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Create staging environments for Joomla
Have you got a Joomla site, and want to make changes?
If so, you'll know that it's a nightmare trying to get it right.
What if that new plugin crashes your site, or you want to make lots of changes without your users seeing what's going on until you're ready to launch the new site?
And that's why I built StageIt - the only staging environment extension for Joomla!
StageIt means you can make any change you like to your site, without those changes being 'live' until you're completely ready to triumphantly reveal your Joomla masterpiece!
Here's how it works
StageIt takes all the drama out of updating Joomla!
Step 1: Create a new staging envinronment, which is perfectly matched to your existing site and sits 'on top' of your site.
Step 2: Make all the changes you like on the staging environment, without any change affecting the live site.
Step 3: If you want to show your client a new feature or some work you've done, so they (or their legal team) can sign off the new content, simply show them the staging environment.
Step 4: When you're happy with the changes, simply click a single 'Sync with Live' button to sync the staging and live sites, and make all your changes live!
What is included?
- Create a staging environment in seconds
- Develop on the staging environment with zero risk to your live site
- Make any changes you like - update extensions, delete content etc.
- StageIt supports ALL third party extensions
- Sync the staging environment with the live site at any time
- Visual button allows you to instantly switch between environments
- Automatic backups allow you to restore your live site to any sync point
- Select data tables to include / exclude from the sync (Enterprise Edition only)
- Select file folders to include / exclude from the sync (Enterprise Edition only)
- Configure to work with a range of servers - even GoDaddy!
- Full documentation
- Purchase includes full support and updates
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
- Joomla 3.x
- PHP 5.4+
- Enough free file space to copy your system
- Preferably run PHP in fastCGI mode
- Preferably use a decent server!
Screenshots
Your comments
Hello
How can I rebuild the stage it version from the live site?
I am hoping to be able to do it without having to uninstall / reinstall it.
Thanks for your excellent work!
Hi there!
If you open StageIt on the live admin, you can click the Rebuild button. This will reset your staging environment to an exact replica of your live environment.
Have a great day!
Hello,
I just purchased StageIt and everything seems to work fine in the backend but I am not able to get the switch to work in the frontend. When I logon as the super admin nothing happens. It tried many things to no avail. When I go directly to the StageIt sub directory the orange switch bar shows up but it doesn't solve the issue as it immediately goes back to the live version.
Any help very much appreciated.
I just discovered that when I disable the Search Engine Friendly URLs option in the Joomla global configuration that is solves the problem. Any idea what might be the issue? Or the staging environment cannot work with Search Engine Friendly URLs?
Good morning Sima
Thank you for your great question!
StageIt does work with SEO urls, and should normally work without any issues. However, on your server, you might ensure that /stageit/.htaccess is present and enabled, and you might also need to change this line in that file:
#RewriteBase /
to:
RewriteBase /stageit/
(ensuring you remove the initial #)
Have a great day! Barnaby Dixon
I am running nginx. Should I still enable .htaccess?
Hi again,
Ngnix is a bit different to Apache / Linux, You'll have to ensure the configuration is right for your system - and it might be best to contact your server host to find out why the SEO urls aren't working in /stageit/
Regards, Barnaby Dixon
Hello Barnaby,
I have stagit installed on my Plesk hosted domain under joomla.
All good. The staging site is created and i can move between the live and staged env.
However i found myself puzzled when during the backup restore operation i found the stagit hang during the buildBkMap call. 10%.
I have waited a lot and nothing.
The first time i had an error:
[...] Got error 'PHP message: PHP Warning: is_dir(): open_basedir restriction in effect. File(../../stgbackups/2019-02-13_14-48-57/administrator/components/com_admin/views/help/tmpl/langforum.php/) is not within the allowed path(s):[...]
After a while this morning i have tried again with the same outcome but no error.
in stagit/.htaccess
RewriteBase /stageit/
Can you please give me an hint?
Thank you
Did you ever get clarity on this issue? I'm experiencing the same problem myself.
Hi Jens & Alberto,
The operation is being blocked by your PHP open_basedir config. Please edit this so it allows the AJAX process to run, and it will work correctly
Regards, Barnaby
Hi very pleased with the plugin and am using it very well.
Just one question. We have another team using Github who will be using the staging to work on and the staging database.
They have asked if when placing the staging edits live does the live database get overwritten totally or does it simply push over the structure, ie, any orders that come in between edits stay untouched in the live database?
