Category: WordPress

Let this Guru dispose of all your WordPress Migration problems

November 18, 2017

Imagine this scenario. You are settling in a new country. It is a good opportunity for you. You are, obviously very excited to start your new life. A magic fairy or saint comes along and promises to help you move all your belongings with a wave of a wand or hand.

Will you believe it?

If you are smart, you will start running in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, at of now teleportation and magical beings don’t exist in this real world. However there is something like this for your website.

Well, we live in a world of technological miracles. So much can be achieved these days at the click of a button.

WordPress plugins like Migrate Guru can cut down the steps to be performed when you want to migrate your website. Whatever the reason for migrations may be and there may be many, Migrate Guru can take care of it. Don’t worry, and let Migrate Guru do all your work for you.  

Migrate Guru is a free, fully automated WordPress migration plugin that is easy to use, fast, and reliable. Move any WordPress site, or multisite network, to a new host without the headache normally associated with such tasks.

Migrate Guru simplifies website migration by minimizing the technical knowledge requirements from users’ side. It also duplicates WordPress sites without any manual work, add-ons, or additional tools. It automatically rewrites URLs, bypasses import-export scripts, and handles serialised data.
Migrate Guru is different from other WordPress migration plugins because it uses a simple 1-step process. In this way, it doesn’t overload the source website, and ensures that websites as large as 200 GB can be moved without any issues.

It runs on BlogVault servers. It copies the site in question on to their external servers, and utilizes these servers’ resources to move the site. As a result, it bypasses the usual technical errors faced while using other migration methods.

Impressive Features

Migrate Guru claims to have the following features and they sound really good. Let’s find out more.

One click Migration:

You can move 1 GB sites in  less than 30 minutes. Enter host details and click Migrate. Literally all you have to do is click! Isn’t that easy?

No overload on source site:

The migration procedure works on their servers, so it doesn’t crash your site.

Large web site friendly:

Move or transfer sites as large as 200 GB easily.

No addons required:

You don’t need add-ons to move multi-sites, or sites with serialised data. You are not charged extra for anything either.

No Storage space needed

You can keep your storage for yourself, because Migrate Guru automatically copies your site to Migrate Guru servers. After the migration is complete, the copy is erased. Your privacy is retained, at no cost for their storage space.

Overall compatibility with all web hosts:

Move your site to and from any web host you want.

Built in Search and Replace:

Migrate Guru can comfortably handle serialised data with accurate Search and Replace algorithms placed for your convenience unerringly.

Real time notifications:

You will receive real time email alerts to keep you up to the minute regarding  the migration status.

Let’s Migrate!

Here’s the easiest step by step guide for Migrating or transferring WordPress site from one server to another in 5 minutes.

All you need are

  • A domain with the new web host, with WordPress installed on it.
  • Your destination server’s IP address (which can be found in your Bluehost cPanel)
  • cPanel details

Note: It does not require any expertise. Only a basic knowledge of the server cPanel (i.e. backend) is sufficient.

Step 1

Install Migrate Guru

To add Migrate Guru WordPress Plugin using the built-in plugin installer:

  1. Go to Plugins and in that, go to Add New.
  2. Type in the name of the WordPress Plugin, Migrate Guru or a related descriptive keyword, author, or tag in Search Plugins box or click a tag link below the screen.
  3. Once you find Migrate Guru, you have to install to install it.
    • Click Details for more information about Migrate Guru and instructions you may wish to print or save to help setup the Plugin.
    • Click Install Now to install the Migrate Guru WordPress Plugin.
  1. The resulting installation screen will list the installation as successful or note any problems during the install.
  2. If successful, click Activate Plugin to activate it, or Return to Plugin Installer for further actions.

Alternatively, you can download Migrate Guru from here and install it by uploading it through WordPress dashboard or via SFTP. To know more about Installing Plugins click here.

Step 2

Filling out the Migrate Guru migration form

The Migrate Guru plugin will give you a small form to fill up. The fields on this form are:

  1. Email: Enter your email address so that Migrate Guru can send you updates at the two different stages of the migration.
  2. Destination Site URL: This is the URL of the site (domain) you’ve set up on your new web host.
  3. Destination Server IP address: This is the server IP address of the site configured on your web host account.

