(Updated 3/29/17 4:22 PM)
We are excited to announce the WP-EZ Migration Tool is now available and can be used to copy Gold and free NE1 websites into our new WP-EZ Website Builder!
You may have some questions about migrating websites from NE1 to WP-EZ, so we’ve created this Frequently Asked Questions post to answer your questions.
Q) What is this WP-EZ Website Builder you speak of?
It’s WordPress made easy. We’re pretty excited about it! Read more about the WP-EZ Website Builder here.
Q) How does the migration from NE1 to the WP-EZ Website Builder work?
The migration is a simple 3-step process:
- Migrate. Login to your MyOCC Dashboard, click the “My Websites” option in the left menu, then click the “Migrate to WP-EZ” link to the right of your website address. You will select a theme for your WP-EZ website (which you can change any time you like). Then the migration tool will copy your menu, all of your pages, all of your media and most of modules/plugins from your NE1 website into WP-EZ. Visitors to your website will continue to see your NE1 website.
- Tweak. Edit your WP-EZ to get it looking the way you want it. During this step you will also need to setup the parts of your website that can’t be copied over to WP-EZ automatically. Visitors will continue to see your NE1 site while you tweak your WP-EZ website.
- Activate. When you’re ready to make your WP-EZ website live, login to your MyOCC Dashboard, click the “My Websites” option in the left menu, then click the “Activate WP-EZ” link. This will disable your NE1 website and set up redirects from the NE1 URLs to the WP-EZ URLs of your web pages. When visitors go to your website, they will now see your WP-EZ website.
Q) What parts of my NE1 website will not be automatically copied over to WP-EZ?
We have done everything we can to make the transition from NE1 to WP-EZ as simple as possible. Unfortunately, not everything can be copied over automatically. These are the aspects of NE1 websites that cannot be automatically copied:
- Template/theme. WP-EZ themes are different (and better) than NE1 templates. They are responsive (adjust to the size of the screen) and mobile friendly. So, you’ll have to select a new theme when you migrate to WP-EZ. And keeping with modern web design practices, each website will use one theme throughout rather than having the option to use a different theme on each page.
- Guestbook. We are discontinuing guestbooks. They are an outdated website feature.
- Free Prayer. While we would be happy to pray with you anytime no charge, we are no longer offering the prayer request module/plugin with free sites because of the potential for spam and email integration issues. The WP-EZ prayer plugin is available in Gold, Silver and Bronze sites.
- Calendar, PayPal shopping cart, gallery, poll. These features are available in WP-EZ but the data structure is so different that the migration tool cannot copy the NE1 data to WP-EZ. You can recreate them in WP-EZ. (Note that not all features are included in every hosting package. You can see which features are in each package here.)
- Some embedded audio/video. See below.
- Some HTML. (Added 6/2) If you used the “Paste HTML” features in NE1 to embed a block of HTML code into a page, the migration tool does not copy those HTML blocks into WP-EZ. We are close to completing an upgrade to the migration tool that will do this.
When you migrate your website, the migration tool will tell you which parts of your NE1 site you need to manually recreate and send you this info in an email as well.
Q) How does the migration tool handle audio and video? (added 4/29)
All audio and video files will be copied into the WP-EZ media library. They way they are displayed on WP-EZ pages, may differ.
If you uploaded and embedded mp3 audio files or mp4 video files into your NE1, the migration tool will translate the embed code so they play properly in WP-EZ. You should check pages with mp3 and mp4 files on them and may want to tweak the height, width and other settings.
If you uploaded and embedded other types of audio and video files like .wma, .mwv and .mov files, they will not play in WP-EZ. Note that even in NE1, many of your visitors could not listen to/view these file formats because they require a browser plugin. We strongly recommend you convert all audio and video files to mp3/mp4, then edit the WP-EZ page in which you wish to display them, click the “Media” button and upload/embed them.
