Use WordPress offline > kundenbenefit.ch

Information as of November 16, 2021

There are many reasons why you should use the WordPress content management system offline. But how to proceed? How do you get WordPress running on your own PC? And is there an alternative?

Image source from Pixabay / mohamed_hassan / Pixabay License

Table of contents: WordPress offline

Why it is convenient to use WordPress offline

• Practice creates masters
  You can get to know, practice, test and try WordPress without the risk of endangering your own (online) installation. This enables problem-free training.
• test plugins
  You can easily test the plugins.
• test themes
  You can test different themes (designs) at your leisure.
• Sale/Demo
  You can use the installation to support sales.

How is it possible to use WordPress offline?

WordPress needs a database, a web server and the PHP programming language to work. For example, to install these programs, you can use XAMPP. But there is a much easier way. With InstantWP we will have the complete installation on a hard drive or on a USB stick in a few minutes!

The advantages

• There is no entry in the Windows registry
  The system stays clean and you can delete the installation at any time.
• Mobile
  You can get WordPress running right on a portable USB stick and take it with you wherever you go.

And how does InstantWP work?

1. First, let’s download InstantWP.

2. Then we double-click the program to run it.

3. Then we install the program on the desired drive and directory. In this example, drive G is a USB stick. “wordpress” is used as the directory. Approx. 330 MB are required.

4. After a few minutes, the whole installation is done. On the G drive in the wordpress directory there is now the InstantWP.exe file. Double-click to start this program. And this is what it looks like:

The meaning of the individual buttons

• WordPress front page
  With this button you can surf the website.
• WordPress admin
  By admin and password enter the admin area of ​​WordPress and can make all settings as usual. You can also determine the desired language for the admin area.
• Plugins folder
  Here you have the option to install additional plugins.
• Theme folder
  Here you have the possibility to install additional themes.
• MySQL admin
  If necessary, you can access the MySQL database with the username root call.
• Documentation
  This button takes you online to the system documentation.

From downloading to working with the system, it takes barely 5 minutes. It couldn’t be much easier!

The (better) alternative

As an alternative to a WordPress offline version, you can create a staging environment. One staging environment is an exact copy of an existing website. This copy is installed in a subdirectory (or a subdomain) on your web space.

A big advantage of a staging version is that the copy can be accessed via the Internet and the same server settings of your hosting provider!

This allows you to test the plugins, code snippets, themes and WordPress updates without risk. The real website remains unaffected. Only when the changes are working properly on the staging site can you transfer them to the actual website.

The whole thing is implemented, for example, with a free plugin such as WP Staging. You can then install new plugins and test theme changes.

With one click you can transfer all new data to your live website. However, this requires the paid version WP Staging Pro* from $89.

After installing the plugin, the copy is created very quickly. A copy is created via WP Staging ==> Start ==> Start Cloning. You do not have to enter anything in the options. (Unless you don’t want to copy certain parts). After a few minutes, the matter is settled and the copy can be accessed at www.yourdomain.xx/staging.

Enter the backend area of ​​the copy with the usual password combination. Then I recommend you:

• Don’t let search engines index the site
  Important: Under Settings ==> Reading ==> Check the Stop search engines from indexing this website option so that the copy is not additionally indexed by the search engines.

• Delete plugins
  Delete or disable plugins that don’t make sense with the staging version. For example backup plugins and plugins for website statistics like Google Analytics. Do not delete the WP Staging plugin for the staging version!

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“Now decide for one of the possibilities!”

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Author: Walter B. Walser, kundenbenefit.ch