Yesterday in my post about moving your blog to a new domain, I mentioned that there is a problem that presents itself when posts are imported into WordPress 2.5 or later.   A quick search determined that I wasn’t the only one having this problem, so I decided to document how to fix this problem here (or at least how I was able to fix it).

Here are the steps I took to fix the problem with the unresponsive script in the Write panel (requires CPanel/PHPMyAdmin access):

1. Please make a backup of your database in case you run into any problems.  These are the steps that worked for me to fix the problem, but I can’t guarantee they will work for everyone. 
2. Login in to your CPanel.   This is usually found at http://yourdomain.com/cpanel/ and usually uses your FTP password.
3. Access your PHPMyAdmin (in CPanel this is usually found at the bottom of the MySQL Databases page).
4. Click on the MySQL database you created for your new WordPress installation in the menu on the left.
5. Click on wp_postmeta in the list of tables on the left.
6. Click the Browse icon.
7. Click on the post_id tab once to sort the list from 0 to higher.
8. Now you’ll need to delete anything with a post_id of 0.  Depending on how many posts were imported, there may be a lot of zeroes.  I had about 600 of them to delete.

The best way to do this is to locate the boxes with “row(s) starting from record #” between them.  In the front box put 100 (or whatever number of your choice) and always put 1 in the right box.   Click Show.  You can use the select all button and verify all of them are zero.   Uncheck any that aren’t zero and click Delete.  Repeat until all zeroes are gone.

Now open your Write panel in your new blog’s dashboard and everything should be good!

Last Friday I announced that our site has moved from Hack WordPress.com to where we are now, at WPHacks.com.   Towards the end of the post we got a lot of positive feedback from people wanting to know what all was involved with the process, so I’ve decided to attempt to document it here.

Here are the initial steps you’ll want to take when moving to a new domain name.

Existing Domain:

• Export Your WordPress Posts – You can find the Export option under the Manage tab in your WordPress dashboard.  You’ll want to save the file somewhere on your hard drive where you can find it a little later.
• Download Your wp-content Folder – This step requires FTP access.  You’ll want to copy over your wp-content folder on to your hard drive or place it somewhere you can find it later so that you can upload it to your new domain.  This should grab all of your existing plugins, themes, uploads (pictures), etc.   You’ll also want to download your favicon and Robots.txt file (if you have either).
• Sub Domains and Sub Directories – This won’t apply to everyone, but if you’ve set up any sub domains or sub directories for your blog, you’ll want to grab the same files from them as well.

New Domain:

• Install WordPress on the New Domain – This can be done manually or via Fantastico if you have CPanel.
• Upload Your wp-content Folder – This requires FTP access to complete.  Just override the existing wp-content folder from your fresh WordPress install.
• Import All WordPress Posts – You can find the Import option under the Manage tab in your WordPress dashboard.  When it asks for the import file, use the one that was exported and saved on your hard drive earlier.
• Activate Your Theme & Plugins – Head into the Design and Plugins tabs and make sure you have the same theme and same plugins activated as the old domain name.
• Update Your Settings to Match the Old Domain – Update all of your settings to match the old domain, including all of your plugin settings you just activated.
• Inspect Your Theme – View your theme with your plugins activated and settings in place to ensure that everything looks like it matches the old site on the new domain.  Test some of the functionality as well to ensure everything is working properly.
• Upload and Run the Update URL’s Plugin – The Update URL’s WordPress plugin is brand new (just came out this month) WordPress plugin and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect for me!  Once activated, simply enter your old domain URL and the new one.  It will go through all of your old posts and update the domain part of the URL with the new one, and it only takes a matter of seconds.  Note:  I won’t update anchor text, only the domain in the URL.
• Repeat Steps for Sub Domains and Sub Directories – Upload and setup your sub domains and sub directories using the same steps above.

Domain Move Troubleshooting:

• For some reason, since WordPress 2.5, the export/import feature of WordPress works great but sometimes causes problems with an unresponsive script error whenever you access the Write panel.  I will be publishing a post tomorrow that explains how to fix this error, so make sure you are subscribed to our feed.

Once the move is completed and everything seems to be working well, here is a mini checklist of extra things to do before making the move official:

• Update Your Feedburner Feed – You need to edit your feed details in your Feedburner account with the new domain’s source feed (example: http://yourdomain.com/feed/)
• Update Your Email Address – This one is optional.  Setup an email account on your new domain name (for example, I setup Kyle AT WPHacks DOT com for the new site).  I recommend using Google Apps which makes it really easy and lets you take advantage of the Gmail spam guards that Google has in place (plus all of the other Gmail features).
• Update Your Gravatar – This one is optional as well.  Log in to your Gravatar account and add the new email address you just setup.
• Update Your PPC Campaigns – If you purchase PPC advertising with AdWords, Yahoo, or whoever, you’ll want to update the destination URLs.

Once you’re done, all that is left is to go to your domain registrar and forward the old domain to the new domain (also known as a 301 redirect).   Depending on your registrar, this is usually really easy and self-explanatory.  I would also wait 6-12 hours to make an announcement on the new domain name so that the DNS can resolve at the new domain name (it can sometimes take up to 48 hours).   Depending on your web hosting, you may also be able to do the forward there to avoid this problem.

Doing this will cause all links to your old domain name to be redirected to the equivalent URL on the new domain name (assuming you use the same URL structure on the new site).   It will also let Google and the other search engines know you have moved.  Usually within a week, depending on the search engine, they will have gone through and updated their index with the new domain URL’s.

This of course means that you shouldn’t use any human traffic, but you will take a hit when it comes to your search engine rankings.   This is because the links are pointed towards the old domain name, so when Google determines your rankings, they will see the new URL has zero backlinks.  This is why it is beneficial if you can get people to update the links in their sidebars or posts to the new domain URL.

Any questions?  Need clarification on anything?  Please let me know in the comments below!

I spent a little time on YouTube and found a few good WordPress videos that I thought everyone might enjoy!

Step-by-Step Tutorial on How to Blog on WordPress.com Video

How to Embed a YouTube Video in WordPress Video

How To Create A Custom WordPress Page Template Video

The Best WordPress Plugins Video

One of my favorite parts about using WordPress for my blogs is getting to work with PHP code, which I find to be much easier to write/hack.   For those that are shy around code, it really isn’t that difficult to get ahold of the basics of PHP, so WordPress is the right place for you. 

One great area to start is learning how the WordPress loop works.  This is a basic function of blogging used to display the most recent X number of posts on your blog’s homepage (for traditional blogs).   Rather than go into to much detail here, I’d like to point you towards a new post by Themelab which is designed to be the Utlimate Guide to the WordPress loop. 

This post definitely lives up to its name and goes beyond just showing you how to do something.  It actually explains how and why it works, and includes screenshots with many of the examples.   If you have any interest in learning about the WordPress loop you may want to read through this post and/or bookmark it for future reference. 

Probably the most talked about feature in WordPress 2.5 is the new design for the dashboard that was supposed to be released in WordPress 2.4.  The design has taken a lot of heat since the initial demo was released as many WordPress bloggers don’t seem to like it.   I personally think that it is just drastically different and will just taking some getting used to.  Once people are used to it people will like it.

Once you’ve upgraded, the good news is that you have options.  If you prefer to customize your own colors, Ozh has a nice tutorial up explaining how to make a custom stylesheet in WordPress 2.5.

As previously mentioned, you also have the option of using a plugin such as Fluency Admin to adjust the look of your dashboard (WordPress 2.5+).   I’m sure other plugins will be released as well, giving you a wide variety of looks to choose from.