Making Backup Site For Testing Updates

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I am planning to upgrade from 3.12 to 4.5 and I want to make a backup site to test the updates before doing it on the live site. I already have my site backed up and my database backed up... once I upload these to my new hosting, what all should I do to make sure nothing I do on the test site affects my live site? Don't I have to change the database string or something to point to the database on the backup test site? Is that all I have to do? Do I need to change the domain name as well since I am using a different domain on the backup test site?

Edited by Ludwig - 22-January-2012 at 8:41am

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Ludwig Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 07-August-2011 Status: Offline Points: -4	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ludwig Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Making Backup Site For Testing Updates Posted: 22-January-2012 at 8:40am
	I am planning to upgrade from 3.12 to 4.5 and I want to make a backup site to test the updates before doing it on the live site. I already have my site backed up and my database backed up... once I upload these to my new hosting, what all should I do to make sure nothing I do on the test site affects my live site? Don't I have to change the database string or something to point to the database on the backup test site? Is that all I have to do? Do I need to change the domain name as well since I am using a different domain on the backup test site? Edited by Ludwig - 22-January-2012 at 8:41am

Greg Dinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote Greg Dinger Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22-January-2012 at 8:47am
	if your store is in a "productcart" or "store" folder, you need only copy that folder to "productcartdev" or "storedev", and perform your testing in the copied folder. So long as what you do does not put the site into a loop (this could be caused by some erroneous code that reads database records and never exits the loop), or that your updates don't somehow trash the production data, then you should be fine. We are altering and upgrading stores constantly and that is precisely the procedure we follow on most projects.

Ludwig Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 07-August-2011 Status: Offline Points: -4	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ludwig Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22-January-2012 at 9:26am
	Yes but if you make a dev folder on the same hosting it will point to the live database right? I really don't even want to mess with the live database until I see that no issues will occur.

Greg Dinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote Greg Dinger Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22-January-2012 at 9:31am
	well, then in that case you also make a copy of the database and edit storeconstants.asp to point to the DEV database.

Ludwig Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 07-August-2011 Status: Offline Points: -4	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ludwig Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22-January-2012 at 9:39am
	So I just edit the data source in this line? private const scDSN= What about this line <%private const scCrypPass="? Isn't this the license key?

Greg Dinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote Greg Dinger Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22-January-2012 at 9:48am
	the connection string is in that page as well. look for private const scDSN.

Greg Dinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote Greg Dinger Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22-January-2012 at 9:51am
	don't mess with the key.

Ludwig Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 07-August-2011 Status: Offline Points: -4	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ludwig Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22-January-2012 at 9:52am
	Yes private const scDSN= is what I wrote in my previous post that points to the database... is there a safe way to test that changes on the test site aren't affecting my live database? Maybe just make a small change to a product on the test site and see if it affects the live site?

Ludwig Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 07-August-2011 Status: Offline Points: -4	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ludwig Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22-January-2012 at 9:56am
	When I setup the new test database it's asking if I want to install DSN or ASP Schema, do I check these?

Greg Dinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote Greg Dinger Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22-January-2012 at 10:13am
	You now understand how to establish a dev copy of your store and database. Unless you have confidence in your skills, I'd get someone who is proficient with this work to assist you on a hands-on basis. I can't really take you step by step through this. Sorry.