Thanks.
Keith
Hi Barnaby
Just a couple of pre-sales questions:
1 Does the license allow me to use it with more than one site?
2 Will you be updating the software for Joomla 4 when it is released?
Many thanks
Mikki
Hi Mikki,
Your name is awesome!
1 - yes feel free to use it on all your sites
2 - yes, and in fact it's already tested with Joomla 4 beta and works perfectly :-) We'll be upgrading as new Joomla versions are released.
Best regards, Barnaby Dixon
Hello - https://extensions.joomla.org/extension/stageit/ says that your extension v2.0.16 was last updated on Jan 16 2017. Since then Joomla has updated to 3.9.1. So my question obviously, is the last version of StageIt compatible with the latest version of Joomla? Kindly advice. Thanks.
Hello Duksh,
Thanks for your message. StageIt and all my other extensions are constantly updated... I'll have to update the JED :-)
Yes it's Joomla 3.9.1 compatible.
Hope that helps! Barnaby
Hi,
I am not using this component yet, but i have a question. We allready have a developing enviroment setup with Git and deployscripts. Is it possible to only push te content to a live enviroment (and with content i mean all de the data within de joomla database and the files within de mediamanager)
Hi there Herco
Thank you for your message.
With StageIt Enterprise you can select which content and data you want to sync. The default is to sync everything - all files / folders and data, but you can exclude specific data tables or specific folders from the sync if needed, so you don't overwrite data and files on the live site.
I hope that helps?
Sincerely - Barnaby Dixon
Hi Barnaby,
I have been using your product for a number of months and it is fantastic! Wanted to ask another question now I am close to going live.
Is there a way to check which tables to exclude on a live community based site? I would like to use StageIt to continually manage feature upgrades and the like, without overriding new users and their content.
Regards,
Cor
Good morning Cor,
Thank you for your message and very kind words!
The tables you need to exclude will depend on your system. You'll find that in StageIt Enterprise, the tables you can exclude are grouped by extension, so it's a case of checking through per extension, to see which ones might be continually updated on the frontend. With community, that would probably mean the Joomla Users tables, as well as most Community tables.
If you also ensure backups are enabled, then if you *do* need to restore a backup for any reason, then one will be available. Just also make sure there's plenty of space for the backup to be built and you'll be fine.
I hope that helps! Sincerely, Barnaby Dixon
Hi Barnaby,
I am trying out your extension and I love it. I want to give a non super user permission to use it but I can't figure out how. Any ideas? I am using version 2.0.20.
Thanks
Josh
Good morning Josh
Thank you for your message. User Permissions were added in version 2.1.3, released on 22nd May - if you download the latest version you can then set permissions in System > Global Config > Permissions > StageIt.
All the best! Barnaby
We've made changes to the live site (module changes and new articles, etc) and need to transfer those over to the staging site where StageIt is installed. Can this be done?
Hi Amanda,
Thank you for your message. The way to do this is go to the live site admin > StageIt and click Redeploy Staging Environment. This will completely reset your staging environment to match the live site.
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Hi there, I have just purchased your software and it seemed to have worked a treat. I had installed my own and was duplicating effort, which I can now avoid - beauty!
However, as a newby, I may be doing something wrong, but when I try to use the menu in the stageit version of my site, it shows a 404 error - Category not found:
--------------
You may not be able to visit this page because of:
an out-of-date bookmark/favourite
a search engine that has an out-of-date listing for this site
a mistyped address
you have no access to this page
The requested resource was not found.
An error has occurred while processing your request.
Please try one of the following pages:
Home Page
------------------
The home page links back to the original site.
Can you please give some guidance?
Hi there,
Thank you for your message. This sounds like a htaccess misconfiguration. Please ensure /stageit/.htaccess is enabled, and you might need to also change #RewriteBase / to:
RewriteBase /stageit/
(removing the initial # if needed)
That should resolve any SEO errors like the one you mentioned, but if not please send me a login and I will take a look for you
All the best,
We are looking to purhcase StageIt. We are looking to update the template of our website while keeping our existing template live. Is this possible with Stage It? To install the new template on the staging side, made all our changes, and then push the new template on top of the live/old template? Thank you!
Hi Amanda,
Thank you for your message. Yes that's actually the exact situation StageIt was created for. You can set up the new system exactly as you want while the live site stays 'live' and then push the changes to the live site when you have approved them.
