[Regarding Wordpress MySQL database transfer from dev to production site] I've created a site in WordPress on our development machine. In the theme we're using there are numerous widget zones to display text in (sidebar and front page). I've used simple Text widgets in all of these zones to put our display information.
When I migrated the site to production, I used the WP-DB-Backup plugin to take a snapshot of the database. I then edited the resulting .sql file to update all of the file paths and URL references to point to our production site.
After creating the database, website, and copying all of the files over to the production site, I run the .sql file from the mysql command prompt to import the data into the new database.