I know people sometimes setup a separate Dev site and test the upgrade on that, but it is very time consuming to clone the site every time there is an upgrade.
I am looking for a quicker way and if anyone has any tips it would be really helpful!
Thank you,
Casper
Nope. A separate dev site is the way to go.
Thankyou for your advice Ipstenu.
All the best,
Casper
but it is very time consuming to clone the site every time there is an
You do have some options here. You could do a localhost install – but that only tests your files and content – not your particular server setup – unless you are able to replicate that
I personally have a test site I keep up all the time on a subdomain. I have all of my plugins and themes available on it. I do not replicate my exact content over there, but rather just use the WP test unit
http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Unit_Test
The sample content gives all sorts of posts, formatting, etc with wich to test. you could, of course, export/import your content if that seems necessary
I then keep my test site shut off to search engines so it doesn’t get picked up at all.
Havin a permanent test site allows you to ransomly test themes, plugins, upgrades, code, etc. whenever you want.
(to be honest, I have a few test sites so that I can test alpha/beta WP releases, official releases, and one to use to answer questions on here where I can mimic someone’s site)
Well yeah, but at the end of the day, you have two sites. One to dev on, one to release. And … I use local host. But I also trust WP and my ability to undo 😉 Backups, then upgrade.
Hello Voodoo and Ipstenu,
Thanks for your comments.
To clone a site for testing upgrades, I currently use the Backup Buddy plugin as follows:
1) Take a full backup (files and db) using the plugin on the live site
2) Upload the backup file (.zip) and the file importbuddy.php to the test domain using FTP
3) Create a new database for the test domain in cPanel
4) Navigate to testsite.com/importbuddy.php and install the backup on the new domain
I understand the two sites could share a DB, which would eliminate step 3, but some forums say it is not a good idea to share DB between 2 sites, so I am reluctant to do that. What is your opinion of this?
Thanks,
Casper
