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Best practice for site re-development
When building a new site where a client has an existing (non-txp) site, do you:
a) Develop the new site live?
b) Develop the new site on a testing server then copy the pages/forms across once you’re ready to go live?
c) Develop the new site on a testing server then copy the database across using rss_db_adminor other method?
I know these are all options I’m just interested in how others handle this situation.
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Re: Best practice for site re-development
definitely not A. dont see any pros to this method but lots of cons.
this could also be an option -> hcg_templates
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Re: Best practice for site re-development
Any other opinions?
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#4 2007-08-06 10:05:15
- guiguibonbon
- Member
- Registered: 2006-02-20
- Posts: 296
Re: Best practice for site re-development
I always develop on the server, simpler and no bad surpises. I often either :
- password protect, and display an “under construction” page when not logged in.
- send the dns somewhere else during development, adding a robot.txt on the server i’m developing at, so that search engines don’t index it. If you want to be extra careful, you could also ask your browser to turn off referer headers. Otherwise, if you click on an external link, the link to wherever you’re developing appears on this website’s statistics.
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Re: Best practice for site re-development
I decided to go with the sub-domain option and switching the files / settings when complete.
Thanks for the reminder on the robots.txt. I hadn’t thought about that.
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Re: Best practice for site re-development
so i’ve copied the directory i want to work on into a new directory on my server, i cloned the mysql database, and i updated the config.php file to point to the new location, and basically i get the 404 not found(same 404 page from my original site) and if i go into the /textpattern directory i am able to see the whole backend. so the site seems to be talking to the database. where should i be looking to fix the problem?
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#7 2007-09-13 16:34:10
- els
- Moderator
- From: The Netherlands
- Registered: 2004-06-06
- Posts: 7,458
Re: Best practice for site re-development
Did you change the site URL and directory paths in admin > preferences?
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Re: Best practice for site re-development
Els wrote:
Did you change the site URL and directory paths in admin > preferences?
thanks that did it. i wish setting up a txp site on your local machine was as easy as this!
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Re: Best practice for site re-development
ok so i thought this was easier than it was. i thought the config.php was changed properly but it turns out that my test site wasn’t so test and it was directly linked to the main site’s database. where do i look now?
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Re: Best practice for site re-development
There in the config.php, you should change the line that points to the main site’s database so it points to the test site’s database.
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Re: Best practice for site re-development
maniqui wrote:
There in the config.php, you should change the line that points to the main site’s database so it points to the test site’s database.
yep did that.
ok to elaborate i just figured out that somewhere in this process – when i went into the test site’s admin panel and i changed the site’s address, it changed it on my root’s installation as well. i was able to flip it back but i deleted a post myself and i’m likely not going to restore my db just for one post that i didnt even like anyways haha.
so i cant figure out how to really run a textpattern test site still and i’ve followed two great tutorials on the subject(one in textbook and the other by wion)
Last edited by mrtunes (2007-09-13 17:51:19)
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Re: Best practice for site re-development
whats the confusion? a txp test site is basically set up exactly like any other textpattern installation. there is no real difference.
if your test site is still somehow linked to your main site then your config.php is still messed up.
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