Xfering Website, Blog, and mySQL Files from Yahoo to Bluehost

[skeezix]

What all is involved in transferring my website html files, my mySQL database files, and my blog support files (WordPress) from Yahoo to Bluehost?

I'm very familiar with FTP and with computers and applications in general, but I am also very wary of hidden gotchas that might be involved with a complete site transfer (such as, "Oh, you have to go into thisfile.??? and change such-and-such parameter to 123455", or "Oh, you need to d/l your mySQL, convert it to such-and-such, then do this-and-that and get someone at Bluehost to fix whatsit before you will be up and running".

Once bitten, twice shy, you know.

[felgall]

For all the regular files just FTPing them should be sufficient.

For the database the easiest way is to do a backup from the one host and a restore on the other after defining the new database to restore into. When I moved my site I used the options in phpMyAdmin to backup and restore the database. One thing you do need to change regarding the database is that the name of the database itself will almost certainly be different and so all of your applications that access the database will need a one line change to their configuration.

The best way to work it is to copy all the files and database across first and test them to make sure they work properly before you get the domain redirected. Bluehost provide a way to access the site so you can do this.

Once you are sure the site works at the new location, then you redirect the domain and once you are sure the redirect has propogated across the web you can then shut down the old hosting.

[bsn]

I'm a first-timer to transferring domains. I backed up the database like you described above, but did not know I could do all this in advance. The domain is transferred, but the hosting plan at the losing registrar is still active.

Where do I start the restore process at Bluehost?

Thanks for any help,

Tim

[felgall]

1. Create a database
2. Create a user and password to access it - the same one you used at the old hosting would be best.
3. Upload the data into the database
4. Change the database name in the config files in the backup copy to match the new name
5. Upload the rest of the files

[skeezix]

4. Change the database name in the config files in the backup copy to match the new name


New name? What new name?

Sorry for the dumb question, you don't mean domain name do you??

[felgall]

It is very unlikely that you will be able to create a database with exactly the same name at BlueHost as you had with prior hosting. BlueHost attache the account name and an underscore to the front of whatever name you want to use. Your account name is usually the first 8 characters of your main domain name unless someone else already has that account name.

So where I had my database with a name of "felgall" on my prior hosting, when I moved it to BlueHost I had to rename it to "felgallc_felgall".

That then required a one line change in a configuration file used by the scripts that access the database.

[skeezix]

Thanks for the clarification!