Staging

Staging gives a website a private copy where you can try updates and changes safely. When you are happy, you push the copy to the live site in one click. A full backup of your account is taken before every push, so you can undo it.

Where: Control Panel › Websites › Staging

How it works

• Any website can have a staging copy: WordPress, another app or plain files.
• The copy lives at staging.yourdomain.com (or a name you choose, such as test.yourdomain.com), with its own folder under ~/web/staging/.
• For WordPress, and for apps with a .env file, the copy gets its own database. WordPress addresses are always rewritten to the staging name. For other apps the address is only replaced when you tick Replace the address in the database (a plain text replacement of //yourdomain.com with //staging.yourdomain.com, and back when the database is pushed).
• By default the copy asks for a login (user staging, a random password shown once) and tells search engines not to index it (an X-Robots-Tag: noindex header; WordPress also gets Discourage search engines).
• Pushing copies the staging files and/or database back over the live site. wp-config.php and .env on the live site are never overwritten. WordPress addresses are switched back to the live name.
• Before every push, a full backup of your account is made automatically.

The table lists each of your websites (parked domains and staging copies themselves are left out):

Make a staging copy

1. Find the website and click Make staging copy.
2. Fill in the form and click Make staging copy again:

The files, and the database if the site has one, are copied. The message tells you the copy's address, whether it has its own copy of the database and, when it is protected, its password.

Important: write down the password from the message. It is not shown again — click New password in the menu to get another, or change the login on the Directory privacy page.

Tip: to open the copy over HTTPS, point its DNS to the server and get a free certificate on the SSL/TLS page.

A website can have one staging copy. You can't make one when:

• the website is a parked domain — make the copy of the website it shows;
• the website already has a staging copy;
• the staging name is already in use — remove that domain first.

Push the staging copy to the live site

1. Click Push to live.
2. Choose what to push:

3. Confirm.

The database options only appear when the staging copy has a database. The message names the backup taken first. The copy's password protection and noindex header are never carried over to the live site: after the push, the live site's own Directory privacy is written back.

Tip: to undo a push, restore that backup on the Backups page.

Pull from live

To throw away the changes on the staging copy and start again from the live site:

1. Click the arrow button next to Push to live.
2. Click Pull from live and confirm.

The protection, the noindex header and the address replacement are applied again after the copy.

Protection and search engines

The same menu has:

• Password-protect it / New password — turns the login on, or gives it a new random password (shown once).
• Remove protection — the copy is public again.
• Tell search engines not to index it / Let search engines index it — the noindex header on or off.

Delete a staging copy

1. Click the arrow button next to Push to live.
2. Click Delete staging copy and confirm.

The staging site, its files and its database copy are deleted. The live site is not touched.

Related

• Copy a website — a permanent copy on another domain
• WordPress
• Backups
• SSL/TLS