are the areas you need to change. Visit What is my IP address? to find your IP address and put those numbers in under the first yellow highlight. Next add the url path to your own maintenance page in the second yellow part.

And that should do it. Your site should now show a maintenance page to everyone except you (your IP address was whitelisted). To see what everyone else sees, add a # sign in front of the IP line:

# RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^618\.124\.259\.25

The # comments lines out.

When you’re finished, leave the code in your .htaccess file for next time. To disable the code, just add a # in front of each line:

# Use this code to redirect visitors to maintenance.html file while upgrading
# Options +FollowSymlinks
# RewriteEngine on
# RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^618\.124\.259\.25
# RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/maintenance.html$
# RewriteRule $ http://your-site.com/maintenance.html [R=302,L]

Remember, if you need help with upgrades, visit the blog services page and use the contact form there to get in touch with me.

How To Backup Your WordPress Database Using phpMyAdmin

John Hoff — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:21:15 +0000

This tutorial will show you how to download a backup of your WordPress database to your computer. This is a vital topic you should learn.

This tutorial will show you how to do it through phpMyAdmin (a more advanced way just in case plugins aren’t working). If you’re looking for an easy way to backup your database, try the Il Filosofo Database Backup plugin.

How To Change Your WordPress Username & Password Through phpMyAdmin

John Hoff — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:01:07 +0000

There may be times when you need to change your username and password for your WordPress blog. Perhaps you forgot what they were, but an even bigger reason why it is good to know how to do this is if someone hacks into your blog they might change your password.

This is how you can take back control of your blog and regain access by changing your username and password through the database.

How to Create a Static Home Page on Your WordPress Blog

John Hoff — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:34:25 +0000

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How to Fully Backup Your WordPress Blog at WP Blog Host

John Hoff — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:42:22 +0000

Backing up your WordPress blog is one of the most important things you must do. To do a full backup, make sure you download both your database and your blog’s source files (i.e. all the files contained in your web hosting account).

Video Tutorial — Part 1 of 2

Video Tutorial — Part 2 of 2

How To Moderate Comments In WordPress

John Hoff — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:15:13 +0000

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How To Remove The WordPress Version Number From Your Source Code

John Hoff — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:54:21 +0000

One way hackers might try to gain more information about your blog is learning what version of WordPress you’re using by viewing your source code. Here’s how to remove that piece of information.

Just paste this code into your functions.php file:

remove_action(‘wp_head’, ‘wp_generator’);

I’d like to give credit to the good guys over at Digging Into WordPress. It is there where I first found this code.

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How to Restore Your WordPress Database Using Bigdump – For Larger Databases

John Hoff — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:47:17 +0000

If you have a database sql file on your computer which you need to upload to your WordPress’ database on your hosting server, you could try uploading it through phpMyAdmin.

It’s easier doing it that way, however, if your database is upwards of 20 MB, then you may have troubles uploading it this way. The reason is that phpMyAdmin simply uploads the entire file all at once, but since the file is so big, it takes too long to upload and your web browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.) will do what we call timeout. This means it was waiting too long for a task to happen, so it just stalled.

Big Dump is a way around that. Big Dump splits up your upload into smaller sizes so your web browser doesn’t timeout. Download Big Dump here.

Video 1 of 2

Video 2 of 2

How to Restore Your WordPress Database Using phpMyAdmin

John Hoff — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:24:43 +0000

How to Upgrade Your WordPress Blog Using The Automatic Upgrade Tool

John Hoff — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:41:16 +0000

How To Upgrade WordPress Manually