Best practices to go live?

Hi,

until we are ready with the staging2live version i recommend to use a plugin like wp migrate db to copy the staging site db data to the live site. The theme and plugin files need to be copied manually to the live site.

Thanks Rene. I’ll take a look at those. I tried doing this entirely manually myself but gave up after hunting down some of the issues. If you were to instruct on doing it completely manually without plugins, would you be able to provide a step by step procedure? Would be very helpful.

Thank you!

And by the way, excellent plugin!! It’ll be super perfect once the go-to-live function is there.

It’s not possible to do it completely without the use of an extra add-on because the database entries need to be searched and replaced which can not be done manually for all entries. So wp migrate db is the best tool for doing this.

If there are no database changes, its simple:

– Copy all files located in the staging subfolder folder (excluding the wp-config.php!!!) back to the root folder of your main site.
– Overwrite existing files. (Do a full backup of the main files first!!!)

If there are additional DB changes:

Use additionally a tool like WP Migrate to copy back the database content.

Another option would be to make the staging site the live site with redirecting the server to the subfolder but this includes additional modifications as well.

I recommend to copy the files from the staging site to the live one so you keep the staging site for further testings.

Great, thank you.

As far as the db modifications, is it just changing all references of the staging path back to the root path or is there more?

Just wanted to let you know that I was able to migrate the staged version to production. The staged site was in a subdirectory. Thanks!

darkmatter661,

Can I ask how you were able to migrate the staged version to production from the staged site that was in a subdirectory and make it work?

I would like to do this to!

Appreciate your help!

How far off is the staging2live? I have been working on a project that was given to me by my client mid way through and the original developer had used your plugin and we now have the full site from staging ready to transfer back to Live but want to do it with as little down time as possible as the site gets a reasonable number of visitors per day. There are DB changes and the original developer did not copy over the entire media library which the client wishes to keep and not lose.

Any advice or info Rene would be perfect.

Rene,

Thanks so much for a great product. Just started using it.

My idea was to test the WP, plugin and theme updates there and then replicate on the prod site. However, if there is a way to copy over from staging to prod that would be great. The only thing is that the client keeps adding content to the prod site, so I don’t want to rewrite the database.

If I’m making changes to the plugins and WP, is it enough to just copy over the files? Or best to just replicate what I do on staging?

Thanks,
Antonella

Hey Antonella,

It depends:

If you just made any file changes like modifying the layout of your site, copying over the files to the live site is sufficient. If you also modified data by modifying any settings and pressing any SAVE button than you need to repeat these steps on the live site as well.

I release a (pro) version soon which gives you the ability to copy over modified files automatically.

I have used cPanel to make a backup of my live site, and I have created a new, single home page for that site using WP-Staging. I have also changed the theme. The database has had no changes. Now do I just copy the contents of the four files in my practice sandbox folder (wp-admin, wp-content, wp-includes, and wp-snapshots) to my live site, overwriting the existing folders with those titles—and that’s it?
This would leave me with not having to create a new domain, nor a new database. Is that all there is to it? Or what am I missing?

I used the wp-staging to create a clone of a website to do a complete redesign. I created the new site in a subdirectory cupcakes101.net/staging. The site has a new theme, new pages, e-commerce, and additional media. So it is extremely different from the original site. I know that the pro version is now out, but the $80 is steep for a small shop such as ours, and I only plan on doing this one time. What is the best way to handle all of the changes. I use UpdraftPlus to make a complete back up of the live site, but try to make a back up of the staging site does not seem to want to work. It is quite a much large file base and site.