To find these details, follow the steps below:

  1. Log in to your web host  account and go to the menu bar displayed at the top of the
    page.
  2. Click on Hosting and choose cPanel.
  3. After you are done with this, you will find the destination server IP address in the left-hand
    bar of the cPanel page.
  4. To retrieve your cPanel Username and password perform this step. The cPanel details are the details you use to log into your web host account. For the cPanel username, access the mail your web host would have sent you when you first signed up for an account. This email will contain your cPanel username. (The subject of the email would be ‘Welcome’). The cPanel password is set when signing up for web host service. It is the same password you use to login to your regular web host account.

Note: If you’ve forgotten your password, click on the Forgot password link from the login page. Your web host will then mail you a password reset link, which you can use to set a new password.

  1. Advanced Options: Click on this option ONLY if either the site being moved or the destination site are https:/‘ instead of http://.

Note: If the URLs of either one begin with ‘https://’, they are HTTP authenticated. If your web host domain’s URL is protected with HTTP authentication, you would have received an email with the validation credentials. These credentials can also be retrieved from the site’s server logs.

Now that you have all the required details, enter them in the Migrate Guru form. If you have any more doubts there is a Support and Help section over to the right.


Step 3

Click on Migrate.
Congratulations! You are almost there already!

After you click Migrate button, Migrate Guru will send you an email notification confirming that the process of migration has begun.

Meanwhile, you will likely be taken to a screen that depicts the ongoing procedure of your website migration. A connection to this page can be found in the email notice sent to you. The screen will demonstrate some advanced chart once the migration starts. You don’t have to keep your program window open once the migration starts.

On the off chance that you don’t see this screen, or if the migration screen reloads with a blunder message, at that point chances are that something wasn’t entered effectively. Or, on the other hand, in the event that you just made your website, it might take a little time before Migrate Guru can interface with it. Revisit the headings above, and ensure each field is right, precisely and at that point retry.

Once the migration procedure is finished, you’ll get another email from Migrate Guru informing you about the effective migration.

You can view your new site by clicking on the Migrated Site button, which you’ll also receive a link to in your email alert.
With this simple process, moving or transferring sites as large as 200 GB is so easy, you will not believe your eyes!

To Recap: Simply enter your hosting details and click Migrate. That’s it!

Migration Plugin Price

What price? The plugin is absolutely, completely, one hundred percent FREE! You can’t complain now can you? This plugin does everything you need while making it so easy and you are not even charged for it.

Still did not get it? For a video tutorial, watch this!

If you have any queries you can contact the Migrate Guru team using their contact form at support page

Get Migrate Guru here.

Final thought…

With all the plugin choices accessible WordPress migrations, there is little explanation behind overworked site proprietors to migrate a site physically. The time and exertion spared and the significant peace of knowing your information is safe makes utilizing a plugin for migration a simple decision. Let this Guru take your troubles away!

If you have used Migrate Guru, what are your thoughts on it? Is there any other migration plugin that you always use and recommend? Let us know in the comments below!

Create a customizable product on your website using WooCommerce

May 6, 2017

Do you have an online store selling tangible or non-tangible products? Have you ever been decided to allow your online customers to create their loving product like gift boxes, products packs, perfumes, t-shirts, gift cards, hats, mugs, promotional gifts and so on that are unique by uploading their own images and photos?

In this article I’m going to introduce you a WordPress/WooCommerce plugin which allow you to add this functionality to your WooCommerce powered online store easily so, you can start accepting customized product orders from you online customers.

The plugin is called “WordPress Social Board“. This plugin is fully integrated into WooCommerce and uses WooCommerce shopping cart. You bind your custom product forms to WooCommerce products and they can be automatically added to the WooCommerce cart at the final step of the product designing step.
You can also make relationships between multiple form steps using a powerful conditional system.
Your customers will get a calculated cost for their requested product in each step depending on the features they request or the items they add into their designed product and the final product will be added to the cart with the total calculated price.

Where do I get the plugin?

To start with, first get the plugin from the following URL:

Download the plugin

You can also take a look at its live demo here:

Plugin live demo

After downloading the plugin you will be given a zip file including another zip file in it named wc-multistep-designer-*.zip that it is the original plugin file.

Installation

Installation of WooCommerce Multistep Form & Product Designer is straight forward and on average should take no longer than just a few minutes.

