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?

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

 

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.

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

@Marc

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

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

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

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?

 

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

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?

It switches them to use the test APi locations

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. 

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

Fail if not reconnected to a test stripe account, yes

@marc

On 11/15/2024 at 8:12 AM, Marc said:

Fail if not reconnected to a test stripe account, yes

OMG my test install on my local PC has been taking payments duplicating the real payments from my live site.  Adding \define( 'NEXUS_TEST_GATEWAYS', TRUE ); to the constants.php file hasn't prevented successful payments from Stripe.  I would have never known until a disgruntled member complained and I've found 9 duplicated payments over the last month so far.

We need a method to disable subscriptions renewals in test sites.  Can someone advise of a fool proof method please.

@Marc

Could this be a v5 bug?

 

 

If you believe there is a bug in setting the test gateways, please post that as a bug in the bug area. 

14 hours ago, Marc said:

If you believe there is a bug in setting the test gateways, please post that as a bug in the bug area. 

Thanks, I will.