If you embedded audio/video from an outside source (e.g. YouTube) using HTML embed code, this should work in WP-EZ just as it did in NE1 because the HTML will be copied into WP-EZ exactly as it was in NE1.
Q) When can I migrate my website? (updated 5/18)
Now. As of May 11, 2016, the migration tool is available to all NE1 sites (Gold, Silver, Bronze & Free).
Q) Why do free sites get to migrate first? (removed 5/18, not important since all sites can migrate now)
Q) Do I have to migrate my NE1 website to WP-EZ? (updated 1/11/17)
Eventually, yes. For security reasons we had to upgrade software on the server where free sites are hosted. NE1 is not compatible with this upgrade, so we had a deadline for free sites to migrate by May 19, then we moved all unmigrated free NE1 sites to WP-EZ on May 26.
For Gold, Silver and Bronze accounts, migration to WP-EZ is voluntary. Note that we cannot update the NE1 software so we cannot fix software-related problems. Over time we anticipate issues with NE1 will develop which we cannot fix, and eventually we will have to shut it down.
(Added 1/11/17) On November 19, 12 NE1 sites were hacked. Since then several others have been hacked. Because of the risk of more hacking and additional time our staff is having to spend restoring sites and removing malware, we announced starting in March is a $5/mo NE1 Usage Fee.
We strongly encourage everyone still using NE1 to migrate as soon as possible to prevent their site from being hacked and avoid the fee.
Q) Will my WP-EZ website have the same web address as my NE1 website?
For free sites, the web address of the homepage will change from something like https://www.ourchurch.com/member/m/mysite/ to http://freesites.ourchurch.com/m/mysite/ After the WP-EZ website has been activated, a visitor who goes to the URL of one of the pages in your old NE1 site will be redirected to the homepage of the new WP-EZ website. (Note, it may take up to an hour after the “Activate” link is clicked before the NE1 URLs redirect to the WP-EZ URL)
For Gold, Silver and Bronze sites, the web address of the homepage will not change. It will continue to be your domain name. The web addresses of the other pages of your website will change slightly, and when WP-EZ is activated, the URL of each page of the NE1 site will automatically redirect to the corresponding page of the WP-EZ website.
Q) Can you show me how to migrate my site?
Sure, watch this video to see a free NE1 website migrated into WP-EZ.
Q) The WP-EZ Website Builder sounds great but I’m not using NE1! Can I build a new site with it?
Absolutely! If you want to build a brand new website with WP-EZ, click the link and select your hosting package..
Q) What if I have questions about WP-EZ or the migration process?
We have online video tutorials to help you with every aspect of WP-EZ. If you have questions you can call us (727-723-2454), email us (support at ourchurch dot com), or create a help desk ticket.
My current NE-1 site uses multiple templates. After viewing several videos, I get the feeling that this feature is not in WP-EZ.. Please comment.
Good question. You are correct. WP-EZ websites must use one template/theme for all pages.
Now why would you want to take away a good thing of having versatility on our website?
I believe its refreshing to see different themes through out our website pages. Just sayin..
Can you please try to incorporate this versatility back into the programming of WP-EZ?
I mean really??? "Children's" page you want to see little smiling faces, Church planning a cookout you want that page to be outdoors kinda, Music ministry you got instrument's as a background, etc. etc., Really Paul?
Please look at ours to see what I sayin if you need a visual. (www.crbch.com)
You have helped me through some tuff spots and I'm thankful for all you & your staff has done but please reconsider being able to use multiple templates. Thank you again, . J.R. (crbch video & website ministry)
J.R. thanks for your feedback.
>>Children's" page you want to see little smiling faces, Church planning a cookout you want that page to be outdoors kinda, Music ministry you got instruments…
I think you are exactly right, and I'm glad to hear you recognize the importance of having the visuals of each page connect with the text. However, most modern websites today do this with the content on the page rather than the theme/template. Using the same theme throughout a website gives visitors a consistent experience and makes it easier to navigate the site.
