[wp-hackers] Move WordPress without FTP - GSoC 2011

[Gaurav Aggarwal]

**Hi ,

I have read the last year project for moving WordPress at
http://gsoc2010.wordpress.com/brian-mckenna-automatic-migration/.
<http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/automatic-migration/>
This approach has following issues :-

   1. One need to have FTP access to this plog directory which may not be
   possible in many cases like wordpress.com blogs , college blogs , etc
   2. local server to production server transfer is not possible in this
   case.
   3. It was not developed for WordPress 3.0 hence it is not concerned with
   networks in WordPress 3.0 or above


*My Proposed solution

*I propose a solution with 2 modes of Moving WordPress :-

1    For* local server to production server* transfer- A zipped backup will
be created and can be restored something similar to my plug-in (
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/backup-and-move/). I need work more on
that plug-in make zip file creation more efficient

2     *Changing Host / Domain *:-  Plug-in is needed at destination with
some additional XML-RPC API's available at source. details :-

   - XML-RPC will be used to transfer file data to destination while media
   files can be transferred using cURL with file permission.
   - File management needs to be incorporated in xml-rpc
   - Database will be exported by xml-rpc API's with taking proper care of
   serialized PHP
   - Plug-in at destination will make necessary changes in setting files and
   database transfer to new host/domain

I know using xml-rpc will make out procedure comparatively slow. Hence we
can allow FTP options as well to speed up procedure for users who have
access to FTP details.

Procedure should be as smooth and robust as possible.*

*
-- 
Warm regards,

Gaurav Aggarwal
IIIrd year student