Category: WP Ultra

The Staging Tool creates a complete copy of your website using a temporary domain. This allows you to test new features and updates without disrupting your live website. You can edit and make changes to your site, then publish your changes to your production (live) website.
Every website for your WP ULTRA account comes with the ability to create a free staging website.

Create a staging website

To create a staging website, perform the following steps:

1. Click the Domain details icon () to navigate to the Expanded Website View.
2. Click the Staging Tool icon ().
3. If you do not want your staging website to be visible by everyone, you can set up password protection.
   • To protect your website, select Password protect my website. If you select this option, visitors to your website must enter a username and password. This is useful if you want to limit your website’s audience while you work on it.
   • To allow anyone to view your website without a password, select Anyone can view my website. We recommend that you select this option.
4. Click Continue to create your staging website. This process will take a few minutes.

Publish your changes

To publish your changes, click Publish at the top of the Expanded Website View for your staging website.

The Publish Website window will appear. You must select the publication options for your website’s files and database tables.

File options

The system selects the WordPress files, including the core, theme, and plugin files. and Replace modified WordPress files (even if they are older) options by default. We recommend this option.

If you select Remove WordPress files from the production site that do not exist on the staging site, the system will only remove files under WordPress subdirectories, like wp-admin, wp-content, and wp-includes. It will not remove the files in the user’s document root.

Database options

The system selects the Database and All database tables except pages, posts, and users options by default. We select All database tables except pages, posts, and users to avoid overwriting important changes on the production site. For example, if you add new blog posts to production after creating the staging site, selecting All database tables would overwrite these posts. By choosing All database tables except pages, posts, and users, we keep the new blog posts safe.

Sync to your production website

Synching your staging website with your production website will overwrite your staging website with your current production website. This is useful for keeping your staging website up-to-date with your production website so that you don’t overwrite authorized third-party changes when you publish. For example, if you hired a UX developer to improve your website’s checkout experience, then published a change from your staging website without synching the UX developer’s changes first, you could overwrite their UX improvements.

To sync your staging website with your production website, click the Sync icon () at the top of the Expanded Website View for your staging website.

The Sync from production site? menu will appear. Click Sync to overwrite your staging website with your production website.

How to return to your staging website

Once you have created a staging website, you can return to it and test new features.

To manage your staging website, perform the following steps:

1. From the Website Dashboard, click the down arrow () next to the desired website. The staging website will appear.
2. Click the Domain Details icon () to get to the Expanded Website View.

For more information on managing your website, read our Managing a Website documentation.

WP-CLI (WordPress Command Line Interface) commands allow you to manage your WordPress® site directly from the command line.

How to run WP-CLI commands #

To access the Terminal interface, click on the terminal ()icon in the left menu bar. The Terminal interface will appear.

To run a WP-CLI command, you must first navigate to the root directory of your website. The root directory is located at ~/public_html/your_domain/ where your_domain is replaced by the domain name.

Enter the command you wish to run, starting with wp and followed by the command and the subcommand. For example, if you want to see a list of the plugins you have installed, run the command: wp plugin list.

You may run any available WP-CLI command. For a list of WP-CLI commands, read WordPress’s WP-CLI Commands documentation.

Content retrieved from: https://docs.wpsquared.com/docs/wpsquared/how-to-run-wpcli-commands/.

The Terminal interface allows you to access an in-browser terminal application for direct command-line access within a WP Squared session. By default, terminal access is enabled.

This interface supports WP-CLI commands, which allow you to manage your WordPress® site directly from the command line. For more information, read our How to Run WP-CLI Commands documentation.

The Terminal interface

The Terminal interface is accessible from the Websites Dashboard. Before you access the Terminal interface, you must read and accept the warning notice. Click I understand and want to proceed.

If you log out of the WP Squared interface, all associated Terminal interface sessions will automatically close after a short period. Any commands still running in those terminal sessions will continue to run until that session closes.

Content retrieved from: https://docs.wpsquared.com/docs/wpsquared/terminal-access/.

In the Backups tab, you can view, manage, and create backups for your WordPress site. You can also set up recurring backups for your websites.

Create a backup

To create a backup, click the Create Backup Now button. The Create Backup popup window will appear. Click Backup Now to start the backup. You will receive confirmation once the backup has completed.

Scheduling a backup

To schedule a backup, you must configure your backup settings and frequency. To enable backups, perform the following steps:

1. Click the Settings () icon.
2. In the Backup Settings popup, toggle Backup to Enabled.
3. Click the checkbox next to the days of the week that you would like to run a backup. You must select at least one day to enable scheduled backups.
4. In the Number of backups to keep text box, enter the number of backups you wish to keep. The minimum number of backups to keep is three (3).
5. Click Save Settings.