On your website you mention that Crawford Road Baptist Church began as a mission of Lakeview Baptist Church, so I encourage you to take a look at Lakeview's website – lakeviewbaptist.org. Notice how the theme used by each page (header, menu, footer) is the same, but the content (text and images) are tailored to the specific ministry.
I will discuss your suggestion with our team. Note that if we were to implement it, it would be several months away because we have other development tasks already on the schedule, and we would still highly recommend using a single theme throughout the website.
Thank you for the input on "Lakeview website" I will take a look at it.
Thank you again for all you & OCC are doing.
Looking forward to the upgrade as soon as it becomes available. 🙂
Talk at cha soon, take care & God Bless.
J.R. (CRBCH)
The matter of galleries having to be manually recreated. am I correct in
that the new web builder will lose all gallery contend and years
of photos will have to be manually uploaded again and placed in proper grouping
or just the coding to galleries have to be replaced.
What is the procedure to restore years of galleries (photos) for viewing in galleries as before.
David, that's a good question which I can see we haven't adequately addressed in the FAQs above. The migration tool will copy all of the photos into the WP-EZ media gallery, so you will not have to manually upload them again.
Unfortunately, the migration tool is not able to put those images into the WP-EZ galleries. So, you will have to create each gallery and select the photos in the WP-EZ media library that go into it. Then you'll edit the page where you want the gallery displayed and insert the gallery.
Believe me we put a lot of hours into trying to replicate entire NE1 galleries in WP-EZ and it just could not be done. I apologize for the inconvenience of having to recreate the galleries manually
Thanks for the info…I just took the time and downloaded the photos from NE! via of ftp back to my desktop
in same name folder …then reload to WP in named gallery. (Saved the time of searching to Media for all the correct photos )
Hey David what did you use to download your photos from NE1 back to your laptop.
Will we still have the ability to work with the HTML as we do with the NE-1 text editor?
Yes
I'm a one man shop. Built my website over 14 years. Lots of custom HTML and multi-media. I anticipate a lot of manual work ahead to make my website fully functional again under the new WP-EZ.
If I'm still in the middle of tweaking and manual changes when OCC requires the conversion, will my site go live regardless if I'm done making the manual changes? Or is it possible to extend my time so I can continue working on the draft before it goes public?
Hi Greg, we have to upgrade the server where free sites are hosted before the end of May otherwise other things will no longer work. When we make that upgrade, NE1 will no longer work. Therefore, we have to have all free NE1 sites migrated to WP-EZ before we make the upgrades at the end of May otherwise the NE1 sites won't work. So, while I wish we could make exceptions and extensions, unfortunately its not possible.
Tried the OCC Migration tool as instructed to the letter, but only keep receiving an error notice. "Site Name is required. Please enter the name of your website. Please go to your OurChurch.Com Client Area Page and try again."
No place on the page can I enter the requested information and returning to the client area only allows me to try the migration tool again which brings up the same error message. No where can a website name be entered on any page of the process.
Any help?
I have just now started looking at the migration, and I have to say that I'm disappointed with the limited number of themes which are available. My NE1 site has a Christian theme with crosses, and I didn't see any of the new themes with Christian banners. Also, there was only one theme with a side menu, and it had too many columns. I guess I will try one of the simple themes and see what it looks like. I may need to delete some pages and combine others into a sub-menu so it will fit at the top of the new template.
Update: I have experimented with several themes and found that the one with the side menu does work best for me. The template preview showed several columns, but I found that the columns are not built in to the template and I can still have a single-column page if I want. However, one thing I don't like is that the menu does not scroll when the page scrolls; there is a separate scroll bar for the menu.
Hi Jean, thanks for the feedback. We definitely want to add more themes and will be working to do that.
