Migration a Wordpress site from HTTP to HTTPS

wordpress-https.md

1. Create a backup copy of your site and your database!

2. I reccomend starting with a plugin that manages all of this stuff for you, but if it doesn't work keep reading! :D

3. Add these lines to to wp-config.php file

   define('FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', true);
   
   if ($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'] == 'https') $_SERVER['HTTPS']='on';

   Make sure you add them before this line:

   require_once(ABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php');

4. Update the wp-config.php file

   define('WP_HOME','https://www.example.com/');
   define('WP_SITEURL','https://www.example.com/');

5. Sometimes we have plain hard-coded http protocols, to fix that we have to create wrappers for the wp_head() and wp_footer. So, just call these new functions instead. ​ I recommend using something like grep -rnw './' -e "wp_head" so you know all of the places where this function is being called.

   /**
    * Wrapper for wp_head() which manages SSL
    *
    * @uses	wp_head()
    * @param	bool	$ssl
    * @return	void
    */
   function custom_wp_head() {
     // Capture wp_head output with buffering
     ob_start();
     wp_head();
     $wp_head = ob_get_contents();
     ob_end_clean();
   
     // Replace plain protocols
     $wp_head = preg_replace( '/(["\'])http:\/\//', '\1https://', $wp_head );
   
     // Output
     echo $wp_head;
   }
   
   function custom_wp_footer() {
     // Capture wp_head output with buffering
     ob_start();
     wp_footer();
     $wp_footer = ob_get_contents();
     ob_end_clean();
   
     // Replace plain protocols
     $wp_footer = preg_replace( '/(["\'])http:\/\//', '\1https://', $wp_footer );
   
     // Output
     echo $wp_footer;
   }

   ​