Thursday, November 28, 2019

Beginners Guide How to Set Up a WordPress Staging Site

Do you like playing with fire? Because if you make major changes to your WordPress site without testing them aka editing your site when its live thats exactly what youre doing. Without a WordPress staging site, youre essentially going in blind every time you tweak your site.Dont do that! In this post, Ill show you how to set up your very own WordPress staging site so that you can always vet changes before you push them to your live site. What is a WordPress staging site and why is it important?A staging site is basically an exact replica of your existing website with two key differences:Its not available to the public.Changes you make on your staging site have no effect on your live, public-facing website.This allows you to test out changes to your WordPress site without risking breaking your live website. That means you can try new themes, plugins, code snippets, and more with zero risk.Go to topBuild a staging site through your web hostMany managed WordPress hosts include built-i n staging sites as part of their service. If you want the most user-friendly way to create a WordPress staging site, choosing one of these hosts is definitely your best option. Here are a few quality hosts which offer staging sites as part of their plans:BluehostSiteGroundKinstaFlywheelHosts arent the only way to set up a staging site, though.If you just want a basic staging site to play around with new plugins and themes, you can create one using a plugin called WP Staging. If, on the other hand, you want to dig into more code-heavy experiments, you might want to manually create a WordPress staging site on a subdomain. Ill show you how to do both below:Go to topCreate a WordPress staging site with the WP Staging pluginIf you want a simple way to create a WordPress staging site, theres a fairly new plugin called WP Staging. Its a good option for testing out basic tweaks, or checking if new plugins or themes are compatible with your current setup.For example, some more complex plugin s might interfere with the rest of WordPress, causing some unexpected problems. Enabling such plugins on a staging site first is a good idea because you can check if everythings in order. This lets you avoid any trouble and/or downtime after a failed update/install. WP Staging will handle this purpose flawlessly.However, if you want somewhere you can really dig into your sites code, I would use the manual process I outline in the next section. WP Staging DB File Duplicator Migration Author(s): WP-StagingCurrent Version: 2.6.3Last Updated: October 15, 2019wp-staging.2.6.3.zip 98%Ratings 698,382Downloads WP 3.6+Requires To use WP Staging, you just need to install and activate it. Then, head to the  WP Staging tab and click  Create new staging site.Give your staging site a name (for example, dev or staging) and then click  Start Cloning.The process might take a few minutes depending on how large your site is. Once its finished, you can access your staging site by follo wing the prompt. Youll need to log in with your normal username. Then, youre free to start testing! Youll always be able to tell when youre on your staging site by looking at the orange admin bar:And dont worry only users with admin accounts can access your staging site. Neither Google nor your website visitors will be able to view it.Go to topHow to create a staging site for WordPress manuallyIf you want a more open sandbox environment one where you get to experiment with custom code modifications and etc., the next option is to manually create a staging site on a subdomain. Its important that you use a subdomain, rather than a localhost, so that your hardware environment is identical.Below, Ill show you step by step how to set everything up. The process might be a little tricky if youre a WordPress beginner, but Ill try to break everything down as simply as possible.NOTE before starting this process, make sure you have a recent backup of your site just in case.Step 1: Create a subdomain through cPanelFirst, youll need to create a subdomain to actually house your staging site. Go to cPanel and find the Subdomains option. Your cPanel might be styled differently, but the actual options should be the same:Then, create a subdomain named staging or something similar:Step 2: Create an FTP account for your new subdomainNext, you need to create a new FTP account for your subdomain. This ensures everything is always kept separate.Find the FTP Accounts option and click on it:Then enter the new account details. Make sure the Directory matches the directory (Document Root) for your subdomain:Step 3: Upload WordPress files to staging siteNext, youll need to use that new FTP account to upload your sites files.First, download the latest version of WordPress and upload that:Then, you need to also copy over these three folders from your existing WordPress site:.../wp-content/uploads.../wp-content/themes.../wp-content/pluginsUpload those to your staging site as well. If you r folders are especially large, you might be able to use cPanels File Manager to speed up the process. Otherwise, FTP is totally fine. I personally use FTP it just might take some time to run through large folders.Step 4: Export / Import your databaseNext, youll need to export your live sites database and import it to your staging site.To do that, I like a dedicated plugin called WP Migrate DB. Install and activate it, then run it by going to Tools → Migrate DB.The plugin will automatically update all of the file paths in your database to point to your new staging site URL. This is absolutely essential to ensuring your staging site actually works. Just make sure you enter the same directory path and URL that you used when you created your subdomain:Then export the database.Next, you need to create a new database for your staging site and import all of the data. Head back to cPanel and find the MySQL Databases option:Click it and create a new database:Youll also need to creat e a new database user:And give that user access to your new database:Then, go to PHPMyAdmin. Find the database you just created, click Import, and choose the file that WP Migrate DB exported:Then click Go to import your database data.Step 5: Edit wp-config.php to point to new databaseLast step! You need to edit the wp-config.php file on your staging site to use your new database details and username.Also, make sure the database prefix matches the one used on your live site. You probably wont need to change anything here but its possible depending on what prefix your live WordPress site uses. For example, my live test site uses wpov as the database prefix, so I had to make that change.If youre editing the wp-config-sample.php file, make sure to rename it to just wp-config.php. Then upload it back to your server over FTP.Step 6: Log in and restrict access to your staging siteIf all went well, you should now be able to log in to your staging site using the exact same username/password as your live site.Theres really just one more thing you need to do:Restrict access to your site.Start by going to Settings → Reading and choosing the Discourage search engines from indexing this site box. That will at least stop Google from indexing your site.If you want to restrict access even further, you can use a plugin called Hide My Site. In order to access any part of your site, visitors will first need to enter a password. You can still share your development site if needed by sharing the password, but strangers wont be able to access your site.Go to topHow to push changes to your live siteIf youre using a staging environment set up through your host, you can usually push changes live by clicking a button.Its not quite that simple with a manual system. While there are ways to set up automated deployment from your staging site to your live site, I dont think thats a good idea.Youre always risking something going wrong during the transition, and there really is a lot t hat could go wrong. For example, you might get just part of your changes deployed (= crashed site), or some untested changes might get deployed too quickly (= crashed site), and etc.Its safer to simply roll out changes manually once youve thoroughly tested them on your staging site.Go to topWrapping things upSetting up a WordPress staging site is a great way to play around with changes before you push them live. If you want the absolute easiest way to run a staging site, pay for a host which offers built-in staging sites.But if thats not an option right now, setting up your own WordPress staging site isnt that difficult.  WP Staging is great for a simple testing area, while manually creating a staging site on a subdomain will give you more flexibility. * This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and then purchase the product, well receive a small fee. No worries though, youll still pay the standard amount so theres no cost on you r part.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Essay on Rape of Nanking notes