All the best! Barnaby
Hi, does this work with remote servers?
Let's say that STAGING and PRODUCTION are not in the same Datacenter or have different IPs, does this work ?
Regards,
Carlos
Hi there Carlos,
Thanks for your message. The Staging environment needs to be on the same server as your live site, as it runs 100s of calculations to ensure the staging sync goes correctly; it's just not practical to have the staging environment on a different server.
I hope that helps! Sincerely, Barnaby Dixon
Hi,
What will StageIt do with changed data on the live site while working on the staging environment? I have a user generated content website and want to extend functionality and make design changes. Will the newer content on the live site be removed with the older content form the staging environment?
Hi Evert,
You'd need StageIt Enterprise. This will allow you to exclude content and data from the sync, so that new content on the live site won't be overwritten.
I hope that helps! Barnaby Dixon
Any idea why when trying to sync with the live environment it hangs at 31% at the backup of one of the data tables? It is a rather large table but it didn't have an issue creating it for the staging.
I have adjusted the deployment speeds several times but it hangs at the same 31% every time.
Hi Danny
Thank you for your message - could it be a disk space issue? If not please send me a login and I will see what I can do for you
Thanks & all the best, Barnaby
It completed, I checked the SQL process but it took 24 Hours. Is that normal to deploy to the live environment? I have a dedicated server.
Also I thought that syncing to the live server would update the database but it appears to have overwritten it? I use Jomsocial and people are consistently adding updates, hence the staging server but now it basically recreated the staging environment.
Is that expected behavior or is there some additional settings that need to be set?
Hi Danny,
It normally wouldn't take that long, no... syncing would normally take moments, so I would guess something's got stuck there (or you have an incredibly large table?)
With StageIt Enterprise you can exclude specific data tables files and folders when running the sync, so you can avoid overriding fresh data on the live site if needed.
Sincerely, Barnaby Dixon
How many sites can I manage with the purchase of Stage It? I manage several Joomla sites, will I be able to use it for all of my sites without having to purchase one for every single one?
Hi Danny,
You're welcome to buy once and use it on all your sites and servers.
Hope that helps! Barnaby
My staging site is not reading the "/stageit" directory but rather the live directory "/". I have changed the /stageit/.htaccess to rewrite URLs to /stageit. I've even turned off SEF URLs. Ive disabled AdminTools and Regular Labs. I've tried changing the "$live_site" setting in the configuration. nothing seems to help. I just get a page that shows the text but no style, images, etc. and about 30 console errors showing that it can't find the files (because its looking in the wrong place).
I should add that everything works okay if I use the alias "home"... www.example.com/stageit/home/
But www.example.com/stageit/ gives me the problem.
Solution was to clear the Gantry 5 cache, and it's all working!
(Solution added here for other users' benefit - after email support)
I've tested StageIt on 2 different sites. One, where I was merging content from 3 sites into a single, StageIt worked great.
On the second site, which is a really large site, I used stageit, make my changes, then when I was ready to sync my site, I went into the configuration, and excluded the sync for a couple of database tables, and a couple of folders, namely EasyBlog folders. I saved, then did the sync. The sync was processing the EasyBlog folders, which is was not supposed to be processing.
Any thoughts on WHY StageIt would be syncing folders that were configured to be excluded?
Hi Steve,
Thank you for your message.
StageIt will still process your excluded folders, i.e. when running the analysis pre-sync it will check your full system. But it won't actually sync any excluded folders. So even if they're coming up on your screen during the sync, they won't be affected, so long as they are excluded in the config.
However - it is worth reopening the config to double check your settings actually saved, and if you have a cache enabled, it's worth purging it to ensure any changes have actually taken effect.
I hope that helps! Sincerely, Barnaby
Hi Barnaby,
I buyed the extension a few days ago. And everything works as expected and described.
GOOD JOB! :-)
One suggestion is to change the robots.txt to disallow all robots for crawling the staging environment, so you haven't to do it manually?!
What to you think?
Regards,
Marc
Hi Marc
Thanks for your great suggestion!
Great idea and I will add it to a future edition of StageIt Enterprise
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
We are thrilled with php-web-design.
Your help with our migration from 1.5 to 3.6 was superb.
And we love Stage It.
Many many thanks from your friends across the pond in Pittsburgh.
Hi Pete and Molly,
Thank you for your very kind words! It was an absolute pleasure working with you.
