How to migrate to WordPress on a local Windows server?

Jan 17, 2018 | Tutorial, WordPress | 0 comments

This tutorial explains how to migrate from various CMS to WordPress.

The same tutorial can be used to migrate:

Files you will need:

Preparing the Windows machine for the migration to WordPress

  1. Exit Skype completely
  2. Stop Windows IIS service
    To stop IIS service
    Press windows key + R
    Type services.msc

    Go to Word Wide Web Publishing Service

    Double click to open it
    Click Stop
    And choose startup type Disabled

Setting up the Windows, Apache, Mysql, Php server aka Wamp

  1. Install Wamp. We will choose D:\wamp64 as installation folder
  2. Run Wamp server. You will see a green icon at your notification bar.

    If it is orange, like this:

    Click it and go to Apache -> Service Administration -> Install service

    and press enter at the command window.
  3. Create a new folder at D:\wamp64\www named wordpress.test
  4. Click on Wamp icon -> Your Virtual hosts -> Virtualhost management
    On the explorer enter at the box “Name of the Virtual Host No diacritical characters”
    wordpress.test
    And at the “Complete absolute path of the VirtualHost folder”
    D:\wamp64\www\wordpress.test

    and press the “Start the creation of the VirtualHost (May take a while…)” button
  5. Right Click on your Wamp icon -> Tools -> Restart DNS and please wait for your Wamp icon to become green again
  6. Click on your Wamp icon and change the php settings
    • Wamp -> php -> php settings -> max_execution_time -> choose -> 999999
    • Wamp -> php -> php settings -> max_input_time -> choose -> 999999
    • Wamp -> php -> php settings -> max_input_vars -> choose -> 999999
    • Wamp -> php -> php settings -> memort_limit -> choose -> 2048M
    • Wamp -> php -> php settings -> post_max_size -> choose -> 2048M
    • Wamp -> php -> php settings -> upload_max_size -> choose -> 2048M

  7. Click on your Wamp icon and change the MySQL settings:
    • Wamp -> mysql -> mysql settings -> max_allowed_packet -> choose -> 2048M
    • Wamp -> mysql -> mysql settings -> inodb_wait_lock_timeout -> choose -> 999

Installing WordPress to Wamp

  1. Extract your previously downloaded WordPress to the folder D:\wamp64\www\wordpress.test (careful not D:\wamp64\www\wordpress.test\wordpress)
  2. Click Wamp icon and then phpMyAdmin
  3. Enter root as username an do not enter anything as password
  4. Create a new database:
    Click “New”

    And create a database named wordpress with collation utf8mb4_unicode_ci
  5. Open your favorite browser and navigate to http://wordpress.test
  6. Install WordPress normally, enter these credentials when asked:
  7. Login to WordPress as usually:
    http://wordpress.test/wp-admin
    admin
    password
  8. Install our plugin: Plugins –> Add New – > Upload plugin -> Choose -> Navigate to fg-plugin file -> install now -> Activate Plugin
  9. Install more plugins you may need for the migration. (Types plugin, WPML etc)
  10. To run our plugin:
    Tools -> Import -> CMS (Joomla, Prestashop, Magento, etc) Run importer

As a final step please edit your wp-config.php file and add at the top:

define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘2048M’);
define(‘IMPORT_TIMEOUT’, 999999);

and save the file.

After completing the above you will be the proud owner of a development environment. This means that you will no longer have common shared hosting problems like:

  • small memory limits
  • php script timeouts
  • mysql timeout
  • missing logs

and more.

Importing the CMS database from another server to Wamp MySQL server

To copy your database from your CMS to your Wamp:

  1. Export your database in a .sql file
  2. Copy this file at the directory D:\wamp64\bin\mysql\mysql5.7.19\bin (mysql5.7.19 may be different on your machine)
  3. Click wamp icon phpmyadmin -> New and create a new database to copy your CMS database with collation utf8mb4_unicode_ci
    cmsdatabase
    utf8mb4_unicode_ci
  4. Press windows key + R and run this command:
    CMD

    At the command prompt enter: (you can paste by right clicking)
    D:\wamp64\bin\mysql\mysql5.7.19\bin\mysql.exe -u root cmsdatabase < D:\wamp64\bin\mysql\mysql5.7.19\bin\yourdatabase.sql
    (mysql5.7.19 folder may be different on your machine, where yourdatabase.sql is your actual database filename)
  5. Please wait until the copy is done. This can take more than 30 minutes depending on the size of your database.
  6. Click wamp -> phpmyadmin -> cmsdatabse, check and take note your cms prefix. For prestashop it is usually ps_ but it may vary. For example someone might used ps_shop2_

Starting the actual migration to WordPress!

  1. Return to your WordPress at the FG plugin page
  2. Do not tick Remove only new imported data or Remove all WordPress content
  3. Do not tick Automatically remove all the WordPress content before each import
  4. Enter your LIVE CMS url (not your WordPress) for example https://www.myprestajoomlashop.com/
  5. Enter as database the database we created and copied earlier
    Database: cmsdatabase
    Username: Root
    Password: (leave empty)
    CMS (prestashop, joomla etc) Table Prefix: ps_
  6. At media do not check these options unless you had issues from a previous import
    *Import external media
    *Import media with duplicate names
    *Force media import. Keep unchecked except if you had previously some media download issues.
  7. Since we are at localhost we may need more timeout for the media
    Timeout for each media: 60 seconds
  8. Press import!
  9. You can find an example configuration at the fg-plugin page and explanation for the options if you press the help button at the top right corner.

The migration process can take from a few minutes to several hours depending on the size of your data, the speed of your machine and the speed of your connection. Please be patient and let FG Plugin save you hundreds of hours.

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