new to wordpress

[sarb]

Hi,

I have been doing web design for a bit, but recently started familiarizing myself with Wordpress. I am a new convert and love that changes can be made from the road. I don't have to be tied down to my home computer.

My question is this, I have a client that I might be doing a redesign for. He currently has a working site up. How do I go about creating a new wordpress site for him on his server without interfering, or taking down the current site. I would like to create the site and then replace the old when it is completed.

This is probably obvious, but as I am new to wordpress, some of this is a bit confusing to me yet.

Also, can you recommend any really good wordpress video tutorials or books? I could spend days on youtube looking, but was hoping someone could point me to some that are exceptionally helpful.

I also noticed that the web host needs to be on linux server?? Is that correct? If they are currently on a Windows server will that be a problem?


thank you,
sarb

[ralph.m]

WP doesn't have to be hosted on Linux, but it probably is better and will allow more options.

In terms of installing WordPress while testing, there are various options, but you can just dump the WordPress files in the site's root folder. You just have to make sure there are no file conflicts. for example, if the current site's home page is called index.php, you'll need to change it to index.html, which will override WP's index.php if anyone navigates to the home page. You will have to type in site.com/index.php to get to the home page while developing. The only problem is that some functions of WP don't work if you have index.html getting in the way of index.php.

[cheesedude]

How do I go about creating a new wordpress site for him on his server without interfering, or taking down the current site. I would like to create the site and then replace the old when it is completed.

What I do is create a subdomain like test.mysite.com and password protect the subdomain's folder using an htaccess password so bots and others don't see it then develop on the subdomain. When finished, it can be deployed as the main site by copying all the files into the main site's folder and making a couple configuration changes in Wordpress.

[laburke]

You can also use something like MAMP or XAMPP to build a site on your local machine which, when it's completely ready to go, can be deployed over the old site.

[Infranight]

I find the WordPress forums really helpful when I initially started, and of course, there are no shortage of WordPress tutorials.

I actually recently wrote a post on WordPress plugins to use, <snip/>

Remember to change the /wp-admin/ path, set up friendly permalinks, and secure your .htaccess file. Good luck!

[Slackr]

The only issue with development on a different server than the live site is the entries into the database can sometimes be absolute and a royal pain to change. Even some of the plugins require messing about changing paths. I do a lot of Wordpress development and I have to say that I'm a big advocate of Backup Buddy. The migrate options allow taking an entire install from one location to another with an extreme amount of ease. I've not had any of my migrations screw up at all. I've transferred from subdomain to the root, from development server to MAMP local and then on to live server. It is a breeze. It is a paid option but for the work I do having a backup solution firing off to Amazon S3 and knowing I can shift servers at will is worth it. Time is money, and this has saved me plenty.

[rob van de rhee]

i have wp on a windows virtual server, and never had problems. most of the hosting partners do have mysql5. so no problems..