ACP - Backup / Restore

[z929669]

I have a TESTINSTALL instance of IPS 4.x.x Forums upgraded from my previous IPB 3.4.6 forums and have made many changes to the ACP in terms of almost every setting, including building out new forums labels/structure/mods/perms, Menu Manager, etc.

I will be upgrading my production IPB3 instance soon and want to overwrite my ACP settings from TESTINSTALL if possible to avoid the repeat work. Using UPDATE on the core_sys_conf_settings table seems obvious and relatively risk-free ... any gotchas here?

What about other settings that likely require additional tables and meta-info like Menu Manager, Forum labels/structure, Member-Forum-Mod perms, Block config, etc? Perhaps it is safer to manually handle all of this, but wondering if anyone has devised a best practice(s) for this piece.

Thanks in advance.

 

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Edit:

The following can possibly be updated using UPDATE ... SET from other instance

• core_sys_conf_settings
• core_menu

 

 

Edited March 4, 2020 by z929669

[bfarber]

There really isn't a direct staging -> production approach with regards to the underlying data. Most clients do one of the following:

1. Copy their live site to a test install, do the work, then move that test install back over to the live site entirely.
2. Copy your live site to a test install, set it up how you want it. When you are ready to update production, make the same changes there manually. You can export some things, such as themes, language packs, pages databases, etc. to facilitate this process.

Unfortunately there really isn't an out of the box solution for copying setting values or menu configurations over.

 

[z929669]

It's a shame, but it is what it is.

Can you or I add formally as a feature request, or is that process just informal via forum post?

Thanks for the suggestions. I will probably do #1, but that may require an effective production downgrade and re-upgrade in some situations down the road. Very doable though if the software and license policy will let me do that.

EDIT: actually, I will try to update some individual tables controlling the ACP and post back results.

Edited March 5, 2020 by z929669

[bfarber]

Feature requests should be posted in the appropriate "Feedback" forum on this community, but let me just say...I work with a lot of managed clients and am already aware of such deficiencies. 😉 

[z929669]

ok, thanks for the input!