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WordPress

Posted by Holly Logan
Holly Logan
7,142 Points

Live Wordpress staging site

Hi, I am a techdegree student in front-end dev and I also know the basics of Wordpress.

I have just got my first client and they want me to update/manage their website. It's Wordpress and hosted by https://www.net24.co.nz/.

I want to duplicate their site and make a staging site where I can do the updates and test out a few things before updating the live site. I'm really confused on how to do that - FTP, phpMyAdmin and control panels are very confusing for a novice! But I need to dive in and start somewhere.

What is the best (read: easiest) way for me to create a staging site? Do I create a subdomain on the control panel and copy the files over there? Or is it just as easy and efficient to use a Wordpress plug-in?

Please advise where I should start. I have read many articles online suggesting different methods and I'm confused!

Thanks in advance.

6 Answers

Joel Bardsley
Joel Bardsley
31,249 Points
Joel Bardsley
Joel Bardsley
31,249 Points

Hi Holly,

To anticipate/prevent any unexpected issues when deploying to live, I would definitely set up a staging site on a subdomain hosted on their current hosting account. Ideally, your local dev environment would also replicate the live server as closely as possible - especially if you get issues on the staging site that you can't replicate on your dev site.

Instead of using Desktop Server I use Vagrant and Virtualbox (with PuPHPet) to create a local virtual machine, by following the steps shown in this article: A Simple Development to Deployment Workflow. It took me a while to get my head around it initially, but now that I have it set up I'm very happy with it.

Holly Logan
Holly Logan
7,142 Points
Holly Logan
Holly Logan
7,142 Points

Thanks Elijah. I have migrated a dev WP site to live using a method similar to that. To be specific, where do I put my staging site? Do I use a subdomain or can I make the staging site a local dev site using Desktop Server?

Elijah Chiurri
Elijah Chiurri
890 Points
Elijah Chiurri
Elijah Chiurri
890 Points

I would use either Desktop Server or a subdomain. It just depends on what method you prefer. I've used both and have been pleased by both results.

Elijah Chiurri
Elijah Chiurri
890 Points
Elijah Chiurri
Elijah Chiurri
890 Points

The duplicator plugin is my goto for backingup and transferring a WordPress website. This YouTube video with walk you through the whole process. https://youtu.be/d4RvSamukXU

Holly Logan
Holly Logan
7,142 Points
Holly Logan
Holly Logan
7,142 Points

Hi Joel, thanks for your reply. I will do as you suggest and set up a sub-domain. I have just logged into their hosting account and it appears that their website takes up 91% of their disk space. So if I duplicate their site and make a staging site, it will need double the space - is that correct?

Therefore if there is no space available then they either need to upgrade their hosting space, or I host the staging site locally using Desktop Server? Please let me know if I'm on the right track - total newbie here!

Jacob Mishkin
Jacob Mishkin
23,118 Points

I agree with Joel Bardsley on this one. A way to get around this is on your own hosting account, create a sub domain, then use all in one migrate plugin to migrate from their site to yours. the only thing to remember is that logins are in the database so when you migrate over to your staging site the login and password will be the one used to enter their site.

Holly Logan
Holly Logan
7,142 Points
Holly Logan
Holly Logan
7,142 Points

One more question and to clarify before I start this - I can't create a subdomain on the client's domain because there is not enough space. Instead of creating a staging site locally, can I create a subdomain on my own personal site? My site is "mysite.com", so I can create it to be "clientstaging.mysite.com"? Then they can view it and approve before I transfer to their hosting account?

Are there any negatives to doing this and does it adversely affect mysite.com in any way? Note that mysite and the client have different hosting providers.

Jacob Mishkin
Jacob Mishkin
23,118 Points

Not at all. That's a great way of going about it. Create a subdomain on your site, then send them the link. It doesn't effect your site at all. So no worries.

Holly Logan
Holly Logan
7,142 Points
Holly Logan
Holly Logan
7,142 Points

Thanks for clarification Jacob, I've got work to do! Cheers

Jacob Mishkin
Jacob Mishkin
23,118 Points

not a problem.