Part of what you're observing with the WP-EZ themes is part of a trend in websites. First, because of the need to make websites work well on screens of various sizes, website themes have become simpler. In the past there was a lot of imagery in themes, but today themes tend to be simpler and the images are in the content. Second, because side menus are more difficult to use on small screens, mobile friendly themes tend to have the menu at the top. These are trends I will discuss in greater depth in a future blog post.
Thank you. I think I was confused about the themes. Now that I've tried some of the others, I realized that the pictures on the previews were part of the example site instead of part of the template. Same thing with the columns. Also, I thought I was picking one with a dark background, but when I used it the body of my page still had a white background; there was a middle section where my page went. So I'm still experimenting….gonna take a while for me to get the new site to look right.
I've now previewed the migrated site, and it looks like I have a LOT of work to do. 🙁 The entire menu is showing at the top; evidently the submenus did not migrate correctly. Even pages which are marked "do not display" are listed. The menu items are filling the header section and the website name is covered with page names. I guess I'll have to watch the videos…..do you have text instructions, too, or just videos?
Update: I have worked all night experimenting with different themes, fixing my header and my menu, and then trying to fix the formatting on my home page. I had to delete most of the html formatting which had copied over from the migration. The font did not look correct, and part of the page even had a different font as well as font size. I hope my other pages aren't as messy as the home page! I've still got a lot of other work to do. This is not good…
Hi Jean, thanks again for your feedback. We're looking into the issue with pages marked "do not display" being included in the WP-EZ menu…
>> The menu items are filling the header section and the website name is covered with page names
This is inevitable if you go from an NE1 site with more than a dozen main menu items in the side menu to a WP-EZ theme with a top menu.
>>do you have text instructions, too, or just videos
Just videos. We've found that most people have an easier time understanding instructions when they are shown how to do something.
My pages with sermons (embedded MP3 files) did NOT migrate correctly. I just submitted a support ticket because I have a LOT of sermons on my NE1 pages. Question about support tickets: You always ask for my OCC ID number. Where can I find the ID number after NE1 goes away? I have always gotten the number from the main NE1 page. I don't see it anywhere else. Thank you.
Hi Jean, thanks for submitting a support ticket. Our team is working on this issue now and will send you an update soon. I'll check on the ID# as well. A lot has changed since we setup our help desk and the ID# is probably not necessary as long as the URL of the site is sent.
They have fixed this! Your tech support person, Robert, has been extremely helpful! Thank you.
Awesome! Glad to hear that.
Two more questions: (1) Are we no longer able to embed news into a page (not just the titles, but the full articles)? I have my "news" at the bottom of my home page on NE1. I don't see a way to add it on WP-EZ, except as a Footer Widget; the widget only shows the titles and not the entire posts. Can I add the news posts to the home page? (2) What happened to my Facebook Fan Box? I also had that module on my home page and I don't see a way to add it back. Thank you.
Hi Jean…
1) The NE1 news module has a "short text" and "long text" component. We did not realize some people such as yourself had used just the "short text" field and not the "long text." We have modified the migration tool so that if the "long text" field is blank, it copies the "short text" field into WP-EZ. This should resolve the issue you described.
2) The Facebook Fan Box can be added to the body of a page by putting the [custom-facebook-feed] shortcode into the page. You can customize the FB fanbox by going to the WP-EZ dashboard, under the "more" menu item select "Social Media." Then mouseover the "social media" menu option and select "Facebook"
Robert in Tech Support fixed the news for me and also moved my "archived" news, although I will still need to put the previously archived items in a new category. I also had found a way to add the entire news posts to the bottom of a page – but I can't tell you what I did right now! LOL For others reading, just keep experimenting; it will work.
Paul, will your instructions put just the Facebook Fan Box on the page or will it show the actual Facebook posts? I think right now I just want the Fan Box back. But I'm sure I can search around and find the code to copy and paste to add it back; Facebook itself may have the instructions. Thank you.
The "Facebook Fanbox" is the entire plugin and includes the heading, like button and the option to show as many posts as you like (you can set the number in the Social Media -> Facebook settings