WP Migrate 2.6 Released: Full-Site Exports and Import to Local

Today we’re pleased to announce the release of WP Migrate 2.6, which introduces full-site exports and a new integration for seamlessly importing to Local. Together, WP Migrate and Local are simplifying migrations with a new remote-to-local workflow that is 100% free to the WordPress community, courtesy of our friends at WP Engine.

📤 Full-Site Exports

With full-site exports, we’re extending the existing database exports to allow for the bundling of media, themes, plugins, and other files into a single ZIP archive. WP Migrate Pro users who have done push or pull migrations in the past will instantly recognize the familiar panel-based UI that is now present when configuring an export.

How It Works

In version 2.6, the Database Export action has been replaced with a more flexible Export action that is able to include the database, files, or both.

Choosing What to Export

By default, WP Migrate exports the database as a SQL dump file the same as it always has. If any files such as media, themes, or plugins are selected, then the resulting export will be downloaded as a compressed ZIP archive instead of a SQL dump file. The contents of this archive include the database and files that together represent a complete WordPress site.

Including WordPress Core Files

A full-site export wouldn’t be complete without the inclusion of WordPress core files, represented by a new panel at the bottom of each Export profile. By including core files, the exact version of WordPress can be preserved and subsequently restored at its destination.

For a complete overview of the new export possibilities and some specific multisite gotchas, check out our documentation of Full-Site Exports.

🐉 Drag-And-Drop Import to Local

Now that we’ve got a reliable method for exporting a full site from any server, we can use the generated ZIP archive to spin up a local development environment. That’s where Local comes in.

How It Works

With WP Engine’s acquisition of Delicious Brains, the teams behind WP Migrate and Local now work under the same metaphorical roof. As a result, we have a lot of insight into each other’s products, culminating in a silky smooth import flow.

Fully Compatible ZIP Archives

The full-site ZIP archives generated by WP Migrate are structured exactly to meet Local’s requirements. This means importing to Local is as simple as dragging and dropping the ZIP file onto the Local app. Alternatively Import can be selected from the Local menu to open the file browser.

Environment Matching

Each site exported with WP Migrate includes a wpmigrate-export.json file which contains metadata such as the PHP and MySQL versions that were last used on the site. During the import, Local reads this file and attempts to match the environment to that of the exported site, so the local site works (and breaks!) just like its remote counterpart. For all of you troubleshooters, this one’s for you.

Zero-Config WP Migrate Setup

When exporting a full site, WP Migrate itself can be included in the list of plugins, which means it’ll be pre-installed and activated as soon as the Local site spins up. This setup feels like a dream compared to the old days of configuring multiple plugins, add-ons, and license keys across two environments. We’ve come a long way.

For a complete step-by-step walkthrough of the remote-to-local workflow, check out our documentation for Importing WordPress to a Local Development Environment.

🐘 Why Export and Import When You Can Push or Pull?

Before we wrap up, let’s address the elephant in the room.

WP Migrate has spent years building its reputation on pushing and pulling directly between sites. That’s our bread and butter. We strongly believe push/pull is still the best method for moving between two existing WordPress installs, and of course it really shines when migrating incremental changes over time.

With full-site exports, we’re adding a new tool to the toolbox, one that makes sense for certain situations where a second WordPress install may not even exist yet. This is often the case when migrating a site to a local development environment for the first time, which is a barrier to entry for new developers and a tedious chore for others.

When we realized how much simpler we could make the remote-to-local workflow by embracing full-site exports, we reached out to the Local team who helped make it happen. Massive thanks to everyone at WP Engine who got behind this effort. We can’t wait to hear what you think.

Full Changelog

For a full list of new features, improvements, and bug fixes, see the 2.6 Changelog.

Next Up

With 2.6 out the door, we’re shifting our focus back to migration recovery and resiliency. We’ve gathered a list of the most problematic errors that cause migrations to fail, and we are working to either fix them outright or at least handle them more gracefully.

Until then, we want to hear your thoughts on the WP Migrate + Local integration. Let us know on Twitter or in the comments below.

This entry was posted in WP Migrate DB Pro and tagged New Release.

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Jessica Desjardins says:

January 20, 2023 at 10:00 am

This is fantastic. Love seeing this integration… it would still be nice to push/pull from LocalWP if WP Migrate is installed (even if using a different host).

Also, if it isn’t yet on the roadmap, I’d like to request the ability to push/pull specific post ids, attachments, users, etc. along with all their associated meta. This would be the perfect solution to the ever-frustrating staging/production workflow. Please consider this!!

Thank you and great work! WP Migrate is a must have for our agency.

Kevin says:

February 12, 2023 at 3:34 pm

Hi Jessica, thanks for the feedback. Pushing and pulling individual posts or users is something that we’ve looked into previously. It’s a challenge that seems straightforward from a WordPress core perspective, but quickly gets more complex when we factor in plugins with custom post types and custom tables.

For example, if a site has WooCommerce installed, then a blog post may embed products that have their own meta data that would need to be accounted for when migrating that individual blog post. Similarly we know that users have user meta, but they may also have customer data that gets out of sync unless we’re specifically aware of it when moving an individual user. Those are just a couple of the challenges related to one plugin like WooCommerce. Factor in every other plugin and you can start to see why we have stuck with table-by-table migrations to date.

With that said, I hear you and understand the pain point. Maybe there is a middle ground where we can offer basic post and post meta migrations with the caveat that it may not account for every piece of data that is touched by that post. What do you think?

Reply
- Jessica Desjardins says:
  
  February 12, 2023 at 3:48 pm
  
  Thanks for taking the time to reply! I totally understand it would be too complicated to support all third party plugins and tables… I wouldn’t expect that. However, to be able to support core post meta and linked attachments would be very helpful for many (perhaps similarly to the way WP All Import / Export works). If the same user isn’t found on the destination site, the ability to attribute any posts to a different author would be great (however for someone like myself who would use this daily for work, my main use case would be moving content from staging to production and this wouldn’t matter). Thank you very much for continuing to build on this great plugin!
  
  Reply

Kevin says:

January 22, 2023 at 5:56 pm

Hey Eric, that screenshot was captured with Local Beta. The new "Create a site" screen with the drop zone should be shipping in Local this week, but that’s just a visual cue for the drag-and-drop functionality that is already there. You can export a ZIP and drop it over any screen in Local to initiate the import today.

Kevin says:

February 12, 2023 at 3:36 pm

Just following up to mention that the new drop zone has now been rolled out to all users in Local 6.6.1.

Reply

Isaac Englart says:

March 15, 2023 at 8:29 pm

Hi Kevin, are you able to do a full site export via wp-cli? Haven’t been able to find any doco on this.