Essay on Rape of Nanking notes Essay on Rape of Nanking notes Japanese troops wanted to get rid of Nanking entirely to break the spirit of Chinese resistance. During the time of the genocide, the United States took the articles written in magazines such as Times, Readers Digest and New York Times doubtfully. The stories smuggled out of Nanking came across as too unrealistic to believe. There were many different ways of extermination for this genocide. One example is when the Japanese troops lined up the Chinese people along the banks of the Yangtze River, tied up their hands, and then shot them from behind with machine guns. Victims were also decapitated so that soldiers could use the heads as souvenirs. Another extermination method was to soak the Chinese in gasoline and burn them to death. The Japanese troops sometimes went door to door and some rapes of the Chinese even occurred in the public day and often in front of family members or spouses, some were even gang raped. The Japanese would rape the women and even the little children, treating them like dogs. They would also hit them with Bayonets and during the process the Japanese would proceed to kill some of them. Chinese prisoners were moved to the outskirts of Nanking and they were assembled for killing. Once Chinese soldiers were removed as a threat Japanese soldiers started to turn violence on public, most of which being women. The polarization for this Genocide had to do with the initial order to invade the previous capital of China. This was Japan’s way of showing the difference in ethnic groups. China was given the idea that they were separated very quickly. The Rape of Nanking is proven fact. This massacre has been denied by Japanese officials in an article written by CNN. During the massacre there were over 300,000 deaths

Thursday, November 21, 2019

The movie rating system should be revised Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The movie rating system should be revised - Essay Example However, the rating system is not viewed as an effective and substantial body and has been criticized for a variety of reasons. The first criticism against the motion picture rating system has been presented by film critic Ebert who claims the rating system to place more importance on the minute details of the movie rather than the movie itself. This argument stands against the system's choice of picking on intricate details of the movie like the number of times a profane word is used or the number of scenes containing violence. This allows the rating system to escape from the throes of presenting the true message of the movie. For instance, a movie with sex and violence could be discussing the consequences these activities could teach to the audience. Adult ratings should be limited to those movies which show an immense degree of sex and violence. This would help in the removal of NC-17 which allows a greater number to access a variety of movies. Ratings of movies like Passion of the Christ should not have ratings that limit individuals under 17 from watching a movie (Ebert 2004). This is because the rating system creates a loss in the true message of the movie in its quest to censor the content. Another idea that stands up against movie rating systems is the belief that filmmakers are forced to change movies because the content affects the personal sensibilities of the members of the censorship board. Farber, a film critic talks of how filmmakers were threatened with an X rating to make them remove content which offended the board members (1972). This is seen as biased behavior on the part of the rating systems board because of their inability to provide a decision based solely on the judgment of creating a rating that will be friendly to the audience. Instead, the board is apt on creating ratings that will inadvertently be influenced by their personal beliefs and opinions. Another idea that talks of the flaws in the rating system is the lack of public opinion that is involved. There is a call by both conservative and liberal parties to make the rating system's methods and techniques more public thus allowing a degree of public scrutiny into their decisions. However, this idea seems a little impossible because it is impossible to pin point exact standards set up by the rating system. Movies today touch a variety of topics and issues. It is impossible to set up every method up for the public because it might not apply to each movie. Thus, setting up a public forum would be problematic because every individual's ideas vary and this could be chaotic and unhelpful. The rating system is criticized for its inability to present an equal treatment to the independent studios. This criticism lies on the belief that independent studios are not meted out with the same ratings as those given to major studios. Thus, independent studios are given a harsher rating system which is a great setback in the creation of new and diverse films. An instance of this is evident in the rating given to the movie Saints and Soldiers. The movie was created by an independent studio and created a limited amount of sex, profanity and violence. Yet, a single scene where a character is killed made the movie get a PG-13 rating (Deseret News). This is an obvious sign of bias against independent studios which can be of great harm to the creativity and emergence of unique ideas in the motion picture industry. Thus