Update a 2014 X-theme site

Support
#1

Hi. I need some guidance on updating an X-theme site I made in 2014, pre-Cornerstone.

x-theme version 3.2.2
x-shortcodes 3.0.5
Visual Composer 4.0.4

It is not vital that I convert from Visual Composer to Cornerstone. Perhaps that might be disruptive and require rebuilding; please advise.

But right now I have to edit by cautiously using the “text” pane in the Wordpress admin, since Visual Composer no longer works. Let me know what you think is the most sensible way to upgrade this site.

Thanks

#2

Hello There,

Thanks for writing in! Since you are way behind, I would recommend that you create a staging site. This is very useful because you can test drive any X updates in the staging area, do the customizations and troubleshooting without disrupting your live site. Once everything is perfect, you can easily and flawlessly proceed the update in the live site. To know how to create a staging area, please check out these articles:
http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-create-staging-environment-for-a-wordpress-site/, https://maintainn.com/2015/02/how-to-create-a-staging-site-for-wordpress/

In your staging site, you can update X theme right away. Please also update Visual Composer. Once updated, you should be able to edit the page again in Visual Composer. Please do not worry about Cornerstone because page created with VC will still work as long as VC is active.

Please deactivate and delete X Shortcodes 3.0.5 plugin. Please take note that X shortcodes 3.0.5 and its functionality has been consolidated into Cornerstone which will be installed automatically if you go to X > Overview (assuming you already have X5.1.1).

Now if you want to create a new page and would still want to use Visual Composer, you may do so. If you want to create the new page using Cornerstone then you should be able to do that too.

Please let us know how it goes.

#3

Thanks for your help. I have finally returned to this site and its needs. I have succesfully upgraded it to the newest x-theme. And I can see that Cornerstone is working. Of course it does not understand Visual Composer shortcodes. I plan to reconstruct everything in Cornerstone.

In the meantime, I would like to be able to use Visual Composer. But it no longer works; when I click on its link in the WP-admin “pages” list of pages, it never resolves. I just get its animated logo. Is there a way to update it without buying it from Envato?

I could not find it in the “plugins” folder when I FTP into the site. Any thoughts? If it is not possible, I will just rebuild the few pages there, creating alternate version, and ultimately making them the site, and abandoning the old ones. Thanks

#4

Hi there,

You can simply go to X > Overview menu item and on that page scroll down to see the Visual Composer which is there as an Extension. Click on the icon to install and activate it.

Thank you.