WordPress Migration Guide

Welcome to UCI Sites’ Managed WordPress Hosting! This guide is intended to assist users in migrating their existing single WordPress sites to the UCI Sites environment. It outlines important considerations, supported features, and step-by-step instructions to ensure a smooth transition.

Pre-Migration Checklist

Before starting the migration, take time to:

• Make a complete list of your current site’s themes, plugins, and any custom code you use.
• Determine if your site uses a page builder theme or plugin (such as Elementor or WPBakery).
• Review the list of themes and plugins available on UCI Sites to plan for substitutions or rebuilds where necessary.

Understanding UCI Sites Environment

UCI Sites offers a managed WordPress hosting service. Here are a few key things to know:

• Users cannot install custom themes or plugins.
• All content and customization must be within the provided themes and plugins.
• Divi is the only page builder theme/plugin supported.
• A list of available plugins and themes is provided. Please review this before migrating.
• All site users must have a UCInetID and log in using their UCI credentials.
• Learn more about the benefits and limitations of hosting on UCI Sites.

Evaluating Your Current Site

To prepare for migration:

Check Your Theme:

• Go to Appearance > Themes in your current site’s dashboard to see which theme you are using.

Review Plugins:

• Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins for a list. Note active plugins and their functions.

Check for Page Builder Use:

• Look for plugin names such as Elementor, WPBakery, SiteOrigin, etc.
• If you are using Divi, you can bring your site design over with minimal adjustments.
• For other page builders, you will need to rebuild site layouts using supported tools.

Page Builders and Theme Compatibility

• Supported: Only the Divi theme and its builder are available at this time.
  • If your site currently uses Divi, most of your content and layouts should transition with relative ease.
  • Some minor compatibility adjustments may still be needed.
• Unsupported: Other page builder plugins (e.g., Elementor, WPBakery) and custom themes are not available.
  • You will need to rebuild your site using Divi or another theme available on UCI Sites. We recommend using the built in WordPress blocks to build your website to ensure future compatibility.
  • Design and layout may need to be recreated manually.

Plugin & Theme Transition

• Compare your existing plugins and themes to the UCI Sites available plugins and themes.
• If a plugin or theme you rely on is not available, try to find a similar alternative from the provided selection.
• Custom plugins and niche functionality are not supported. Find workarounds only among available features.

User and Permissions Management

• All users must have a valid UCInetID.
• Remove any user accounts that cannot be associated with a UCInetID. If you have users who do not have a UCInetID, you may be able to sponsor them for a Sponsored UCInetID.
• Add new users through Users > Add New in the dashboard by entering their UCInetID email address.

Request a new site on UCI Sites

Before you migrate your website, you will have to request a new site on UCI Sites.

1. Go to UCI Sites
2. Click on the Request a Website button on the home page.
3. Read through the benefits and limitations
4. If you agree that this service will meet your needs, click on the “Yes, I want to create a site” button.
5. Log in with your UCInetID and password. You must be a faculty, staff or graduate student to request a website.
6. Read the policies and fill out the form
7. Submit the form
8. Your request will be sent to the Web Services team who will provision the site for you. It will use a local domain or URL in the form of sites.uci.edu/sitename/. At a later date, you can also request a custom domain to match the site you are migrating as long as is a UCI.edu type domain. For example, chaolab.bio.uci.edu. This will be an alias to the site that your visitors will see.

Content Migration Steps

Add Users:

It is advisable to add your users before importing content. This will allow you to match the user’s content during the import process. During the import process it will ask you to assign content to the corresponding users.

• How to add new users

Export Content:

• In your current site’s dashboard, go to Tools > Export, select “All content”, and download the export file.

Import Content:

• In your new UCI Sites dashboard, navigate to Tools > Import and choose WordPress.
• Follow prompts to upload your export file.

Rebuild Layouts:

• Set up pages and navigation menus using available themes and plugins.
• If using Divi, use the Divi Builder to recreate your previous layouts.
• Manually re-add media files and configure menus and widgets as needed. Navigation menus and sidebar widgets may not be set up correctly after import. Manually check and configure these to match your other site.

Testing and Quality Assurance

• Preview your new site and check that pages display correctly.
• Confirm that media files (images, documents, etc.) appear as expected.
• Check that links and navigation menus function correctly.
• Test all forms, plugins, and any special features you set up.
• Review user permissions to ensure intended access.
• Review your site settings such as Site Title, Tagline, Timezone and others to match your other site.
• Test contact forms and export the form submissions if you need to keep them.
• Update internal documentation – If your team has documentation or procedures related to managing the site, update them to reflect the UCI Sites environment.

Custom Domain Request

If the site you are migrating has a custom domain or URL, you can request to use the same one as long as it is in the ‘uci.edu’ top-level domain. It is important to plan this step carefully. Do this when you are ready to launch the new site and you have tested the site.

1. Go to our Custom Domain request.
2. Log in and fill out the form letting us know when you want to make the change.
3. Let us know that this an existing domain so we can make sure to make the necessary changes to make sure it goes as smoothly as possible. We try to do these changes after hours to have as small of an impact as possible.
4. DNS changes and SSL certificates take a little time to process. It can take 5 – 7 business days to process the request, so let us know in advance.

Launch & Post-Migration Tasks

• Update external links or bookmarks to your new site address, if needed.
• Inform your site’s users and visitors about the migration and any relevant changes.
• Continue to monitor site health and functionality after launch.
• After launch, let your users know about the new site and encourage them to report issues.
• Keep access to the old site if possible for a short time, so you can copy missing content over.

CampusPress Help

Our website hosting vendor, CampusPress, does offer website migration services for a fee. If you have funding and would like for them to do all of this for you, you can contact them. They offer an evaluation for free. The cost of migrating sites varies depending on the complexity of your site. They do not use page builders; they will build your site using the block editor. This will help ensure future compatibility.