THE MSHINI BLOG

 

Staging – Make updates without upsets

July 25, 2018

An artist has a rough sketch of their eventual masterwork. An engineer makes a prototype. A writer would have a rough draft of the final text. In the same way, before making your WordPress website live you need to make sure everything works as planned before unleashing your creation to the world. Enter Manage Staging, a powerful tool right in your Mshini account.

Image courtesy of An Phan Van

What is this “Staging” thing you keep going on about?

Staging is the process of making a test website that you can access before making your site live. It has it’s own URL; this means that you are able to test new themes or plugins risk-free, without the risk of losing your existing website.

 

Why can’t I just use my Live Site and restore a backup if it breaks?

You can, but you really shouldn’t.

  • Backups can fail. Our backups are reliable, but the reality is that no backup process is infallible. The backup could be corrupted, or uploading a backup copy can conflict with the new content on your site and would require the time-consuming task of manually going and deleting the offending content.
  • You need to test your changes. By using your live site, you are essentially putting the changes out into the world without an idea of the implications of those changes. At best, the changes would break your site. At worst, you may be exposing your clients’ data to anyone who accesses your site.
  • Cache. Clients who access your in-progress site may not see the final results if their browsers cache isn’t updated. Every time your browser accesses a site, it caches content to speed up future visits. If you clients have a cached version of your test site, it could mean that they will see placeholder images or content you may not want them to access in the final product. By using a Staging Environment, you avoid this risk completely.

But I need to test everything in the most realistic environment possible!

Your staging site has everything your live site has, including SSL! The only difference is the URL will be https://staging.example.com instead of https://example.com, which will be updated when pushed into production.

 

So I can use it as a second website?

The staging site isn’t a replacement for a different website for two important reasons

  • We don’t do backups of your staging site. If you use it as a second website, it is always at risk that it will be lost if something goes wrong.
  • Email is disabled on staging sites to stop potentially buggy sites from sending hundreds of mails.

Okay! You’ve convinced me! Where do I start?

Luckily for you, we have great articles in our Mshini Knowlege Base to get you making use of this powerful tool.

How do I create a Staging Environment? – We take you step-by-step through the process of setting up a Staging Environment, accessing it and then finally pushing it into production when you’re ready.

If you have any questions, give us a shout! We’re always happy to chat.

WordPress.org vs WordPress.com

    Most of us, who are familiar with WordPress, have run into the WordPress.org vs WordPress.com debate at some point, typically while trying to create our first website. Chances are, the very first website you launched was on wordpress.com. If you are new...

In need of an email account? Cloud mail hosting vs everything else…

    We've all been there. You wake up, grab a cup of coffee, open up your Macbook and proceed to draft an intelligent reply to that email that you've been postponing for days. Only now it's become a little awkward and you're left wondering if it's best just...

What’s new in WordPress 5.9?

    Yes, today, the 25th of January 2022 is the release day for the latest version of WordPress. We understand that not everyone follows the Make WordPress blog so we decided to provide you with a brief overview of what’s new in 5.9. If you haven’t seen this...

2020 Mshini year in review

    2020 has been a year full of all kinds of different and we were sad to see a few of our customers being forced to close down their businesses. Like you, we’re hopeful and optimistic that 2021 will be a better year for all and that those businesses that...

PHP 7.4 is now available on all new sites, staging sites and dev sites

    PHP 7.4 was released on 28 November 2019, which meant that active support for PHP 7.2 ended on 30 November 2019.  Security support for PHP 7.2 will continue until 30 November 2020. Mshini has made PHP 7.4 available on all new sites, staging sites and dev...

FREE DEV

R0

PER MONTH

Up to 3 WordPress sites

3 WordPress Installs
Auto Generated Dev URLs
10GB Local Storage per Site
Unlimited Data Transfer
Let's Encrypt SSL Certificates
Free Site Migrations
SSH / WP-CLI / GIT

SINGLE SITE HOSTING

R129

PER MONTH

A single WordPress site

1 WordPress Install
10GB Local Storage
Unlimited Data Transfer
Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate
Free Site Migration
Staging Site
30 day money back guarantee

BULK PLANS

R799+

PER MONTH

From 10 WordPress sites

From 10 WordPress Installs
From 10GB Local Storage per Site
Unlimited Data Transfer
Let's Encrypt SSL Certificates
Free Site Migrations
Staging Sites
SSH / WP-CLI / GIT

WHAT YOU GET WITH MSHINI

The fastest WordPress hosting in South Africa. A toolset that will make maintaining your WordPress site the pleasure it ought to be. Friendly and efficient service from WordPress experts. We're committed to enhancing your WordPress experience and raising your expectations.

Locally Hosted

Local hosting means reduced latency and quicker response times for visitors to your site.

Optimised Servers

Our technologically advanced software stack delivers superior WordPress performance.

Server Side Caching

No need for caching plugins with hundreds of settings. Your site will load really, really fast!

Daily Backups

Scheduled and on-demand backups of your content are stored in secure off-site vaults.

Staging Site

Clone your live site to a staging site with 1-click to test plugins, themes and custom code.

Highly Secure

Daily malware scans secure your website and give you an edge over spam and hackers.

Free Let's Encrypt SSL

Install a free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate for your website with 1-click in your control panel.

Expert Support

Our friendly South African WordPress experts will help resolve any hosting issues.

Automatic Updates

Choose to have your WordPress core files, plugins and themes automatically updated.

Vulnerability Scanning

We scan your WordPress core files, plugins and themes for known vulnerabilities.

Free Site Migrations

Free site migrations to a Mshini staging environment without impacting your live site.

Emergency Rollback

Restore your live site from the most recent backup with 1-click in your customer control panel.