With the fresh new year upon us, have you found yourself having to remember to update the copyright at the bottom of your WordPress website? If so, this blog post is for you!!

NOTE: This is an advanced WordPress instruction. To add a copyright year to your footer (in PHP) that will stay updated with the current year, you will need to feel comfortable working within the files that make up your active theme.

The file we will be accessing & working with today is called “footer.php”. To access your theme files, you can either FTP to your current theme ( your-site-root/wp-content/themes/your-theme/ ) or within the WordPress interface, you can find your current theme files under “Appearance”, “Editor”.

Let’s change the footer information on this site to say “© XXXX WordPress 101 Class”, where XXXX = the current year.

The site footer, at the very least, tends to say something to this effect:

<?php bloginfo('name'); ?>

That code yields the site title you set within your “Settings”, “General”. For this site, it’s “WordPress 101 Class”. We’re going to use that site title, but add a copyright symbol, and the current year to the front of it.

To add the copyright symbol, type:

©

To add the year, in PHP which will echo the current year, type:

<?php echo date("Y"); ?>

So all together, the new line in the footer.php that you have modified will look like this:

&copy; <?php echo date("Y"); ?> <?php bloginfo('name'); ?>

Don’t forget to add spaces between your individual code snippets, for readability! Feel free to add any additional static text you may wish to have in your footer & enjoy the freedom of not having to remember to update your website copyright with every new year! That’s something to celebrate!

Why create a child theme?

Why not just change the theme and be done with it? Well… to get to the point quickly, themes can be updated. If a conscientious theme author updates their theme to stay compatible with an updated version of WordPress (which is a GOOD thing!), and you choose to update your installation of their theme, any customization you’ve made to that theme can get inadvertently overwritten. Oh no!

Here’s where a child theme will really work well. You can update the parent theme, without worry of losing the style changes you’ve employed.

Let’s take Twenty Ten as an example. It’s a very versatile theme – custom header images ~ custom background color and images – all without having to learn to dig in the source code. Woo hoo!

Now… say you want to change any font size or color – or perhaps change the header or footer information… Time for us to create a child theme.

Step 1:

In your theme directory (folder), create a new directory for your child theme. You may name it whatever you like.

Step 2:

Save a file called “styles.css” into that directory.

Step 3:

Add the following code to the header comments of your styles.css. Substitute the words “parent-theme” for your actual parent theme name.

Template: parent-theme

This line will follow the “Theme URI” line, such as the example below:

/*
Theme Name: Your Theme Name
Theme URI: http://wordpress.org/
Template: twentyten
Description: This child theme supplements the default WordPress theme, TwentyTen.
It is created so the style can be updated, without losing the formatting changes chosen
by the designer if the TwentyTen theme were to have an update.
Author: Your Name
Version: 1.0
Tags: custom child theme for yourSite.com

Please note: This child theme depends on the original theme.
You must have TwentyTen in your themes directory for this to work.
*/

Step 4:

Within the child “styles.css” file, after the header comments, import the styles.css from the parent theme. Once again, substitute the words “parent-theme” for your actual parent theme name. I tend to add a comment line below the import line, to let anyone looking at the CSS file know that the styles listed below are overriding the parent.

@import url("../parent-theme/style.css");
/* Overriding the default styles from the parent Template */

Step 5:

Add any specific css that you wish to add, or change to the parent theme. Anything you place within the child style.css file as well as within it’s directory will automatically override the parent’s settings. So, if you place a footer.php file within the child directory, it will automatically override the footer.php file within the parent directory. This allows for great customization possibilities!

—

Have fun with your semi-custom theme editing!

For more in depth information, here are some helpful links.

http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes

http://op111.net/53

Export your site’s database from the old location

Using your web browser,

1. Go to the PHPMyAdmin location of the server where the database you wish to export resides. If your hosting company offers cPanel, that makes getting to the PHPMyAdmin very easy. Simply sign in to cPanel, then select “PHPMyAdmin” icon from the “Databases” section, then sign in to this area, if necessary.

If you don’t have access to cPanel, or have any trouble, contact your host for help.

2. Click the tab labeled “Export” and you will be taken to the Export database page. Select and deselect the check boxes as noted in the picture to the right. Be sure to check the box “Save as file” or your export will not download. Type a name for your database and click the button labeled “Go”.

9. Select a location to save your database on your local hard drive (preferably something easy to remember).

***IMPORTANT***

Selecting “add DROP TABLE” means that if the copy of the database created is later imported to another WordPress installation, the tables in the imported copy will overwrite them if they exist in the target database. You should be careful to keep track of your databases, and make sure you only import and export the correct databases for your task!

Note if a radio button other than “None” is enabled in the group “compression”. Uncompressed databases may be larger, but are sometimes easier to work with.

This document details that items that should be selected. If it is not in this document above, then it *should/can* be omitted.

It cannot be stressed enough how important it is to make a backup of both your server files and you database! DO NOT DELETE a database or files off a server unless you are 200% sure that everything works!

Import your the database to the new location

Using your web browser,

1. If you have access to cPanel on your new host, sign in and use the MySQL Database Wizard to create a new empty database with a user with all privileges. I tend to keep the same password as the previous install to keep things simple. (The password can be found in your wp-config.php file.) Oftentimes, the username cannot be recycled. If that is the case, just change your wp-config.php file to accommodate what you need. Once you’ve created the username and password, you will see a screen that looks like the image to the right, here. Click the “All Privileges” checkbox at the top to instantly check all selections & click “Next Step” to finish off.

2. Go to the PHPMyAdmin location of the server where you wish to import your data. If your hosting company offers cPanel, simply sign in to cPanel, then select “PHPMyAdmin” icon from the “Databases” section, then sign in to this area (if necessary).

3. Select the empty database you’ve created, then select the “Import” tab at the top. Click the “Browse” button to navigate on your computer where you downloaded your database & click the “Go” button at the bottom to import it. (See image to the right.)

FTP all your WordPress files to the new location

1. The last step to replicate your WordPress site on a new host is to connect to both your former and new sites via FTP. Copy all the appropriate WordPress files from the former site directory to the new directory. If you have any question on what files are associated with WordPress, check the WordPress site.

2. Once you’ve copied your files to the new FTP location, be sure to set your database and username if needed by editing the wp-config.php file.

That’s it! (Hah!) Good luck!

Thanks to the drupal user who posted these wonderful instructions on how to export! They certainly have helped with my transferring of WordPress sites.