Live, Test, and Dev for (Nearly) Everyone

How to do it and why you should

Having live, test, and development versions of your website isn't just for hardcore developers! Everyone, from beginner site buiders on up, not only should, but can follow this best practice. This session will cover the basics of why and how to use dev and test sites, as well as demonstrating easy ways to do so using Drush.

Questions answered by this session:

• Why is it important to have and use test and dev versions of a site?
• What are test and dev versions of a site for?
• How is using live, test, and dev different for Drupal (compared to traditional static page web development)?
• How do I set up test and dev versions?
• How can I copy/clone my live site to the test or dev site?

Target audience:

This session will be most useful to site builders and maintainers with server access to their Drupal installations, such as those with sites installed on Stanford AFS or other providers that allow ssh access. While the general principles will be useful for those using services that do not allow server access, such as DrupalGardens.com or Stanford Sites (sites.stanford.edu), the specifics of the technical how-to steps will not be applicable to their situation.

Accompanying materials, aka "the handout":

SharonKrossa.com/livetestdev (forthcoming)