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WordPress

Francois Dejardin
Francois Dejardin
1,778 Points
Posted by Francois Dejardin
Francois Dejardin
1,778 Points

Best WorkFlow for me

Hi all ;)

First of all, thanks a lot for all that great training courses ! It makes me better every days !

So, i've just follow the wordpress modern workflow and after all that nice advices i need to create my own workflow following my needs.

I'm currently working on a wordpress application which will have a lot of dynamic updates on production server. New users, new posts, Buddypress, Woocommerce and so on. So the database will often be updated. Also, i will need to extend the application features in future releases and then will have to update the theme and plugins in the best transparency way for online visitors.

Here is my current workflow : i'm using basic desktopServer on my Mac local machine so i can easily create, update and remove different wordpress configurations and access it like if it was live. I use Sublime Text and Dreamweaver CC as IDE to develop. Have a githup git setup for my application so i can control versioning and make sure i'll not lost anything. I've set up Staging & Production servers on my VPS in order to respect the process to my my application live.

It's here that i need your help,

For now i update my staging and production servers with ftp and mysql export/import ... i've seen that desktopServer can export local to remote applications with or without database, i've already follow what wordMove could make ( this solution seems to be a little hard for me as i'm not very confortable with terminal ) .. but i'm not sure what of current solutions will be the best suitable for me ...

Is there anybody here that can share some experiences with me ?

Any Helps or suggestions would be greatly appreciated ;)

thanks in advance !

François

4 Answers

Ryan Hunt
Ryan Hunt
16,091 Points
Ryan Hunt
Ryan Hunt
16,091 Points

Yea WordPress doesn't really make this easy.

"Is the only real way to make things safe is to put the production server on maintenance mode, update the staging database with live one and then export staging to production before disable maintenance mode ?"

As far as I know, that is the best way to handle the migration on your own. -___- Not the most elegant solution, but that's the way it was done at my last job.

It might be time to look into a managed WordPress hosting environment that can automate a lot of the sysadmin stuff for you.

https://pantheon.io https://wpengine.com/

are both good options and for the cheapest plans cost about the same as a VPS.

If you are going to go at it on your own, here is a good outline of another developer's workflow. https://zach-adams.com/2014/09/ultimate-wordpress-development-workflow/

Seems like a homebrew containerized system of sorts.

Francois Dejardin
Francois Dejardin
1,778 Points
Francois Dejardin
Francois Dejardin
1,778 Points

Wooow !

Thanks a lot for this Answer Ryan !

Effectively i think a need a good wp managed hosting plan because i have to concentrate on my main skills and not too many on server lever or terminal ones ...

Thanks for the two hosting services links you provide to me, it looks very nice..

which one do you advice to me independent of price for features and services ?

Will also check the developer workflow for documentation ;)

Francois Dejardin
Francois Dejardin
1,778 Points
Francois Dejardin
Francois Dejardin
1,778 Points

Ryan ;)

I've followed Zach Adams workFlow (almost the same from teamtreehouse) and installed (with a lot of issues , but it's done) VV-VV-VV and WordMove ... It seems really a nice way for local WP installations... Have to test all the features, but a lot better than MAMP and desktopServer ...

I've asked u before an advice on which hosting service is for you the best between pantheon and wpengine , what one can fit my requirements and offer the best features (independently of the prices that seems almost the same). Also in term of scalability and support...

I'm now sure that i need other 'wordpress oriented managed hosting' and these seem to meet what i'm looking for...

thanks again Ryan :)

Ryan Hunt
Ryan Hunt
16,091 Points
Ryan Hunt
Ryan Hunt
16,091 Points

A colleague of mine had great success with Pantheon but I haven't used it myself. Please report back if you end up trying one or the other.

Francois Dejardin
Francois Dejardin
1,778 Points
Francois Dejardin
Francois Dejardin
1,778 Points

Ryan ;)

I've followed Zach Adams workFlow (almost the same from teamtreehouse) and installed (with a lot of issues , but it's done) VV-VV-VV and WordMove ... It seems really a nice way for local WP installations... Have to test all the features, but a lot better than MAMP and desktopServer ...

I've asked u before an advice on which hosting service is for you the best between pantheon and wpengine , what one can fit my requirements and offer the best features (independently of the prices that seems almost the same). Also in term of scalability and support...

I'm now sure that i need other 'wordpress oriented managed hosting' and these seem to meet what i'm looking for...

thanks again Ryan :)

Francois Dejardin
Francois Dejardin
1,778 Points
Francois Dejardin
Francois Dejardin
1,778 Points

Arf.. ok.. you've already answered my question :)

will try Pantheon so !

thanks

connorriley
connorriley
23,101 Points
connorriley
connorriley
23,101 Points

Hi François,

My company uses DeployBot which integrates with your GIT repository.

For my personal sites I generally just FTP though.

Francois Dejardin
Francois Dejardin
1,778 Points
Francois Dejardin
Francois Dejardin
1,778 Points

Thanks a lot for your answer ;)

Well, i know it is is possible to deploy from GIT, but what about databases ?

Is the only real way to make things safe is to put the production server on maintenance mode, update the staging database with live one and then export staging to production before disable maintenance mode ?

Mmmhh... don't really like this idea as i really would like to make the update process as transparent as possible for visitors...

btw thanks again :)

François

connorriley
connorriley
23,101 Points
connorriley
connorriley
23,101 Points

Once I have a database on the production site I do not touch it (except to back it up) and I never make changes to my local database that I wish to push to production site. May I ask why you want to do that?

Another thing worth mentioning is it is possible to set up your staging site to use your production site's database by altering the wp-config.php file.

Francois Dejardin
Francois Dejardin
1,778 Points
Francois Dejardin
Francois Dejardin
1,778 Points

Yeps, i've already thought about using the same database on staging and production but it's very delicate because database could be alter by plugins that are added/removed and activated/deactivated, posts and custom posts that are added, updated, deleted and so on...

It's the same for local to stage and production ... the database should follow what it's updated in website content and features .

As i mentioned it in my first post, my application will use a lot of interactions between visitors and the website, so it will update database very often... Also, the application has to be extendable to offer regular new features that depend on custom post types and plugins... i can't simply copy and paste database from local to remote..

Do you understand me ?

It makes me get an headache :-/

thanks again ;)