Restore a backups

You can restore any saved backup. We recommend you perform a backup before you restore another saved backup. To restore a backup, perform the following steps:

1. Click Restore for the backup that you wish to restore.
2. In the Restore Backup popup, you must check the box next to ‘I am aware that I am going to restore a previous backup. I will lose the current version of the website and its components for the version I have chosen.’ before you can continue.
3. Click Restore Now. Your backup will be restored as the new version of your website. You will be notified when your restore is completed.

What items are part of a backup?

WP Squared utilized the WP Toolkit backup system. Backups are created as a tar.gz file. Backup files are stored in the /home/wp-backups/<USER> directory.

The following items part of a WP Squared backup:

• files
  • index.php
  • license.txt
  • readme.html
  • wp-activate.php
  • wp-admin
  • wp-blog-header.php
  • wp-comments-post.php
  • wp-config.php
  • wp-config-sample.php
  • wp-content
  • wp-cron.php
  • wp-includes
  • wp-links-opml.php
  • wp-load.php
  • wp-login.php
  • wp-mail.php
  • wp-settings.php
  • wp-signup.php
  • wp-trackback.php
  • xmlrpc.php
• meta.json
• sqldump.sql

Content retrieved from: https://docs.wpsquared.com/docs/wpsquared/how-do-i-create-a-backup/.

The Expanded Website View allows you to configure settings and view important information for your website. Click the Manage Website icon () to get to the Expanded Website View. You can also view your website, clone your website, or set your website to maintenance mode from this interface. Each tab on the Expanded Website View provides a different set of information and configuration options.

Expanded Website View

Overview Tab

The Overview tab provides a variety of statistics about your website.

Section	Description
Vulnerability Protection	This section displays the following information: The number of active vulnerabilities. The number of vulnerabilities virtually patched by Patchstack but still listed. The number of total vulnerabilities patched by Patchstack. This section includes a navigation button that changes based on the site’s status. A red Take Action button appears if any vulnerability requires you to take action. A gray View List button appears if you don’t need to take any action. Both buttons will open the Security tab for further details. Note: The interface will only display this section if your hosting provider has enabled this feature.
7-day Highlights	This section displays the number of unique hits on your site, unique visitors, page views, and bandwidth used for the last seven days.
Traffic	This section displays how well your website performs for desktop and mobile browsers. Lastly, the Traffic section will show you your site’s recent traffic. Without recent data, these areas will not display accurate information.

WP Squared collects performance information from Page Speed™ web performance optimizer, provided by Google®. Clicking on View More provides additional data on the Page Speed Insights for your domain.

Backups Tab

The Backups tab allows you to view, manage, and create backups for your website. You can also use this tab to set up recurring backups for your website.

To learn more about the Backups tab, read our How do I create a backup? documentation.

Themes Tab

The Themes tab displays the currently active theme and any installed themes. You can install other themes from the official theme directory for WordPress® by searching for them. The interface lists the themes in alphabetical order and indicate whether they are Active or Inactive.

• To activate another theme, click Activate on the theme. You must verify the theme’s activation.
• To install a new theme, click Install New Theme and search for any publicly listed WordPress theme.
• To delete a theme, click Delete.
• To preview a theme, click Preview.

Plugins Tab

The Plugins tab shows the plugins available for use by default.

• To activate a plugin, toggle the Active switch on the plugin tile.
• To install a new plugin, click Install New Plugin. Provide search parameters in the provided box to display publicly available WordPress plugins. Once you find the plugin you wish to install, click Install. This will direct you back to the installed plugin interface after you install the plugin. You will have to activate the plugin to use it.
• Delete any plugins on this page by clicking the trash can icon (). If a user tries to use the plugin on a website page, the page will display an error or become unusable.

Settings Tab

The Settings tab allows you to configure tools, automatic updates for your WordPress installation, themes, and plugins.

Domain Name

You can use this section to update your website’s domain information, including changing from a temporary to a registered domain name. Click Modify Domain to update your domain name.

A new section will open. Enter the new domain for your website, then click Continue. Your website will update to use the new domain information.

Tools

You can enable or disable several tools for your website, such as the following:

• Search engine indexing
• Debugging
• Password protection
• Enable hotlink protection
• Take over wp-cron.php
• Enable NGINX Caching

To learn more about each of these tools, hover over the tooltip icon ().

WordPress Version Updates

To configure automatic updates for your WordPress installation, select your preferred option:

• None. I will apply updates manually. – This option will not install updates. You must install updates manually. This gives you more control over your WordPress version but can also leave your site unprotected in the event of a security update.
• Only apply minor version updates. I will apply major version updates manually. – This option only installs minor version updates unless you manually update your WordPress installation.
• Apply all updates automatically. This is the most secure option. – This option installs all updates without any action on your part. This is the recommended option since it provides the most security for your WordPress installation.

