RMD Migrate from Localdev self-updates

WordPress plugin that prepares a local development site for upload to a staging or production server. It writes a copy of all files and a database dump in which every address and path of the local site is replaced by that of the target, safe for serialized data. Uploading stays with you: files via SFTP, database via phpMyAdmin. Built by reichelt media.design.

Features

• Serialization-safe search and replace. Serialized PHP values (widgets, theme and plugin settings) are parsed, rewritten and re-serialized with correct lengths. Objects are never instantiated, so classes that are not loaded survive unchanged. Serialized data nested inside strings is handled as well.
• Every spelling of the local address: http:// and https://, protocol-relative (//localhost/site), without scheme (localhost/site), JSON-escaped (http:\/\/localhost\/site), URL-encoded, and links relative to a local subfolder (href="/site/…", url(/site/…)).
• Local file paths (C:\xampp\htdocs\site, C:/xampp/…, JSON-escaped) are replaced by the server path of the target.
• The local database is never changed. Replacements happen while writing the dump.
• Profiles for several targets, e.g. "Development" and "Production", each with its own address, server path, table prefix and options.
• Complete site copy with sensible exclusions (.git, node_modules, caches, backups, logs, Markdown files in the WordPress folder) and your own rules in .gitignore syntax.
• Linked plugin repositories (junctions/symlinks in wp-content/plugins): if the repository contains a built release zip (dist/<folder>.zip), that zip is used; otherwise its .distignore applies, so no development files end up on the server.
• Ready for the target: .htaccess with the right RewriteBase, a wp-config.php template with placeholders for the database credentials, new security keys, debugging off and WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE set.
• Optional table prefix change, including the keys WordPress stores with the prefix (<prefix>user_roles, <prefix>capabilities, …).
• Leaner dump: transients, this plugin's own data and optionally revisions and spam are left out; tables like Yoast's indexables are exported empty because the plugin rebuilds them.
• Compatible dump for phpMyAdmin: gzip-compressed, batched inserts, binary data as hex, collations of MySQL 8 and new MariaDB versions replaced for older servers (optional).
• Report (MIGRATION.txt) with next steps, rows and changed values per table, and every value that still refers to the local site.
• Runs in short steps with a progress bar, so PHP time limits do not matter. An interrupted export can be continued.
• Only on local sites: exports are refused unless the site runs on localhost, 127.0.0.1, a *.local/*.test/*.localhost host or with WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE set to local.

Requirements

WordPress 6.8 or newer, PHP 8.1 or newer, a single site (no multisite). The local site must be able to write to the export folder.

Installation

1. Download rmd-migrate-from-localdev.zip from the latest release. Do not use the “Source code” downloads, they lack the update library.
2. In your local WordPress go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose the zip and activate it.
3. Open Tools → Migrate from localdev.

The plugin is not copied into its own exports and is removed from the list of active plugins in the dump, so it never runs on the target.

Usage

1. Add a profile per target with its site address, e.g. https://example.com, and ideally the server path of the WordPress folder on the target.

2. Click Export. The progress bar shows the current table or file count.

3. Open the export folder shown at the end. It contains:

   Entry	Use
   files/	The complete site. Upload its contents into the web root of the target (SFTP).
   database.sql.gz	Import in phpMyAdmin (Import tab) into the database of the target. Existing tables with the same names are replaced.
   wp-config-template.php	Only for a new installation: enter the database credentials of the target and upload it as wp-config.php.
   MIGRATION.txt	Next steps, statistics and remaining references to the local site.

4. On the target: log in with your local users, save Settings → Permalinks once and clear caches.

wp-config.php is never part of files/, so an existing configuration on the target is not overwritten.

Settings

Profile

Exclusion rules

The syntax follows .gitignore: name matches a file or folder at any depth, /name only directly in the WordPress folder, a trailing / only folders, * and ? stay within a path segment, ** spans segments. Matching is case-insensitive. Defaults:

.git/
.github/
.svn/
node_modules/
.idea/
.vscode/
/*.md
/wp-content/cache/
/wp-content/upgrade/
/wp-content/upgrade-temp-backup/
/wp-content/ai1wm-backups/
/wp-content/updraft/
/wp-content/uploads/backwpup-*/
*.log
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db
desktop.ini

Always left out: wp-config.php, .htaccess (a version for the target is written instead), the export folder and this plugin.

Export folder

Under Settings on the plugin page. Default is wp-content/rmd-migrate-exports (protected by a .htaccess deny rule); a folder outside the web root is better, e.g. C:\Users\<name>\Exports. Exports can be deleted on the plugin page.

Developer hooks

• Filter rmd_mfl_is_local_environment( bool $is_local, string $host ) – override the detection of local sites.
• REST (administrators on local sites only): GET|POST|DELETE /wp-json/rmd-migrate-from-localdev/v1/export, POST …/export/step.

Privacy

The plugin makes no external requests, except for checking GitHub for plugin updates from the WordPress admin. Exports contain the complete database including user accounts and password hashes; keep them private and delete them when they are no longer needed.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later. Uses plugin-update-checker (MIT).