Upload your new website in about 20 minutes

Before you start

• Your Domains.co.za login: the account that holds practiceinabox.co.za and its web hosting. It may be the same account as beyondict.co.za.
• The zip file from the button above. Save it to your computer and do not unzip it.
• About 20 minutes, ideally after hours. Your domain already points at this hosting, so the new site is live the moment it is unpacked.

Not touched: your email (it runs on Google and keeps working throughout), your domain and its DNS settings, and the Beyond ICT website. If a screen ever asks you to change nameservers or DNS records, stop. That is not part of this job.

1Find the website's folder

1. Log in at domains.co.za.
2. On the left, click Manage Services, then Web Hosting.
3. Click Manage next to practiceinabox.co.za. If it is not listed on its own, click Manage next to beyondict.co.za: practiceinabox.co.za is then an add-on domain in the same hosting.
4. Click Login next to Control Panel. cPanel opens in a new tab.
5. In the Domains section, click Domains. Find practiceinabox.co.za in the list and write down its Document Root, for example /public_html or /public_html/practiceinabox.co.za. This is the website folder.
6. Go back to cPanel's home page, scroll to the Files section and click File Manager.
7. Click Settings (top right), tick Show Hidden Files (dotfiles), and click Save. The new site relies on a hidden file called .htaccess, so you need to be able to see it.
8. In the folder list on the left, open the website folder you wrote down.

You should now see the old WordPress files: folders named wp-admin, wp-content, wp-includes and files such as wp-config.php, index.php.

Beyond ICT shares this hosting? You may see a folder named beyondict.co.za inside the website folder. Leave it exactly where it is: Step 2 tells you to un-select it. If the Beyond ICT website's files (or new files with names like vacancies.html or landlords.html) are mixed in with the WordPress files, stop and WhatsApp Andy before moving anything.

2Move the old site aside (this is your backup)

The old WordPress files are moved into a folder the public cannot reach. Nothing is deleted, and the WordPress database is not touched, so the old site can be put back exactly as it was (see How to undo).

1. In the folder list on the left, click the house icon at the very top. This is your home folder.
2. Click + Folder in the top menu, name it old-practiceinabox, and click Create New Folder.
3. Open the website folder again, then click Select All in the top menu.
4. Hold Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Mac) and click .well-known and cgi-bin to un-select them, if they are there. They belong to the server, and .well-known keeps the site's padlock (SSL) renewing. Also un-select any folder named after another website.
5. Click Move in the top menu, type /old-practiceinabox as the destination, and click Move File(s).

The website folder should now be empty apart from .well-known, cgi-bin and any other website's folder. For the next few minutes practiceinabox.co.za will show an error page. That is expected.

3Upload and unpack the new website

1. With the website folder open, click Upload in the top menu. A new tab opens.
2. Drag practice-in-a-box-website.zip into the box, or click Select File and choose it. Wait for the bar to reach 100% and turn green.
3. Click Go Back to "/home/…" at the bottom of that page.
4. Right-click practice-in-a-box-website.zip and choose Extract. Leave the path as the website folder, click Extract File(s), then Close.
5. Click Reload in the top menu. Right-click practice-in-a-box-website.zip, choose Delete, and confirm. It is no longer needed.

The website folder should now hold these, directly inside it and not inside another folder:

Folders

assets, services

Pages

index.html, 404.html, about.html, contact.html, faq.html, how-it-works.html, privacy.html, services.html

Other files

.htaccess, sitemap.xml, robots.txt, plus the small icon files

If you do not see .htaccess, redo the Show Hidden Files step in Step 1. The file is there, just hidden.

4Check it works

Use a private or incognito window, so your browser does not show you a saved copy of the old site. Tick each line as you go.

• https://practiceinabox.co.za shows the new home page, with the moving video behind the heading.
• About, How It Works, Services, one service page (for example Full IT Setup), FAQ and Contact all open from the menu.
• practiceinabox.co.za/how-it-started lands on the new About page, so old links from Google keep working.
• www.practiceinabox.co.za ends up at https://practiceinabox.co.za, with the padlock showing.
• On your phone, the green WhatsApp button opens a chat to 083 407 0770, and tapping the phone number starts a call.
• On an iPhone, the video behind the home-page heading plays.
• Send a test enquiry from the Contact page. The first time, FormSubmit emails mark@practiceinabox.co.za asking you to activate the form: click Activate Form. From then on, every enquiry arrives in your inbox.
• Send yourself a test email at mark@practiceinabox.co.za. It arrives as normal.

When every line is ticked, let Andy know. We'll then tell Google about your new pages, so they are picked up quickly.

If something looks wrong

• The old WordPress site still shows

  Your browser is showing a saved copy, or an old file was left behind.

  Open a private window. If it still shows, look in the website folder for index.php and move it to old-practiceinabox.
• "Index of /" or "403 Forbidden" on the home page

  The files were unpacked into a sub-folder.

  Open that sub-folder, click Select All, then Move them up into the website folder.
• The home page works, but About or Services says "Page not found"

  .htaccess is missing.

  Turn on Show Hidden Files (Step 1). If it really is gone, upload and extract the zip again.
• "500 Internal Server Error" or "Too many redirects"

  The server rejected a setting in .htaccess.

  Right-click .htaccess, choose Rename, change it to htaccess-off, and WhatsApp Andy. The home page works without it while we fix it.
• The Beyond ICT website stopped working

  Its folder was moved by mistake.

  Open old-practiceinabox, select the Beyond ICT folder or files, and Move them back where they were. Then WhatsApp Andy.
• No padlock, or a "Not secure" warning

  The SSL certificate has not renewed yet.

  In cPanel, open SSL/TLS Status and click Run AutoSSL. Allow up to an hour.

For anything else, WhatsApp Andy a screenshot of what you see.

How to undo

The old site comes back in about two minutes, because nothing of it was deleted.

1. In the website folder, click Select All, then un-select .well-known, cgi-bin and any other website's folder. Click Delete.
2. Open the old-practiceinabox folder in your home folder, click Select All, then Move them back into the website folder.

The WordPress site is then back exactly as it was. Keep old-practiceinabox for a month after launch, then it can be deleted.

Updating the website later

When we send you a new zip with changes, there is no need to move anything aside again. Open the website folder, click Select All, un-select .well-known, cgi-bin and any other website's folder, click Delete, then follow Step 3 with the new zip.

Need a hand?

If anything is unclear, or you would rather do it together on a call, WhatsApp or email Andy.