Push a staging website live

What this is for

• Create a new production site from staging.
• Synchronise staging into an existing site.
• Control exclusions, deletion and PHP synchronisation.

Steps

1. 1

   Create and verify a fresh backup of the destination website.

2. 2

   On the staging website Overview, select Push live. The menu gives you two choices: To an existing website and To a new website.

3. 3

   Choose To a new website only when Enhance should create the production website for you. Select its customer and package, then enter the final production domain exactly.

4. 4

   Choose To an existing website when the production site already exists. In Destination website, select the correct live website and recheck its domain before continuing.

5. 5

   Under Exclude files, tick wp-config.php or wp-content only when those items must remain unchanged on the live website. Use Add custom file for another path that must not be copied.

6. 6

   Review the selected databases and users. Untick any database or user that must not be overwritten on the destination.

7. 7

   Review Other options carefully. Delete files from the destination removes destination files that are absent from staging; Sync PHP version changes the live PHP version; Perform a WordPress search and replace updates staging URLs in copied WordPress data.

8. 8

   Select Push live only after every destination and option has been checked, then test the homepage, forms, logins, scheduled tasks, checkout and email delivery.

Check it worked

• The production domain opens the content that was approved on staging.
• Forms, logins, checkout, scheduled jobs, email and excluded files all behave as expected.

What the controls do