Theme Updates

To configure automatic updates for themes, select your preferred option:

• Default. Use the setting defined by the theme for all update types. – This option allows the defined default option to select the update settings.
• Automatically apply security updates. All other update types will follow the default theme setting. – This option applies all security updates for the theme.
• Apply all updates automatically. This will override the default setting. This is the most secure option. – This option applies all updates for the theme.

Plugin Updates

To configure automatic updates for plugins, select your preferred option:

• Default. Use the setting defined by the plugin for all update types. – This option allows the defined default option to select the update settings.
• Automatically apply security updates. All other update types will follow the default theme setting. – This option applies all security updates for the plugin.
• Apply all updates automatically. This will override the default setting. This is the most secure option. – This option applies all updates for the plugin.

For plugin updates, you can also choose to have vulnerable plugins automatically deactivated. This option is set to On by default.

Advanced Tab

The Advanced tab provides information about your WP Squared installation and allows you to make changes to some of the advanced features, such as Zone Editor and PHP Settings.

Database

The expanded Database section contains your WP Squared database information. You cannot change this information from this interface. If you wish to change it, click Open in phpMyAdmin.

Zone Editor

The Zone Editor feature allows you to create, edit, and delete Domain Name System (DNS) zone records. DNS converts human-readable domain names (for example, example.com) to computer-readable IP addresses (for example, 192.0.0.1). DNS relies on zone records that exist on your server to map domain names to IP addresses.

To add a new zone record, click + Add New Record. You can add the following types of records:

• A – Address Record (IPv4)
• AAAA – Address Record (IPv6)
• CNAME – Canonical Name Record
• MX – Mail Exchanger Record
• SRV – Service Location Record
• TXT – Text Record

You can edit any of the current records by clicking the pencil icon (). You can also delete any of these records by clicking the trash can icon ().

PHP Settings

WP Squared installs PHP 7.4, PHP 8.0, and PHP 8.2 by default. Your hosting provider can enable and disable available PHP versions. If you do not see your desired version of PHP, contact your hosting provider.

You can manually update your PHP version; however, we recommend using the Smart PHP Update system.

Smart PHP Update allows you to test a PHP version without affecting your production site. The process clones your site to another domain, sets the new PHP version, and runs checks to see if the PHP switch will break your site. You can review the test results and decide on the switch.

To update your PHP version, select the version in the menu. Then, click Apply to immediately apply the change. To run tests, click Use Smart PHP Update.

• When you click Apply, you can run a backup before updating the PHP version or with no backup. Once you click Update PHP, the PHP version update runs. You will receive a notification of success or failure.
• When you click Use Smart PHP Update, the system begins analyzing your website with the chosen version of PHP. The interface shows the results once the test environment completes its analysis. You can proceed with the update by clicking Update PHP Version or cancel the action.

Logs Tab

The Logs tab allows you to review the logs generated by your website. Logs can be helpful in troubleshooting issues on your website. The system discards the log after processing it since it can collect a lot of data in a short amount of time. Currently, only Access Logs are available for download.

To view a log, click the download icon () next to the log you wish to view. You can delete the log by clicking the trash can icon ().

Security Tab

The Security Tab provides a comprehensive overview of all detected vulnerabilities. A red dot appears on the tab if any vulnerability requires user action.

The overview section displays the following information:

• The number of active vulnerabilities.
• The number of vulnerabilities virtually patched by Patchstack but still listed.
• The number of total vulnerabilities patched by Patchstack.

The table lists vulnerabilities by priority. Active vulnerabilities appear first, followed by protected ones. WP Squared considers a vulnerability protected when Patchstack issues a virtual patch.

The system categorizes vulnerabilities by their source: core, themes, or plugins. From this tab, you can directly update the core, plugin, or theme if an update resolves the vulnerability. Clicking View Source takes the user to Patchstack’s detailed description of the specific vulnerability.

This feature scans for vulnerabilities every time you update the WordPress core software or add/remove a theme or plugin.

Ignoring Low-Risk Vulnerabilities

Low-risk vulnerabilities pose minimal security risk to your website. If you want to stop notifications and automatic updates for low-risk vulnerabilities, enable the Ignore low-risk toggle. When you enable this option, the system will use the following behavior:

• The system will no longer send notifications for low-risk issues.
• Low-risk vulnerabilities will not trigger automatic update events.

This option defaults to off.

Staging Tool

The Staging Tool creates a complete copy of your website using a temporary domain. This allows you to test new features and updates without disrupting your live website. You can edit and make changes to your site, then publish your changes to your live website.

