Are you testing a new Wordpress theme or plugin that you don’t want to release to the world until you’re completely ready?  Test your Wordpress blog offline by setting up a simple test site using actual content from your live blog site using the import and export features of Wordpress.

Setup

If you aren’t familiar with the process of setting up your own offline webserver with PHP and mySQL, you can check out some free resources on XAMPP, which according to the website:

“XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use – just download, extract and start.”

Find the XAMPP software at: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

Export Your Live Blog Posts

Your Wordpress blog (version 2.x) has a built-in feature that allows you to export your entire list of posts into an XML format that can then be read into another blog, which you will already have running offline.

On your live blog site:

• Open the Tools menu
• Click on “Export”
• Click the “Download Export File” button and save the XML file

Import Your Exported Blog Posts

Now, log into your offline site and import the file:

• Open the Tools menu
• Click on “Import”

You will see a list of options like the following (click to view full size):

To work with the above exported file, choose “Wordpress” from the list and continue below:

• Browse for the location of your exported file from the export steps above.
• You will have the option to download and import all of the linked images as well, which is a good thing to do ONLY if you have a small set of posts that you’re importing, otherwise this step could take quite a while to complete.

That’s it! Hopefully, you will now have a copy of your production blogs posts in a non-production blog site running on your local PC or laptop which you can then use to try out new code and themes without affecting the users who are currently on your site.  Happy Blogging!!!

A coworked turned me onto Notepad++ for my development needs recently, and I’m very impressed with the functionality.  Previously, I was using a WAY OLD version of EditPad from JG Soft, but was constantly running into situations during development where more functionality could be of use.  Being the cheapo that I am, I didn’t feel like paying to upgrade the product.

Notepad++ has a lot of features for a free product.  Some really cool things include being able to select “rectangles” of text, indent multiple lines in one keypress, auto-indenting, source code type selections and color coding, and the list goes on.  I haven’t even begun to figure out all of the options yet.

Language Formatting Options

I’m already using this as my tool of choice for programming in PHP, but you can see from the screenshot that many other programming formats are available.

Visit the site to download a free copy of Notepad++.

Site URL: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
Screenshots: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/screenshots.php