Have a wonderful week! Barnaby
I have been using StageIT for about 2 1/2 months with now problems at all. I recently move my site Godaddy.com to iPage.com and when I run the StageIT, it completes with out error. However, when I try to access the StageIT site, I get the following error: "Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log."
Do you have any suggestions for me to look where the issue is?
Thanks
Paul
Hi there Paul
Thank you for getting in touch.
This may be a glitch. Could you try re-downloading StageIt and then reinstall it on your live site? Then preferably delete the /stageit/ folder before redeploying the staging environment.
Hopefully that solves it - but if not please send me a login to the live site and I will check out what is happening here for you
Thanks & all the best, Barnaby Dixon
Hi Barnaby
That seemed to work. After deleting the stageit folder and reinstalling the StageIT component, everything appears to be working now.
Thanks again for your support.
Paul
Hi Barnaby,
I´ve detected a very strange behaviour with StageIt. First of all, your extension worked fine and everything is ok. Since the last upadte of Joomla to 3.6.5 (maybe earlier?) i cannot use the buttons syve, save&close and cancel in backend editmode of articles, categories and modules. I´ve an instance ov yootheme´s zoo running and there the buttons work fine.
It´s definitly not a matter of caching or something else, because when i remove the staging environment and use only the live environment, everything is ok and the buttons are fully functionally. When I build a staging environment, on both systems (live and staging) the buttons are without function.
Can you geive me a hint?
Greetings from germany
Martin
Hi Martin,
Thank you for your question.
This is a browser cache issue (not Joomla cache). The javascript files have changed but their paths are the same. Your browser has the old versions cached, and hasn't realised that the javascript files have changed.
If you clear your browser cache, or open a new private browser window, it should all work well for you
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Dear Barnaby,
i´m sorry to inform you, that this is not the solution. I´ve checked it on different computers (which i never used before), with different browsers and even in private mode. The described phenomen appears only, when i have a staging environment running. When I remove the staging system (StageIt is already installed) then the buttons are working fine. After building the staging environment, then in both systems the buttons are not working.
In my opinion it´s definitly no caching problem. Sorry. Do you have another idea?
Best regardss
Martin
Strange! Thanks for the update.
I have another possible solution...
Please ensure that the htaccess in StageIt is enabled. You might need to rename /stageit/htaccess.txt to /stageit/.htaccess
Also you might need to change the RewriteBase.
If you open the htaccess file, and find the line
#RewriteBase /
And change this to
RewriteBase /stageit/
(removing the initial #) it should help
Please let me know how it goes...
All the best, Barnaby
Hi Barnaby,
thank you for your quick reply. The changes in the .htaccess does not match at all. Sorry.
Another strange behaviour i´ve found out: In frontend-editing everything is ok - in both environments, in backend the bug still appears.
I wish you a happy new year!!!!
Martin
Hi Martin,
Happy New Year!
Thank you for the update. I am not sure what the problem is in this case. Could you send me a login to the staging environment and I will check it out for you? If you click Reply to Email rather than replying to the comment, you can send me a login securely.
Thanks & all the best,
Barnaby
Hi Barnaby,
thanks for your great support. Indeed - it´s a conflict between StageIT and Yootheme´s Widgetkit. Switching off the StageIt-Plugin solved the problem!
Thank you very much!!!!!
Hi Barnaby,
I saw on JED that the version bumped up to 0.0.2 and I was just wondering if there was a changelog somewhere... :)
Thanks!
Hi Frank,
Actually thank you for bringing that to my attention. I haven't updated that in a while - the version is now 2.0.17
I don't keep changelogs, but every time the major number (1.0.0 or 2.0.0) changes, it denotes a major change, such as a major difference or improvement to functionality. Minor numbers such as 2.0.1 to 2.0.2 means a small bug fix or improvement say to maintain compatibility with the latest version of Joomla. And intermediate numbers like 1.5 to 1.6 means a fairly significant improvement to efficiency or the underlying core, but not one that changes the user perception or overriding functionality.
I hope that helps!
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
The idea seems solid. We work on a development / review / live model
Can STAGEIT work with two servers, i.e the REVIEW site is where we stage the changes, and then push them to LIVE or would the whole process sit on the LIVE server in a subdirectory?
Thanks
Hi there Morgan
Thank you for your question. The staging environment sits in a subdirectory on the live server. I haven't found a reliable, fast way to sync two remote servers, so the two environments have to be on the same server.
