Very old version of X-Theme needs changes but will updates break it?

[lypa]

Hi there

We want to do some updates on the home page of our website. Since we use a very old version of X-Theme it would be a great opportunity to try Cornerstone, hence: Is it possible to use Cornerstone just for the homepage and leave the other sites as they are? Or do we need to install the whole site from scratch if we update? In my last topic you recommended this:

@ruenel

We highly recommend that you update to the latest versions which are the X theme 9.1.4 and Cornerstone 6.1.4. It should work find even if you are using the Integrity Child theme as long as you place the files correctly in the same way as the files in the parent theme.

If we do not have the time and nerves to do this, do you offer installation/update service for such cases as well? Or is it just guidance by the premium support? The thing is that we built the site in 2014 and it is impossible to follow along all the changelogs and updates so we kinda lost track.

Would be great if you could outline what the options are for such a case and what the best workflow to update from a very old version is.

Thank you very much
Lypa

[ruenel]

Hello Lypa,

Thanks for posting in! We highly recommend that you create a staging site. You can clone your live site to a staging site. You can then update to the latest version of the WP core, the theme or any of the plugins in the staging site first to check for any errors, conflicts and incompatibility issues before pushing to your live site. This is to prevent any untoward incidents after the updates and having your live site displaying any errors. Please have a look at this article to learn more about how to move the live site to the staging server. https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-create-staging-environment-for-a-wordpress-site/

Best Regards.

[lypa]

Hello Ruenel

Thank you for helping. I already use a staging site for various changes on our site like layout changes and building new parts of the site, but whats keeping me back from doing all those updates on one hand is I can not estimate how much I have to rebuild after all those updates and how long it will take me to get the site to how it was before. And on the other hand how big the benefit will be for further maintenance of the site. And if there will be more customization options afterwards etc. Do you have a like a checklist for updates from a very old version? Like in which order to update WP, Theme and Plugins? And if I switch to Cornerstone, will it affect all pages and I can not use the pages built with shortcodes or html anymore? Time is money and I will have to make a time and cost estimation if it is worth the effort of doing all those updates. Hope u understand. Do you offer update installation services for such cases?

Cheers,
lypa

[ruenel]

Hello Lypa,

Thanks for updating in! Please check out my reply on the other that is also related to this thread.

Cheers.