I have a local development server with WordPress installed (my desktop Linux Mint 12 box). I’d like to use multi-site WordPress to manage my different client projects through one install, but I have a couple of important questions before I commit to this set-up.
1) Is it possible to import a database backup (created from the Admin Panel’s backup tool) from a single WP site into a multi-site child site?
2) Vice versa — Is it possible to export a multi-site child site’s database and import it in to a single site? (for migrating from my dev box to the live server!)
3) Are there any other ‘obvious’ problems that I should worry about when using this kind of set-up for localhost development?
Community question: What method(s) do any other developers out there use for managing multiple WordPress projects?
All advice / help / guidance greatly appreciated!
2 Answers
I imported/exported between a single wordpress blog and a multisite wordpress without problems, many times.
Personally on a multi-site wordpress I have a parent generic theme and each website has it’s own child theme with as few files as possible, mostly only html/css for custom post types. Security issues or big complicated options are most of the time in the parent theme anyway, which means I keep improving all my websites at the same time.
It’s how I like doing, doesn’t mean I would advice to do the same because a working website has something wonderful: it’s working…
Anyway if you make a mistake with an update (plugins, themes or other) all the websites using the same help noticing earlier.