Dev Site Quandary - File Locations

[CheersnGears]

I am trying to clone my site to my test install, but I use S3 for file storage.  I realize if I upgrade the test install it will change files on S3 as well.  Can someone help me think of a workflow to get a test site created so I can do a dry run upgrade to IPS5?

[Marc]

Make sure you backup everything then

• Copy site files
• copy s3 to a copy location
• Get the dev site running
• Go to the files->Storage section and set up a new storage location
• Change the locations of the files to that new location, ensuring you select that you already moved the files

 

[CheersnGears]

2 minutes ago, Marc said:

Make sure you backup everything then

• Copy site files
• copy s3 to a copy location
• Get the dev site running
• Go to the files->Storage section and set up a new storage location
• Change the locations of the files to that new location, ensuring you select that you already moved the files

 

Thank you.  I think this could be important workflow and might even need to be a note in the download section to warn people if they use S3 so they aren't accidentally upgrading their live site files.

[Marc]

Its not something we would document really, as essentially its the person who runs the sites responsibility to do their copies correctly. However when asked, thats generally the way I would do it

[Richard Arch]

@Marc

Would you have any recommenations on how to prevent automatic emails and purchase renewals happening while you are setting up the test site?

[Daniel F]

Email can be disabled by setting the EMAIL_DEBUG_PATH constant

\define( 'EMAIL_DEBUG_PATH', '/dev/null' );

 

OR, depending on your setup you can also disable it direct on the mail server  or use a service like https://debugmail.io

The NEXUS_TEST_GATEWAYS constant can be used to set the payment gateways to sandbox mode

[CheersnGears]

A page for setting up test install clones with these considerations would be welcome. 

[Richard Arch]

Ok, got you on adding those constants.

2 hours ago, Daniel F said:

The NEXUS_TEST_GATEWAYS constant can be used to set the payment gateways to sandbox mode

Is there a chance that the renewal task will run before you have changed all the products over to use the test gateway?

 

[Marc]

What you could do is ensure you add the constants file before you add anything else though. Then its not a possibility

[Richard Arch]

4 hours ago, Marc said:

What you could do is ensure you add the constants file before you add anything else though. Then its not a possibility

Oh, adding the NEXUS_TEST_GATEWAYS constant does more than just allow us to add test payment method.  Does it actually disable the existing payment methods in some way?

[Marc]

It switches them to use the test APi locations

[CheersnGears]

These's sorts of tips in the proper order would make for a great help document.

I'm not saying you include the basics like how to copy the databases or files, but pointing out that S3 usage is a consideration and the ways to shut down auto billing and e-mails before they happen would be a great guide for us Admins. 

[Richard Arch]

37 minutes ago, Marc said:

It switches them to use the test APi locations

Thats brilliant, so in case of Stripe any payment would fail.  Maybe one day I will be brave enough to try that out 😉

Thanks Marc

[Marc]

Fail if not reconnected to a test stripe account, yes