To create a staging website, click Staging Tool icon () in the top menu of the Extended Website View interface.

For more information, read our Create a Staging Website documentation.

Clone Your Website

To clone your website, click the Clone icon () in the top menu of the Extended Website View interface.

When you clone your website, you have three options:

• Copy the website to a temporary domain. This option allows you to choose a domain later.
• Copy the website to a subdomain of the current website. This option is not available when cloning a temporary domain.
• Copy the website to a new domain.

When you’ve made your choice and have entered the necessary information, click Create Clone.

Maintenance Mode

Maintenance mode allows you to pause the live content on your website while it’s under construction.

To start Maintenance Mode, click the Maintenance Mode icon () in the top menu of the Extended Website View interface.

There are several options available for you to create the Maintenance Mode screen for your website:

Option	Description
Screen Text	Set the text that you want your website to display. You can use default messages, or you can edit them to your liking. You can provide a new Page Title and other large and small text blocks with details about your current status.
Background	You can provide your own image for the background of the maintenance mode page, or use the default image.
Countdown Timer	If you already know how long your website will be under maintenance, you can provide your viewers with a countdown timer. Provide the time in days, hours, and/or minutes and then toggle to enable.
Social Network Links	If you would like your social networks displayed, you can provide the links for the various providers. This is a great way to keep your viewers informed while your website is under construction. Leave these fields blank if you don’t want them to display on the maintenance screen.

Content retrieved from: https://docs.wpsquared.com/docs/wpsquared/managing-a-website/.

Your first website #

When you first log in to WP Squared, you walk through a setup wizard to create your first website using your account’s primary domain.

Creating a website #

To create a new website, navigate to the Website Dashboard by clicking its icon (). Websites that you own show on this interface. Then, click the Create New Site button in the top right corner of the Website Dashboard.

You will be asked to provide a registered domain name or assign a temporary domain name to your website with the Choose a domain later option.

A temporary domain name is a random domain name that acts as a placeholder so you can design your website before you make it available to users, as temporary domain names will not show up in search engines or affect SEO rankings. Once you have designed your website, you can change its domain name to a registered domain so that users can find it with search engines like Google.

You are also required to provide the following information for website setup:

• Website Name: This is not the domain name, but rather what you would like the site to be named. For example, Customer Flower Shop.
• A Tagline: This is a cute, fun descriptor for your website. For example, Gorgeous Flowers, low price!
• Theme: Initially, default themes are available for use. You can search for other themes and filter by the latest, most popular, or highest-rated themes. You can preview each of these before selecting and activating.

After you provide the necessary information, click Finish Setup. You will be shown a progress bar during the setup. It can take some time for setup to complete.

Content retrieved from: https://docs.wpsquared.com/docs/wpsquared/how-do-i-create-a-website/.

Content Delivery Network (CDN) uses servers in various locations to provide online content from the closest server to the website consumer, making websites load faster. You must configure the CDN provider before you can enable the service for your website. Currently, the only available CDN is Cloudflare.

Configure CDN provider

A CDN provider must be configured before you can enable the service for your website. You can configure the CDN provider in the Advanced tab in the Extended Website View interface. You must have a valid account with your CDN provider to configure your account.

To configure your CDN, toggle the Enable a CDN Cache switch in the Nameservers and CDN box. To complete configuration, perform the following steps:

1. Choose the CDN provider you would like to use. Currently, only Cloudflare is available.
2. Add the email address for your account with the CDN provider.
3. Add either the Global API Key or API Token created for you by the CDN provider.
4. Provide a description for the API Key. This should be a reminder of the key’s purpose.
5. Click the Submit button.

Creating your API key

The process to create your API key will vary depending on the CDN provider. An API key or token is an authentication method used when calling services via an API function. Authorizing with an API Key can provide more security to your account. You can provide a Global API Key or a custom API key token:

• A Global API key can be used across many projects and requires account validation with the CDN provider. This is the recommended authentication method.
• A custom API token is created for one specific project, with specific permissions and typically doesn’t require additional validation.

Providing a Global API key

To use a Global API key, you will need to provide several pieces of information:

• Global API Key – The key from your provider. Cloudflare provides documentation on the location of your Global API Key.
• Your email address.

WP ULTRA does not store your Global API Key. The Global API Key is used to generate a token on your behalf to synchronize DNS records.

Providing an API key token

While not the recommended method, you can provide an API Key Token. To work properly, the key will need several permissions set correctly. If you provide the API Key Token, the following permissions are needed:

Group	Resource	Permission
Zone	Analytics	Read
Zone	Zone	Edit
Zone	Zone Settings	Edit
Zone	DNS Edit	Edit
Zone	Cache	Purge