1. Open your WordPress admin dashboard. Click on Plugins » Add New.

2. Click on the Upload Plugin button and you will see a screen like the one below.

3. Click on the Browse button and select the plugin file (zip files only) from your hard drive and click the Install Now button to upload and install it.

You will be taken to “activate a plugin” page just like this one:

4. Click on Activate Plugin link to complete the plugin installation. You can also activate the plugin by clicking on Activate link later on the Installed Plugins page.

Now you have installed the WooCommerce Multistep Form & Product Designer plugin. You would have to read the Creating a Customizable Product, and Binding Forms To Products sections.

Creating a Customizable Product

Here I will show you that how to create a sample mug and bind it into a WooCommerce product with this plugin.

  1. Browse to, WordPress admin dashboard.
  2. Go to WC Multi-Step » Add Form, fill out the “Form Detail” section according to the image below and save the form.

  1. According to the image below, click on the Add new step button to create a new step.

  1. You will find your created step right beside the “Last Step” with a green flag that refers to the “Start Step” of the form.
  2. Click on the “Step” input box and change the step name to 5. Custom design as follows.
  3. Click on 6. List step elements button right above the step box.

  1. On the “Manage Step Elements” page, click on the 7. Radio button. You will get redirected to the “Element Details” page to create a radio option group.

  1. Fill-in the “Element Details” page according to the image below and click on the 10. Add Option button to create a radio option.

  1. Fill-in the “Option Details” form according to the image below and save.

  1. You will be redirected back to the “Element Details” page again.
  2. Click on 10. Add Option button once again and fill-in the “Option Details” according to the image below and save.

  1. You will be redirected back to the “Element Details” page again and you can see your step form elements as below.
  2. Click on the 18, 19. Back button twice to come back to the step designer page.

  1. On the step designer page, click on 4. Add new step button once again, rename the step to “Design mug” and click the 6. List step elements button.
  2. On the “Manage Step Elements” page, click on the 20. Design button. You will get redirected to the “Element Details” page to create a design element.

  1. Fill-in the “Element Details” form according to the image below and click the 24. Add design view button.

  1. Fill-in the “Design View Details” form according to the image below and 27. Save.

  1. Click on the 28. Layers button to open the “Manage Design Layers” page.
  2. Click on the 29. Image button, enter a title for your new layer and click OK.

  1. The media library window will be opened and you should upload/select the image for your layer and 33. Pick.

  1. Click on the 34. Text button to create a new text element, enter a title for your new text layer and click OK.
  2. Click the 37. Save Layers button to save your layers.

  1. Come back to the “Element Details” page again by clicking the Back button for twice.
  2. According to the screenshot below, try adding the Design Views for all the other viewports of your product if you need.

  1. Click the Back button twice to come back to the step designer page again.
  2. On the step designer page, click on 4. Add new step button once again, rename the step to “Select box” and click on 6. List step elements button once again.
  3. On the “Manage Step Elements” page, click on the 7. Radio button. You will get redirected to the “Element Details” page to create a radio option group.
  4. Fill-in the “Element Details” form according to the image below and click 41. Add Option button.

  1. Fill-in the “Option Details” form according to the image below and save.

  1. You will be redirected back to the “Element Details” page again.
  2. Click on 41. Add Option button once again and fill-in the “Option Details” form according to the image below and save.

  1. You will be redirected back to the “Element Details” page again and you will see your create radio options in the Options tables.
  2. According to the screenshot below, try adding the radio options for all the other gift boxes you desire.
  3. Click on the 48. Back button for twice to come back to the step designer page at the end.

  1. Move your mouse on the “Custom design” step and click the 49. Anchor icon titled “Connect this step to another step” inside the “Custom design” step rectangle box. After clicking the Anchor icon, a dashed line will be appear under your mouse pointer that you can move it on the another step “Design mug” and click to make a connection between these two steps.
  2. Click on the 50. Edit Connection pencil icon to open the “Manage Connection” popup.

  1. On the “Manage Connection” popup, click on the 51. Add Condition button to create a new connection condition.
  2. Create a condition according to the screenshot below and save.

  1. Close the popup window and come back to the “Form Steps Designer” again.
  2. Move your mouse over the “Custom design” step, click the 49. Anchor anchor icon once again and make a connection between “Custom design” and “Select box” steps too.
  3. Click on the 52. Edit Connection pencil icon between “Custom design” and “Select box” steps to open the “Manage Connection” window again.