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Hi
this was the solution I also looking for..hmm pity it didnt work that way...rgds
Hello,
quick question
when I work on the staging site
my live site is still running, users are registering, comment are being posted and son on...
when I finally sync the staging site with the live, what happens of all these contents that have been generated in the meantime?
Thank you,
N.
Hello Niccolo,
Thank you for your question.
In the configuration you can exclude specific data tables from the sync. I would recommend you exclude any tables that are being actively updated in the live environment, such as the user table.
You can then sync as normal, and the sync will update all live tables except for the ones selected.
I also recommend ensuring that backups are turned on in the configuration, so that if any data is unintentionally lost it can be restored.
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Thank you, that's great!
Could you just calrify if Stage It is going to create a separate database for testing or just new tables in the existing database?
I want to understand how exactly the site cloning process is handled.
Thank you
Hi Niccolo,
StageIt uses the same database but creates new tables with the prefix stg_ .
There is more information on the full staging process, including quite extensive details on how it all works, in the User Guide. Hopefully that helps clarify the process, but if you have any further questions just ask :-)
All the best, Barnaby
Thank you,
I read the user guide but there is some info I need which is missing.
PSecifically I'd like to know how stageit handles the newly created db tables after syncing to the live site.
It overwrites the the live site tables with stageit's tables and then delete the ones created by stageit?
Thanks
Hi Niccolo,
During sync:
- The live site tables are saved to a backup
- The live site tables are removed
- The staging tables are copied and use the live site table prefix
- The staging tables are not removed or changed during the sync, only the live tables.
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Hello,
I have just purchased the Enterprise edition. After I hit the Begin button, I get the following error:
SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data
An error has occurred. Please check you are logged in and try agin.
If this error continues, please contact support at PHP Web Design
Error status:200
Error response:
Deprecated: Automatically populating $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. To avoid this warning set 'always_populate_raw_post_data' to '-1' in php.ini and use the php://input stream instead. in Unknown on line 0
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent in Unknown on line 0
Error displaying the error page: Application Instantiation Error: Failed to start the session because headers have already been sent by "" at line 0.
Best,
Agata
Hello,
Thank you for your question.
The error here isn't being sent by StageIt, as StageIt doesn't use the $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA variable.
My guess is that you have a third party extension that's using this variable. StageIt has error reporting turned up for its processes, so this could be highlighting an error that's otherwise hidden on your system.
Does the error appear anywhere else on the system? Or does StageIt state that Ajax is unavailable? If so, click the warning for Ajax, and it should show more detail on this issue...
If that doesn't help please send me a login and I'll track down what's happening for you.
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Hello Barnaby,
Thank you. System information within StageIt is all in green. I don't know which extension might be causing this. I sent you access data by email, could be great if you could poke around.
Thanks,
Agata
I previously set up a dev site in a subfolder of the live site root on the server and had conflicts and problems so ended up moving it into a different site root that did not have joomla on same server (under reseller acct) and have no issues/conflicts now.
I am concerned using your extension I would have same issues with the dev site under the live site root, have you overcome this potential problem with StageIT? I'm not sure why it became a problem in Joomla 3x, in Joomla 2.5x I did this frequently and had no conflicts.
I have a reseller acct with quite a few sites running joomla under their own separate domains on the same server, will SatgeIT work well in this scenario for all, or is the purchase only licensed to install for one site?
Hi Lynne,
Thank you for your question.
You shouldn't experience any conflicts or problems at all when using StageIt. The staging environment is completely separated from the live site programmatically. I have not had any conflict issues reported like this.
If you do use StageIt and find some issues at all, just let me know and I'll ensure StageIt works for your specific needs.
I hope that helps
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Have not tried StageIt yet but its something I have been wanting for a long time. You really should have a demo so we can try it.
I understand this may be hard to setup just because of the nature of your plugin but if you don't offer a way to download it and try it first you really need to have a demo please.
I would also love to see a support subscription so if we need to have support after the first 180 days we can get it. What do you suggest for this? Just your hourly rate?
Do you offer a money back guarantee if for some reason we are not satisfied?
Hello,
Thank you for your questions.
To offer a demo that works with any level of realistic use I'd have to enable things like template and extension installation so you can see the transfer from the staging to the live site. I tried this in the past, and unfortunately it was completely abused and people installed viruses and tried to set up all kinds of unwelcome things. So I've had to disable the demos completely I'm afraid.
