Documentation

1. Getting Started
Watch the Full Video Walkthrough

Downloading & Installing SitePresser

You can download your purchased plugins from your confirmation email or you can log into your account via the My Account link in the top menu.  

  • The zipped plugins are ready to be uploaded into the Plugins area of the site you wish to export from.
  • Note: You will need to install BOTH SitePresser Basic and your chosen Add-On plugin for the exporter to work.
Activating Your SitePresser License
To activate SitePresser, go to SitePresser in the left hand WordPress menu and enter a license key for each purchased product at the top of the page.

2. The SitePresser Tools Area

Video Walkthrough of All Tools

Where to Find The Tools Area

THE TOOLS AREA

You can find the Tools area in the SitePresser area in the WordPress side menu.

The Image Replacement Tool

USING IMAGE PLACEHOLDERS

The vast majority of web designers will use stock photos when building their client sites out. This is perfectly acceptable except when wanting to distribute your work or sell it, at which point image licensing becomes important.

You need to know what license each of your images has so you know if you have the rights to distribute them as part of your work without paying the originator or crediting them in some way.

This tool will allow you to selectively replace on export any images which aren’t licensed appropriately. This won’t effect your site at all except, when exporting the site, those images will be replaced with placeholders that you select/upload. This is especially important for various marketplace websites whch will only allow specific licensing for images before your work is approved for listing/sale.


Once you toggle the Image Replacement Tool on, you have the option to upload three ‘safe’ images – portrait, landscape and square – to replace any of the images in your theme.

This means that your theme can still retain some of the aesthetic of the original.

MARKING IMAGES AS ‘SAFE’

In this final step you need to mark images as “Safe” or not. A Safe image is one which you have full rights to distribute and/or specifically don’t want to be replaced. Those not marked as Safe will be replaced by one of the placeholders you set above. The following section is split into three for ease of use: Safe, Unsafe and Unchecked.

Once you have marked your image as safe and saved your image options, the Image Replacement toggle will be ready to activate.

When image replacement is turned on, any image you haven’t marked as “safe” on this page will be replaced with an image of the same aspect ratio (Landscape, Portrait, Square) that you can upload below. This does nothing to the demo site, and only affects the export, so the images on the orginal site are safe and unchanged.

The Image Size Checker

USING THE IMAGE SIZE CHECKER

Images are the biggest liability when it comes to size on any site. It’s easily overlooked during development and something no one really wants to have to do at the end of a project.
This tool will give you an idea of the size of each of the images in your media library and present you with some options to fix the issues. The smaller the images are on your site the faster the page will load. Google will be happier and you will achieve a better page speed score and preferential ranking as a result.
A smaller export ZIP will result in far fewer support tickets from your customers who are hitting the upload limit and a faster import experience!

Once you run the tool, you’ll see a summary report at the top of the page and a detailed breakdown below, with image sizes next to each image thumbnail.

The Image Use Report Tool

USING THE IMAGE USE REPORT

SitePresser will export your entire media library which, if you use this site for multiple clients/projects, can get pretty big. This will make the export ZIP bigger than it needs to be and mean your customers might get a little confused when they see irrelevant images in their library.
This tool will scan your media library and your content and give you a list of images that are not used anywhere and the ability to remove them from the system.

Run the tool and you’ll see an Image Use Summary which shows you unused images first and then a second section showing you the images which are being used.

You can delete any unused images one by one or bulk delete if you are happy that they are really not being used. Please note that once an image is deleted, it will be permanently deleted from your Media Library.

3. Preparing to Package or Migrate Your Site

Packaging Base Themes & Child Themes

INCLUDING THEMES

When packaging a child theme for sale or distribution, you can only include the parent theme, if that theme is free and is in the WordPress repository.

For example, you CANNOT include a premium theme like Divi, but you CAN include a free theme like Hello, Astra, Ocean WP or GeneratePress.

Including Plugins

INCLUDING FREE PLUGINS

When packaging a child theme for sale or distribution, include free plugins from the WordPress Repository.The latest versions of the plugins will be downloaded directly from the repository at the time of install.  

INCLUDING PREMIUM PLUGINS

If you choose to include any premium plugins, you take full responsibility for ensuring that you have the appropriate license and right to provide those plugins, as we can not be held responsible for illegally distributed plugins.

Exporting Demo Content

When migrating from a development or demo site to a live site, the export/install process is non-destructive when it comes to content.

Pages, posts, the media library and layouts in the Divi library will be added to existing content, rather than replacing it.

If an import has already taken place, then demo content will not be imported twice, to avoid confusion. 

Exporting Theme Settings

You can choose to export your parent Theme Settings, including:

  • Actively assigned Menus
  • Active Widgets
  • Theme Customizer
  • Custom CSS

Note that if you do this, the settings in the destination site will be replaced.

For example, if you export an active, assigned menu, the menu will be active and will replace the menu in the destination site.

Exporting Divi Settings

You can choose which Divi Settings in the demo site to export, including:

  • Divi Theme Options
  • Divi Theme Customizer
  • Divi Library
  • Divi Theme Builder Layouts

Please note that the Divi Theme Builder Layouts will REPLACE any exising Theme Builder Layouts.

Your Divi Theme license details will NOT be exported. 

Customizing Your Installer Plugin

In the Installer Settings are of the SitePress Settings, you can add links to your own documentation and demo sites, as well as uploading a custom logo, which will be displayed in the destination site, during the Installation process. 

Creating & Downloading Your Export

Once you are happy with your settings, simply hit the ‘Create My Custom Installer Plugin’ button and the packaging process will begin.

An export success checklist will show you the progress of the export. When finished, your zipped plugin will be available to download at the top of the page.

 

3. Importing a Packaged Site with SitePresser
Uploading the Exported Plugin into the Plugins area

Upload the exported Installer plugin via the Plugins > Add New area in the left WordPress menu.

The custom Installer will show at the bottom of the left menu, showing the name you chose for your export.

Once you click into the SitePresser Installer area, you will see the custom logo you choose.

SitePresser Import Options

Before importing the site, you have the option not to set the home page, menus or Theme Option and Customizer settings on an individual basis.

This may be useful if you wish to simply import pages and layouts without affecting how your current live site looks.

The Import Process

Once you hit the Import button, the Import Log will load, showing the progress of the import and confirming successful imports.

Should there be any errors on import, you will be able to view a report for each imported item. If an error occurs, please submit a ticket with details of the error log.

 

Uninstalling SitePresser After Import

Once your import is complete, you will be prompted to uninstall the SitePresser Importer plugin. The Installer plugin can be safely deleted without affecting any of the imported content.

We recommend deleting the plugin after install because any unnecessary plugins can create security vulnerabilities over time.

3. Troubleshooting
I am getting an error when uploading the Installer plugin

The most common error we encounter is uploading the exported Installer plugin to the Appearance > Themes area.

If you or your customer see the error “Theme is missing the style.css stylesheet”, it means that the plugin has been uploaded to the Themes area in error, instead of the Plugins area.

My export or import is failing
Both the exporter and installer have a Progress Log. Check your log for errors, take a screenshot and submit a ticket below.

Here’s how you can view your Progress Logs.

 

4. Developers

Working With Sitepresser

More details about how to work with SitePresser are coming soon.

Submit A Ticket

We have a friendly Facebook Community where you can get help and advice on using SitePresser products. We’d suggest that you search in the group first before submitting a support ticket as you may find your questions have already been answered. 

Roadmap & Feature Request

Planned Features

Request A Feature

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