Zone+ update: WordPress now has a staging environment

At the end of 2022, My Zone received a long-awaited update: it is now possible to create a staging copy for every WordPress application installed via Zone+. The difference between the created (staging) copy and a regular copy lays in the connectedness of the staging copy and the main application, allowing the Zone+ application management to transfer data and files between the two environments – production and staging.

Specifically, it is a tool that can be used to transfer the data of one environment to the other by overwriting the data. Although specific plug-ins and e-shops have more complicated database structures, and it is not reasonable to completely overwrite them, the Zone+ test environment may still benefit many users. In addition to that, it is possible to restrict the access to the test environment by IP addresses.

Using for simpler applications

Web agencies usually have their own development processes in place to introduce various changes to websites. However, quite often you need to modify the content of a very simple website: for example, you have to add a campaign banner to the front page and present it to the customer to discuss the campaign journey with them. In such a case you can use the Zone+ synchronisation tool to synchronise changes made in the code, and the database to the live environment after testing the banner in the staging environment. A two-way synchronisation is performed for the situation described.

Using for larger applications

If your application is complicated and it is not reasonable to overwrite the data when transferring it from the test environment to production, the synchronisation tool will instead help you to transfer the current state of your application to the test environment, if needed. You can perform smaller changes there, if desired, and test them and then use your own tools to transfer these modifications to your production or live environment.

Using to solve technical problems

As we all know, a new version of PHP is released every year. You must have a lot of courage or a lot of faith in your application to implement the latest version in your live environment. However, by creating a test environment e.g. on a separate subdomain, you can test your application’s functionalities with different PHP versions, activated modules or some other server configuration variations. After making changes to the files you can again synchronise the files to the production environment without changing anything in the database.

In addition

I have provided only a few examples above. To help you customise these processes according to your preferences, I will list some more facts that may point you to the right direction:

• Creating a snapshot image of the target location application before synchronisation is enabled as default, offering the opportunity to revert the changes, if desired (i.e. restore the application to its previous state).
• The test environment can be created on a separate subdomain or even better: on a separate virtual server. In this way, it is possible to keep the test copies completely isolated from the customers’ pages.
• Public access to the test environment can be restricted to certain IP addresses only. This way, the page is not accessible to unwanted Internet users or search engine robots.
• It is possible to synchronise (overwrite) either only the databases or only the files, or both at the same time.
• For e-shops and portals where customers input data, you must take into account that all data is overwritten during database synchronisation, and any changes made in the meantime will be lost.
• The synchronisation tool is mostly meant to be used for simpler applications, but in theory it can also work well with larger ones. Please give us feedback so we can improve the Zone+ application manager! We owe all our present achievements to our customers’ feedback and involvement in the development process.