Creating Staging Websites with WP Toolkit

Picture this: you're managing a WordPress website and you spot a shiny new plugin. 

The temptation hits—what if this plugin could solve all your problems or add that cool feature you've been dreaming of? Without a second thought, you install it on your live site, crossing your fingers that everything works out.

Or maybe you’ve got a backlog of updates. You're so many versions behind that Smart Updates isn't quite cutting it. Do you just run the updates anyway and hope for the best?

Don’t do it! This is what we call a "cowboy coder" move—riding into the unknown without a plan. Sometimes it works, but more often, you could be facing broken functionality, lost data, or even a total site crash.

There's a smarter way: a staging site.

Think of it as your website's safe zone, a place to test new plugins, features, or design changes without risking your live site. It’s like rehearsing before the big show—you get to work out all the kinks and ensure everything is perfect.

Whatever update you're tackling—whether it's fixing code, running updates, or experimenting with a shiny new feature—a staging site is your best friend. Don’t be a cowboy coder—use a staging site and keep your website safe and sound!

How to Create a Staging Site Using WP Toolkit

But before you dive in, there's one important thing to remember: you’ll need sufficient disk space and inodes (file capacity).

Creating a staging site means making an identical clone of your live site. If your disk and inode usage is already above 50%, as you can check from your stats in the cPanel home, you might need to clean up unnecessary files or consider upgrading your plan.

With that out the way, here’s how to set up your staging site:

1. Log in to cPanel: Access your cPanel account and open the WP Toolkit from the left-hand side menu.
2. Clone Your Site:
   • Locate the WordPress site you want to clone and click "Clone."
     
     
     
     
   • Specify the subdomain where the staging site will be created. WP Toolkit will set up this subdomain automatically.
     
     
     
     
   • If needed, change the database name to something that makes sense to you, or leave it as the random one that is created.
3. Start Cloning: Click "Start," and WP Toolkit will begin cloning your site, copying all files and databases to the new location. This may take some time depending on how much data has to be copied.
4. Finalising the Clone: Once the cloning process is complete, click "Close." You now have an exact copy of your site to use for testing and development on the subdomain selected.

Potential Issues and Considerations

While WP Toolkit makes staging straightforward, keep a few things in mind:

• Resource Limitations: Make sure you have enough disk space and inodes. For instance, if your site uses 1GB, you'll need at least another 1GB free for the staging site.
• Database Permissions: Whilst rare, issues might arise if the database user lacks necessary permissions, such as the LOCK TABLES privilege.
• Environment Differences: WP Toolkit doesn’t clone server settings like PHP versions or SSL certificates. If you've customized the PHP version for your live site, you may need to replicate this setting manually for the staging site. Additionally, SSL certificates might not be automatically issued for new subdomains, potentially causing issues with HTTPS. Ensure the staging environment closely matches the live one to avoid unexpected behavior.
• Remote DNS Considerations: If you're not using Kualo’s nameservers and are using remote DNS services (such as CloudFlare), remember that the A record for the staging subdomain won't be set up automatically. You'll need to manually set up DNS records for the staging subdomain to ensure it resolves correctly.
• Edge Cases: Some features or settings might not transfer perfectly, so double-check the new site for consistency.

Syncing Changes from Staging to Live

Once you’ve tested your changes on the staging site, you can sync them to your live site using the Copy Data feature in WP Toolkit:

1. Go to Your Staging Site and Click "Copy Data":
   • Begin by navigating to your staging site in WP Toolkit and clicking the "Copy Data" option.
2. Select Source and Destination:
   • In the "Location" section, your staging site should be automatically selected as the source. For the destination, select your live site. This is crucial to ensure that the changes made on the staging site are correctly applied to the live environment.
     
     
     
     
3. Data to Copy:
   • You can choose to copy "Files only," "Database only," or "Files and Database." If you've made changes to plugins or themes, copying files might be necessary. Be cautious when copying databases, especially if your live site has seen new content, comments, or orders. Overwriting data can lead to loss of new information.
   • There are additional options to "Replace files modified on target," which can overwrite changes on the live site with those from the staging site, and "Remove missing files." Use this last option if you've removed plugins or themes in the staging site and want to reflect those changes on the live site.
     
     
     
     
4. Database Tables:
   • Decide which database tables to copy. You can choose "All tables," "New tables only," or "Selected tables." For e-commerce sites, be cautious with "All tables," as this could overwrite recent orders or customer information. The default setting excludes critical tables like postmeta, posts, usermeta, and users to protect data that frequently changes on live sites. You can manually adjust these selections based on your needs.
     
     
     
     
5. Create a Restore Point:
   • WP Toolkit can create a restore point before applying any changes. This restore point is a backup of your live site, ensuring that you can revert if something goes wrong during the data transfer. We recommend keeping this checked as it provides essential protection if something goes wrong. You will need sufficient space to store this backup.

Finalising and Cleaning Up

After successfully syncing, review your live site to ensure everything works as expected.

If you no longer need the staging site, you can safely delete it from WP Toolkit to free up resources. If you encounter any problems, you can easily restore from the backup you took before copying your data.

Remember, while WP Toolkit removes the files and database, the staging subdomain itself will remain.

And there you have it! Whether you're fixing code, running updates, or testing a shiny new feature, a staging site is your best friend. So, don’t be a cowboy coder—use a staging site and keep your website safe and sound!