moving staged website to live hosting area

[Crusty 0]

We are in the formative stage of setting up a web develpment agency.  We have been using PageLines mostly because I believed it would be the best tool for the job.

 

However in the last week I have seen our developers take almost an entire day to transpose a concept site from the staging area to the live hosting space.  My limited techical knowledge and the information for Pagelines DMS lead me to believe this should be a simple/ quick process. 

 

Less than an hour to transfer files, config etc.

 

How are other developers in the community transfering websites from a development space to a live hosted space? 

 

Further to that point, how long should this task take?

 

We are using DMS Developer.

 

Thanks in Advance,

Mark Travers

[James B 436]

Hi Mark

 

How did they transfer the information across? It should be a reasonably quick process. Export your pages/posts via the inbuilt Wordpress options in tools>export and then upload them into the new site via tools>import.

 

Them export your DMS settings via settings>import/export from the DMS control panel, making sure you've checked all the relevant options of what you want to export etc. Then upload the settings file produced into the new site via the same admin panel.

 

Now you have your content and your settings all on the new site. Make sure you have all the same plugins installed as on the original site etc. Certain options need to be set manually, like selecting a home page and a posts page, making sure the widgets are in the right position, but after that you're pretty much done :-)

[tpldrew 0]

Hey James,

I also just had this issue (or a similar one) after migrating everything from Staging to Production most things came across fine - however - all the iBoxes content is missing.

Any idea if that's something I can repair?

- Andrew

 

P.S. My migration process is essentially transferring all tables and all wp-content across to the production site.

- Andrew

[Simon 248]

You will probably have to search and replace image paths in the database, unless your staging site has the same url as production. I wrote up a post about localhost dev here, you might get some insight: http://www.pagelines.com/local-development-tips-for-dms/

[tpldrew 0]

Simon,

The images are not the only thing missing - the default text (Lorem Ipsum) is also there.

None of the content is in the iBox (it's not a missing image.)

- Andrew

[Simon 248]

all the settings are stored in the db, in the post_meta tables

[tpldrew 0]

Simon,

This screenshot might help...

 

As you can see... the data is there but on the front end nothing shows up...

- Andrew

[Simon 248]

click on local, not global.

[tpldrew 0]

Simon,

 

The values ARE in the table.

These ARE Global settings (this is the footer) but even local level content is displaying the same behavior.

 

Any other ideas?

- Andrew

[Simon 248]

I know we have seen a few issues with wpengine when people try to edit sites while they are in production mode as WPE use super aggressive caching. Pages are cached as well as data in the databases.

 

Have you tried removing the boxes and adding a new set?

[tpldrew 0]

Simon,

On the Staging site there is no caching and the same issues occur.

Also, even when I purge the cache on the live site (which works when I'm in DMS Edit mode) the content never shows up.

 

Obviously, if I create new boxes this will work. But what I'm trying to do is to retain the content between production and staging.

- Andrew

[tpldrew 0]

Simon,

One other note - this may have something to do with the Javascript animation...

The same thing happens with the Pricing Module. Meaning unless I use the editor to republish the page the content is missing.

 

(One exception with the global iboxes is that the content never shows up.)

- Andrew

[Simon 248]

Well i have no idea how wpengine transfer data, probably a question to ask wpengine:

'Why does my post_meta data differ between staging and production'.

 

The only advice i can offer is to ask them that 1st, and if they shrug you off re-add the boxes.

 

You can PM  me a login if you want.

[tpldrew 0]

Simon,

I don't think you're reading my responses very thoroughly.

 

The data IS in the post_meta table. It IS being transferred.

 

What do you need a login for?

 

- Andrew

[Simon 248]

Well, so i could see the data in the editor but not on the page.

 

I was reading your responses thoroughly and doing my best to help you.

 

​If the data is in the post_meta table, and the data is in the editor but is not on the page, then it is either a bug, a glitch, some kind of database caching, or something we have not encountered before.

[tpldrew 0]

Simon,

I appreciate your help.

Could the animation have something to do with this? Given that it also happens with the ProPricing module?

- Andrew

[tpldrew 0]

Simon, 

Just to add to the mystery. I just discovered something even more bizarre - which may have something to do with the caching.

 

The search results page:

http://www.brandscapingbook.com/?s=weird

Does show the correct iBoxes in the footer. Does that help narrow down what might be happening?

- Andrew

[Simon 248]

Again I have no idea on how your hosts caching works.

 

Yes it is indeed a mystery. The iboxes on all pages have the same unique ID, so they should all share the same dataset.

[Crusty 0]

Wow.

 

Might try an pull this back on track a little if I may...

 

Hi James, thanks for the response.   Yes that would be my expectation of how it would be done.  Ignoring time required to install plugins, DMS etc.  I would have thought the job would be 15 minutes or so using Export/Import tools.

 

Will pass on this info and see how we go for the next project set to start today.

I will also have a look at Simon's post about the local staging site.  That sounds like it could be a good option long term.

 

Thanks again,

Mark

[tpldrew 0]

I'm actually working with the WPEngine folks. They're really helpful. It appears that it has something to do with the way LESS is handled. I'll let you know if it's resolved in an easy to implement way.

Thanks,

- Andrew