Knowledgebase

Viewing articles tagged 'staging'

401 Unauthorized Authentication is required and was not provided or was rejected.WHAT IT MEANSThe server is asking... A Developer's Pre-Launch Checklist Before a site goes live.TECHNICALPHP version current and supported Required extensions... A Plugin or Extension Broke Everything Recovering without a full restore.THE SYMPTOMThe site was working, you installed or updated... A Quick Annual Billing Review Once a year, spend ten minutes on this. It prevents most of the billing problems we see.CHECK... Addon Domains, Subdomains and Aliases Explained cPanel offers three ways to add a domain, and choosing the wrong one causes confusion.ADDON... Application Update Failed An update that did not complete.WHAT USUALLY HAPPENSThe update downloads, begins, and fails... Automating Deployment with Scripts Turning several steps into one command.WHAT A DEPLOYMENT SCRIPT DOESPulls the latest code... Automating Server Setup Making a rebuild repeatable.THE PROBLEMA server configured by hand over two years cannot be... Backing Up a Shop More urgent than for other sites.WHY IT MATTERS MOREA shop's database changes constantly: orders,... Backing Up Before Handing Over to a Developer Protecting yourself before someone else works on the site.WHYNot because developers are... Backing Up Membership and Course Sites What is at risk.WHY IT MATTERSThe database holds members, subscriptions, progress and payment... Backup Considerations for Online Shops Where data loss costs money directly.WHY SHOPS ARE DIFFERENTThe database changes constantly.... Building a Practice Gradually What to adopt in what order.FIRSTEverything in version control Secrets out of version control... Building Reliable Ingestion Making extraction dependable.WHAT RELIABILITY REQUIRESIdempotence: running twice produces the... Building Structure and Layout How facilities are arranged.WHAT THE MAIN AREAS AREThe data halls, containing racks Power rooms,... Certificate Transparency and Public Logs Every certificate issued is published.WHAT IT ISCertificate authorities submit every certificate... Changing Your Theme Safely Switching without breaking things.WHAT CHANGESAppearance Widget areas and menus, which may not... Checking a Theme Before You Commit Due diligence.WHAT TO CHECKLast updated date Active installations Recent reviews, particularly... Choosing Between a Subdomain and a Subdirectory A decision with consequences.THE OPTIONSyourdomain.com/blog blog.yourdomain.comWHAT SEARCH... Cloning a Database for Staging Making a copy to work on.WHYTesting updates, changes or development against real data without... Cloudflare and Staging Sites Keeping test environments separate.THE PROBLEMA staging site behind Cloudflare with caching... Cloudflare and Subdomains Handling additional hostnames.ADDING A SUBDOMAINCreate it in cPanel first, so the hosting serves... Coding Safety Rules What to always do.BACK UP FIRSTBefore running anything generated against real data or a live... Comparing Two Databases Finding what differs.WHEN YOU NEED ITConfirming a migration copied everything Comparing staging... Continuous Delivery and Deployment Automating the release.WHAT CONTINUOUS DELIVERY MEANSEvery change that passes checks is ready to... Continuous Delivery for Machine Learning Automating the path to production.WHAT DIFFERS FROM SOFTWARE DELIVERYThree things change, not... Creating a Staging Copy of Your WordPress Site A staging site is a private copy where you can test updates, new plugins or design changes... Creating a Staging Site on Your Hosting Testing on the server before production.WITH SOFTACULOUSFor WordPress, Softaculous >... Customising Your Shop Without Breaking It How to make changes that survive updates.USE A CHILD THEMEIf you edit theme files directly, the... Database Naming and Organisation Conventions that help later.NAMING DATABASESDescriptive of the site or application: shop, blog,... Designing a Data Warehouse Structuring the whole.WHAT LAYERS TO BUILDRaw: data as received, unmodifiedStaging or cleaned:... Designing Pipelines for Failure Assuming things break.WHAT WILL FAILSources unavailable Credentials expiring Schemas changing... Development Practices That Prevent Problems Habits that reduce the number of bad afternoons.VERSION CONTROL EVERYTHINGCode, configuration... DevOps for a Small Team Proportionate practice.WHAT A SMALL TEAM ACTUALLY NEEDSVersion control for everything A... Diagnosing a Drop in Search Traffic Working out what happened.FIRST, CONFIRM ITCompare like with like: the same period length,... Diagnosing a Plugin Conflict Finding the culprit.THE SYMPTOMSomething stops working, usually after installing or updating a... Diagnosing Slow PHP Execution When pages take too long.WHAT TO ESTABLISH FIRSTWhether it is all pages or some Whether it... DNS for Staging and Development Sites