  1. Create a condition according to the screenshot below and save.

  1. Close the window and come back to the “Form Steps Designer”.
  2. Make just a connection (without any condition) between “Design mug” and “Select box” steps too.
  3. Make just an another connection between “Select box” and “Last Step” steps too.
  4. You will finally have all the steps related like the screenshot below.

Important!

You would already need to assign your multi-step form to a WooCommerce product.
To assign a form to a product, continue reading this section

Your multi-step product form is ready!

To see how your multi-step form would be displayed on your website after assigning to a product, click here or see the live demo here.

Binding Forms To Products

This plugin works with WooCommerce so, you should assign your multi-step form to a WooCommerce product/service. The product/service page will be automatically filled with the details of the multi-step form you assigned to the product and will finally be added to the WooCommerce shopping cart.

To assign a form to a product follow the steps below:

  1. From WordPress admin dashboard, browse to Products.
  2. Edit the product you would like to assign your multi-step form to, from your products list.

  1. In the Product Data block, select Multi-Step Designer from the left tab.
  2. Select the form you would like to assign to your product/service from the Bind to form drop-down list.
  3. Do not forget to save your changes by clicking the Update button.

Custom product showcase

Conclusion

In addition to simple installation process and easy to use and integrate this plugin with WooCommerce this plugin has many of other useful options which you can use to make it suitable for your website. With an appropriate price of $28 you can add a great functionality to your website that would cost a lot if you hire a developer for that.

Did you love this plugin? Please, write me your idea.

How to Create a Social Stream On Your WordPress Website

March 10, 2015

In the world of communications, lots of people are members of various social networking websites. Every company has an official social media page on Facebook or Google+ and lots of companies notify their customers of their latest news or updates using Twitter. Any photographer has his own profile page on Instagram and lots of companies have their own video channel on YouTube and Vimeo.

We might be using the social media networks for any of the above reasons but, have you ever been decided to share your social networking activities with your website visitors? This is exactly what we call it Social Stream. A social stream, is a single stream of news, photos, videos and updates from multiple social media networks.

In this article I’m going to introduce you a WordPress plugin that allow you to combine all of your social networking activities into one single social stream and display on your WordPress website as a stylish social stream very easily.

WordPress Social Board plugin allows you to create a social media stream of various social networking accounts with multiple users. The plugin can display your social stream in 6 different formats. It supports 13 and still growing social networks and includes more than 30 different feed options. Your visitors can share your posts on their Facebook, Twitter, Google or LinkedIn profiles from your website. They will also have the option to reply, re-tweet or favorite the Twitter posts on your social stream. They can even filter your social stream by social networks or using custom defined filters. You can even change the style of your social board using the plugin theme manager or customize it via CSS stylesheets, and make it unique to your website.

Let’s install it!

To start with, first download the WordPress Social Board plugin on your PC.

You can also take a look at WordPress Social Board live demo to see how it’ll look on your website.

After downloading the plugin you will be given a zip file containing another zip file wordpress-social-board-*.zip that it is the original plugin file.

To install the plugin on your website, do the following steps:

1. Go to your WordPress admin panel. Click on Plugin » Add New button.

add-plugins-01
click for larger image

2. Then click on the Upload Plugin button.

add-plugins-02
click for larger image

You will see a screen like the one above.

3. Click on the Browse button and select the plugin file wordpress-social-board-*.zip (zip file only) from your PC and upload it.

You will be taken to “activate a plugin” page just like this one:


click for larger image

4. Click on Activate Plugin link to complete the plugin installation.

Now, you have installed the WordPress Social Board plugin. After installation, you would have to create your Social Board. Here we will explain you that how to create a Facebook wall on your website.

1. Go to WordPress admin panel
2. Go to Social Board » Add New Board and fill out the form as follows.

3. Go to Social Board » Manage Boards page.
4. Copy the Wall Shortcode that is marked with a red circle.

5. Go to WordPress admin panel » Pages » Add New Page
6. Paste the shortcode into your created page content as follows. You can also put the shortcode in a post instead.

7. Your social wall is ready now. Go to your created page by clicking on the “View Page” button.

Final word…

If you used WordPress Social Board plugin and you have any questions or suggestions concerning to this plugin please, let us know your thoughts on it by commenting below.