moving website to new cms

steps on move of website

[bwnbwn]

I am moving a website from aspx to wordpress php. This is a windows cloud server.In the move I am also moving from http to https.
What would be your steps.
I built the new site in a folder lets call it domain/sp/
I know in IIS I will point to the /sp/ folder to make it the main. I have tested this so all is fine.

1- Change the DNS (ip changes) and let it populate the net. I can do this anytime really because it will allow for http and https connections
2- Set up the old website in the SSL and set up all http to redirect to https.
3- test old to make sure the redirect is working
4- Change the IIS to point at the /sp/ folder
5- Change in the MySQL from domain/sp/ to domain
6- Install my 301 redirect mapfile for all the old urls to the new urls
Example of my redirect entries in the mapfile.
/articles/old_url.htm /new-url/
/articles/this_is_the_old_url.htm /this-is-the-new-url/
Test redirects

1- or move the new site to http
2- set up the redirects and after the new site is working and the redirects are tested
3- then change the DNS to point to the new IP,
4- set up the redirects from http to https on the new site

I am a little unsure of doing all this at one swoop. My 1st option is to go ahead and do it all, but since this in my 1st time setting up multiple redirects I thought it would be wise for some opinions from here.

MGT. wants the move done by Thursday so I want to begin this today or tomorrow at the latest.

I am going to go ahead and move the IP and dns since this really isn't a factor on the redirects now and this will begin populating the web.
Thanks,
JM

[not2easy]

I don't have experience on IIS so I am not much help with that part of your questions, but I have a fair amount of experience in setting up, installing and moving WordPress sites. I may have misunderstood the part about changing the SQL, but if the site stays where it was originally installed and merely uses a different URL then you should not change anything in the SQL, instead, change it in the General Settings of WordPress.

If the new WP site has been set up and is ready to go but will be at a different URL when "live", that needs to be changed in your settings when it changes or it will not work. The General Settings that were entered when WP was installed are reflected in its config.php file and the Administration > Settings > General, so that needs to all agree for everything to go as planned. If it is going stay where it is but be shown at a different URL, that needs to be updated in the Settings. The SQL can stay as it is if the domain is only using a different URL and not actually in a different location.

It could be helpful to read through the steps for "moving WordPress": [codex.wordpress.org...] to see what happens during changes. They explain it better than I can.

[bwnbwn]

Thanks not2easy but it is different on a windows. I found just going into the MySQL and changing site url and another field you don't need to change anything in the settings or wordpress admin. area. In testing the website because I am having a web-config issue we changed the site back and forth 3-4 times. It works much better IMO.

This has not been an easy move because the 2 web-config files caus conflicting issues if I try to move the website built in the /sp/ folder, so I am going to leave it there and the new url will be domain/sp/url/
I tested the redirects in so many ways but the conflicting config folders caused internal errors I am ready to just get it done and moved.
The old urls are
domain/articles/url.htm so it makes little difference if the new ones are domain/sp/url/
I am in the process of cleaning up the old domain for ssl and have an assistant cleaning up the /sp/ domain for the redirects.

I have found it is a tough deal when you have 2 different CMS websites and both have to use a web-config file because of IIS. This was my 1st so I learned a lot from this, tis is a good thing:)

[phranque]

rename /sp/ to /articles/ perhaps?

[bwnbwn]

phranque question or hopefully someone has a possible answer. I have an issue with redirects. In order to have the new website display as www.domain.com I have to change the IIS to point to the /sp/ folder. This kills the aspx website so the redirects I will have in place don't work the urls hit the /sp/ new website as 404's. I tried using the redirect file in the /sp/ website and it won't redirect.

I have looked for a 404 redirect for a wordpress website and can't find one I need.

Any suggestions?

I have been up most of the night researching this. I have a DA question since both use a web.config file is it possible to run both on the same file?

Here are my options as I see them right now.
1- move the domain from a .com to a .net
2- home page url will be domain.com/sp/
3- move the WP into the root and see if I can get both sites to work if I can use one config file
4- then set the default display to index.php and kill the index.aspx

[bwnbwn]

Ok I can answer my own post and hope it will provide information for others that wind up as I did. The solution was not ideal but it was I believe my only option.
The new domain is domain.com/sp/
There was no way I could find to do it any other way because of the conflicting files.
This AM early I did a test on installing wordpress within a aspx root. I managed to get the wordpress working but there was a connection issue with the aspx website to the database. I got the aspx site working as well but all I had were pages with no content. Interesting part of the site worked and I plan on spending more time investigating this but needed to restore the domain I destroyed and finish up on the redirects.
PHP and aspx weren't meant to run on the same file for sure but I was close to having them both work and will see if I can do it just for the heck of it.

[webcentric]

Let me see if I can help. If I understand correctly you're replacing a webforms (.aspx) website with a php website (Wordpress). You're going to target https instead of http (need a redirect) for that and the new pages live at new URL's in a new directory (more redirection required).

First, when you point your DNS to the sp directory, the root application is not being hit (and/or the web.config in the sp directory is overriding it). You could try doing your redirection only in the web.config file for the sp directory. That's where the request is going if the DNS is pointing there. I'm not entirely sure that this will work but it's worth a try. I'd also try to achieve a one-step redirect from http:domain.com/whatever to [domain.com...] The point here is to not try to do redirects from the old site's web.config file but rather from the new site's web.config file.

The above attempts to address the redirection issue. It's not clear to me If you're having DB connectivity issues or other issues so I'll leave it at this for the moment.

I guess my only question is, why on earth would you move a site from .net to wordpress? Ugh!

[webcentric]

BTW, was your .net site connecting to a MySQL database or a SQL Server database? You obviously need to map your data to the WP schema at a bare minimum but again, I don't know the circumstances so can't really comment.

Also keep in mind that you may be able to use the Global.asax file to manage your redirection if the web.config approach is too messed up. Not sure in this case but it's worth mentioning.

With regard to redirection, you may also run into an issue if you're mapping URLs like [domain.com...] to a WordPress URL such as [domain.com...] You might need to muck with your default document settings in IIS. I know PHP can run on IIS but I've never attempted what you're attempting so, good luck with it. Would love to hear how it all comes out.