Separate environments.THE OPTIONSA subdomain of your main domain A separate domain A hosts file... Duplicate Content From Aliases and Subdomains An SEO problem.WHAT HAPPENSThe same site reachable at several addresses.Search engines see... Duplicate Versions of My Site Are Indexed The same content at several addresses.WHAT YOU SEEBoth http and https versions in results Both... Essential Git Operations The daily commands.WHAT TO KNOW FIRSTChecking the current state Seeing what has changed Staging... Experiment Tracking and Model Versioning Keeping track of what was tried.WHAT TO RECORD FOR EVERY EXPERIMENTThe code version The data... Fixing Duplicate Content The same content at multiple addresses.WHERE IT COMES FROMhttp and https versions both accessible... How Git Works The model beneath the commands.WHAT GIT STORESSnapshots of the entire project at each commit, not... How to Create a Subdomain A subdomain is a section of your existing domain, such as blog.yourdomain.com or... How to Tell If a Backup Is Complete Checking an archive before you rely on it.CHECK THE SIZECompare against what you expect. A... HTTPS for Staging and Development Sites Test environments need certificates too.WHYIf staging runs on http while production runs on... I Overwrote the Live Site with a Staging Copy A common and painful mistake.WHAT HAPPENEDA push-to-live operation, or a manual copy, replaced... Installing Applications with Softaculous Softaculous installs hundreds of web applications in a few clicks, creating the database and... Keeping Skills and Projects Current Maintenance that is not about any single site.WHAT GOES STALEPHP versions, which reach end of... Keeping Staging and Production in Step A staging environment only helps if it resembles production.WHAT MUST MATCHPHP version and... Keeping Themes and Builders Updated Maintenance.WHY UPDATESecurity fixes Compatibility with WordPress updates Bug fixesTHE... Laravel and Framework Database Notes Application databases you or a developer built.MIGRATIONSLaravel and similar frameworks define... Learning to Maintain Your Own Site Reducing dependence on someone else.WHAT IS WORTH LEARNINGEditing text and images Adding pages... Making Sure Your Site Can Be Crawled The prerequisite for everything else.WHAT CAN PREVENT CRAWLINGrobots.txt disallowing the site or... Managing Database Changes Across Environments The hardest part of deployment.THE PROBLEMCode can be replaced wholesale. A database cannot,... Managing Environment Configuration Keeping settings out of your code.THE PRINCIPLECode is the same in every environment.... Managing Environments and Configuration Development, staging and production.WHAT SHOULD DIFFERCredentials Endpoints Debug and logging... Managing Pipeline Code Engineering practice for data.WHAT TO VERSION CONTROLTransformation code Pipeline definitions... Managing Test Environments Where testing happens.WHAT ENVIRONMENTS TYPICALLY EXISTLocal development Shared development or... Managing Updates Safely Without breaking your site.THE PROCESSBack up Update on staging first, for anything significant... Merging Data Between Two Databases Combining content from two sites.WHEN THIS ARISESConsolidating two sites into one Recovering... Migrating a Site Without Losing Rankings The highest-risk SEO operation.BEFOREExport a complete list of current URLs from analytics,... Migrating Between Platforms Moving from one application to another.WHEN THIS ARISESOutgrowing a platform Consolidating onto... Mixed Content After a Site Migration A common post-migration symptom.WHY IT HAPPENSThe database was copied from a site running on a... Offering Staging Environments Selling safety.WHAT IT ISA copy of a client's site where changes can be tested before going... Page Builder Problems Common issues.PAGES LOAD SLOWLYExpected. See the performance article.Reduce what the builder... Password-Protecting a Folder with Directory Privacy Directory Privacy puts a browser password prompt in front of a folder, handled by the web server... Planning an HTTPS Rollout for a Large Site When a site has thousands of pages and real traffic.BEFORETake a full backup and verify it Record... Projects, Billing and Organisation Structure The foundational containers.WHAT A PROJECT CONTAINSEnabled APIs Resources Credentials and service... Protecting Directories With a Password Restricting access.WHAT IT DOESRequires a username and password before anything in a directory... Recovering a Deleted Database When it is gone.FIRSTStop. Do not create a new database with the same name, which complicates... Rolling Back a Deployment Undoing a change that broke something.WITH GITChecking out the previous commit restores the... Search Rankings After a Migration Protecting your visibility.WHAT CAN GO WRONGURLs changed without redirects The site blocked from... Selling Subscriptions and Recurring Products