There is a video further up on this page that shows how the software works, and will give you a very good idea of what it does, and how it does it.
You can also download the full User Guide from: https://www.php-web-design.com/stageit.pdf
The subscription is for updates as well as support. I'm always happy to answer a question or two after support has expired. And yes you can always ask me to do extra work for an hourly rate. I haven't had many questions after the first month or so of use - the software is very easy to use so once you've got it, you've got it :-)
I do offer a full money back guarantee on all my software, and full 100% satisfaction is guaranteed.
I hope that helps! All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Hi Barnaby,
I have one website with Fabrik installed for creating reports. After installing Stageit, when I click on the Stageit component menu link I am getting the error message:
"Fatal error: Call to a member function get() on a non-object in /home/ezyparki/public_html/plugins/system/fabrik/fabrik.php on line 134"
Fabrik is not throwing errors anywhere else and I'm not sure why it is even being called by Stageit. Are you aware of any conflicts and can you suggest how we can rectify this?
Hi there Rod,
Thank you for your question. I am not aware of any conflicts between Fabrik and StageIt, but this sounds like something in StageIt is breaking the Fabrik plugin.
It's actually Joomla calling the Fabrik plugin (this is a system plugin) but it's strange that it would break on the StageIt component page and nowhere else. I can't think of anything that would break the plugin - the StageIt component is very standard Joomla code.
Could you send me the exact copy of the Fabrik system plugin you are using and I will try to replicate the problem? You can just reply to this email with an attachment.
Thanks & all the best,
Barnaby Dixon
Simple to setup, works out of the box. Also very easy to control the tables and files that will sync etc. We use this to manage customer updates, new features and changes. We also use StageIt to manage our internal website.
The best part about this extension is that it's reliable! We haven't had any issues when syncing changes to live site and we haven't experienced any loss of data across the sites we've tested it with. When we did run into minor issues, the tech support was fantastic.
Great extension, highly recommended. Keep up the great work.
Thank you for your amazing feedback!
Have a great day!
Barnaby Dixon
Hi,
how would you update extensions and the joomla core itself? Update everything in the staging site and then push it to the live site?
If I update the live site it would not mirror the changes in the staging site, right?
thank you
Hello Florian,
Yes correct I would update in the staging site, and then sync with Live.
If you update the live site, it won't affect the staging environment. You would need to update the live site, and then redeploy the staging site - this will completely reset your Staging environment to match the live system.
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Hi,
what would happen with new Registrations and changes on the Livesite, if i push the staging Site to live?
overridden or sync together?
Hello,
Thank you for your question.
To preserve the registrations and changes on the Live site, you would need the Enterprise Edition of StageIt. You can then select which data to sync. You can, for example, select to exclude the user data table from the sync - so that the live system is not overridden.
I hope that helps. All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Dear Barnaby,
I wonder how the synchronisation works in detail. We have the following situation using the stagit-Plugin:
We executed a Joomla update in both live- and staging-Environment. This was necessary to protect the live-Environment while there was some ongoing development in the staging-Environment. Later, at least one file was not synchronised from staging to live. Logs did not reveal any write-issues. Are you using file-timestamps when comparing?
Another issue the other way around was that after our first built of the staging-Environemnt not all files (at least from the root folder) were synct. We have for example one file "form.php" which is not present in the staging-Environment. Can you please advise?
Thank you, Andreas
Hello Andreas,
The sync uses file comparison to compare the staging environment with the live environment, and updates file changes as needed. It's extremely unusual that a file change wouldn't be detected, but it would happen where the change is just a byte or two in the file (e.g. 1 or 2 different letters in a text file). If this happens, please change StageIt > Configuration > Force Refresh to Yes, and it will ensure that all files are synced correctly.
When first deploying the staging environment, the staging will ensure that all core Joomla files and folders are included, but not additional files or folders (as StageIt doesn't know what they are, or if they are needed for the staging environment). When running the initial deploy, if there are additional files or folders you'd like in the staging environment, please copy them manually using FTP to /stageit/ . When syncing, however, all contents of /stageit/ are automatically synced with the live system
I hope that helps. All the best, Barnaby Dixon
StageIT is a really useful tool. So much less hassle than having to setup and run two instances in parallel yourself - when this does it for you!