Recurring billing is a significant step up in complexity.WHAT IT REQUIRESA subscriptions... SEO When Redesigning a Website The most common way businesses lose rankings.BEFORE THE REDESIGNExport all current URLs from... Setting Up a Staging or Development Site Test changes somewhere other than the live site. This is the cheapest insurance available.THE... Setting Up a Staging Site A copy for testing.WHYTesting changes on a live site is how sites break publicly.HOWCreate a... Setting Up Staging on Your VPS Testing before production.THE OPTIONSA subdomain on the same server, with its own document root,... Shop Plugins and Conflicts Extensions and their cost.WHY SHOPS ACCUMULATE PLUGINSEach feature needs one: shipping, payment,... Signs You Should Change Theme When the foundation is wrong.THE SIGNSYou cannot achieve what you need without extensive... Someone Deleted Content and I Need It Back Recovering individual items rather than the whole site.FIRST, CHECK THE APPLICATIONMany... Structuring Transformation Layers Organising models.WHAT LAYERS TO USESources: declared references to raw tablesStaging: one model... Subdomains and Addon Domains: Everything That Matters, Briefly The whole category in one page.THE DISTINCTIONAddon domain and subdomain: separate content,... Subdomains Versus Separate Domains A common decision when adding a new section or a new project.USE A SUBDOMAIN WHENThe content... Syncing a Database Between Environments Moving data safely in the right direction.THE SAFE DIRECTIONProduction to staging or local. This... Taking Over Someone Else's Project Inheriting code you did not write.BEFORE COMMITTINGLook at it first. Quote after you have seen... Technical SEO After a Migration What to check when a site moves.WHAT BREAKS MOST OFTENThe search engine visibility setting,... Testing Before You Deploy What to check, and how much.THE MINIMUM FOR ANY CHANGEThe page or feature you changed The... Testing Generated Code and Commands Safely Before it touches anything real.THE PRINCIPLENever run anything generated as the first attempt on... Testing PHP Changes Safely Not breaking your live site.BEFORE ANY CHANGEBack up.For a version change, that is not... Testing Plugins Before Using Them Live Trying things safely.WHERE TO TESTA staging site.A subdomain with a copy of your site, protected... Testing Your Plan Whether it would work.WHY TESTAn untested plan is an assumption.WHAT TO TESTRestoring a backup... Themes and Builders: Everything That Matters, Briefly The whole category in one page.CHOOSING A THEMECheck the demo's speed before committing. That is... Transformation: Everything That Matters, Briefly The summary.LOAD RAW, THEN TRANSFORM IN PLACETransformation is far easier to test, version and... Understanding Environments Development, staging and production.WHAT ENVIRONMENTS ARESeparate copies of a system, for... Updating a Shop Safely Changes without breaking sales.THE RISKAn update breaks the checkout and you do not notice.Every... Updating Devices Remotely Changing software in the field.WHY IT IS ESSENTIALVulnerabilities are found, and unpatchable... Updating Plugins Keeping them current.WHY UPDATESecurity fixes, primarily.Outdated plugins are the most common... Version Control and Git: Everything That Matters, Briefly The summary.VERSION CONTROL IS NOT A BACKUP BY ITSELFA repository on one machine is lost with... Website and CMS Terms Content management.CMSA content management system: software for managing a site's content without... Website Recovery Planning Getting back online.WHAT YOU NEED TO RESTORE A SITEA current backup of files and database Access... What a Subdomain Is A section under your existing domain.WHAT IT LOOKS LIKEshop.yourdomain.com blog.yourdomain.com... What to Check After Any Update Post-update verification.WHAT TO TESTThe homepage A content page Your contact form, including... When a Deployment Breaks the Site Recovering quickly.FIRST, RESTORE SERVICERoll back. Check out the previous commit, or switch the... When There Is No Usable Backup The worst case.FIRST, EXHAUST THE OPTIONSCheck whether we hold a server-side restore point within... Why Updates Matter Most The single most important measure.WHAT AN UPDATE FREQUENTLY CONTAINSA fix for a known... Wildcard Certificates Explained Covering all subdomains with one certificate.WHAT IT COVERS*.yourdomain.com covers any... Working with APIs and External Services Calling other systems from your application.PRACTICAL RULESAlways set a timeout. An API call... Working with Subdomains for Applications Separating parts of a project.COMMON USESapi.yourdomain.com for an API app.yourdomain.com for an... Writing a Correct robots.txt A small file with large consequences.WHAT IT DOESTells crawlers which paths they may request. It...
Back

Are you happy with your experience? Leave us a review on Trustpilot.


Trustpilot