I like the fact you can quickly rebuild the Live site to a Staging site and vice versa. It makes managing and upgrading so much easier and I am much less anxious about making upgrades now, since any issues I can manage on the staged version prior to going live.
Thanks for making this - I think it's very useful and value for money.
Graham
Thank you Graham, I'm so glad it's useful for you!
Have a great day
Barnaby Dixon
Hello Barnaby,
Does the the staging environment offer 100% of the functionality of the live site? We're considering using your extension on a site with quite a complicated workflow, that is versioning of contents, notifications being sent out to publishers, and I'm wondering if it would be of use beyond the development stage.
Also, when migrating the site to a different server, does StageIt need to be setup again or will the live/staging environment be ported correctly?
Finally, after a very brief overview I'd just like to confirm that the live and staging environments have to be on the same server, don't they? It's not possible to be deploying to a different server?
Cheers,
Agata
One more thing, if we were to use it only in the development stage, can StageIt be safely disengaged from the live site?
Hi there
The staging environment is an exact clone of the live site. It copies all existing functionality, content and data and should look and feel exactly as your live site.
If you have other extensions handling versioning, they should work well with StageIt but you will need to be careful with the work flow.
What I'd suggest is: create, edit, delete all content in the staging environment, and handle your versioning there too. Then when changes are approved, push the changes to the live site.
At the moment yes, StageIt requires that the live and staging are on the same server, since they use the same database (but different tables). This also helps ensure that any changes in the staging will work on the live, since the server environment is identical.
In answer to your final question, you can remove StageIt at any time, simply uninstall. Your live site will continue to work as normal.
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Hey There! Any way to have the /stageit/ directory password protected? Is that all set up on the server? I dont want just anyone visiting the staging part of the site. I'd like it to be password protected somehow.
Thanks!
Hi Justyne,
Absolutely. The easiest way is with a .htaccess password. If you create one, and adjust the /stageit/.htaccess file accordingly it should do the trick
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Our development servers are local, in our lab. our production servers are either in an ISP, or at a cloud service like Azure etc...
Can stageIT work between completely separate servers? IE: the staging server is local, and the production server is remote...
Thanks in advance.
J.
Hi there,
StageIt is built to work on a single server and use a single database. That's the best way for it to keep sync times as low as possible, and to ensure the target environment is exactly identical to the original, to avoid sync problems.
That said, you're the second person to have asked about something like this so I'm thinking it through and will develop a solution. Watch this space!
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Seems what I need... Can I try it somehow? Thank you.
Hello,
Sure - please purchase as normal.
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Are you planning to support Joomla 2.5? We are unable to update it soon.
Sorry, Joomla 2.5 is not supported, and I do not plan to support it. The reason is that it's been deprecated for quite some time now, and it StageIt uses several libraries that Joomla 2.5 doesn't have available.
I would recommend upgrading to Joomla 3, which is very easy to do if you use MigrateMe Plus.
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Nice work here, I have my eyes on this now.
Are you still actively developing this?
1. Would it be possible for you to show the list of all changes that are now going to be pushed to Live environment? This screen should appear before initiating Sync.
2. Would it be possible to check/uncheck the list of changes that I want to sync before the sync happens (may be a checkbox thing in point 1 above?)
3. Can you, similarly "pull" the live server back to staging in case I want to go back to this live version?
4. Do you have pricing available for non-profits?
Regards,
Nirav
Hi there
Thank you for your great comments. Yes, I am actively developing this when I have time.
Regarding points 1 & 2, I actually had this as part of the development map when I initially started work on StageIt. I didn't build in this functionality in the end, basically because so much in Joomla is interdependant, so it gets relatively complex. For example, say you change an article category in the staging environment - and forget that the category exists on the live system but isn't published. Suddenly your article becomes unpublished, and it's not immediately obvious why. And then - after making some, but not all, changes live - you then go and make further changes, so the staging environment becomes more and more detached from the live site, but it's not clear what changes need to be applied, or how to revert the staging environment to the live. So it's quite complex and I haven't been able to come up with a concise, easy to understand solution as yet - but I would be interested to hear your thoughts.
Point 3: yes, every time you sync to live, StageIt can take a backup of your live system (this is optional in the configuration). You can then restore any backup from any sync point.
Point 4: Unfortunately at this point I haven't made enough from StageIt to offer any discounts, so it's standard pricing I'm afraid - just need to cover my development costs
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Cannot get the system activated with Mighty sites installed! Please help
