Thread

I’ve got a couple projects coming up where the sites are actively running EE and while there may be some design changes (at least in one case), the majority of the work is enhancing and tweaking templates and adding a few new add-ons here and there. One site in particular is continually active, so even if I go down my typical route of having a duplicate of the site on a dev URL, the databases would be way off sync in a matter of hours, let alone days.

Any thoughts on how to best tackle this effectively?

Angie,

You might want to consider using a tool like Navicat and manually sync the databases as you go along. If the client will be adding content then you probably don’t need to sync too often, but if new custom fields are being introduced and populated then you might need to do it more often.

It will also work in reverse, if you want to make changes to the local DB, then you could sync them back to the production server very easily too. If mated with some version control you will have a good insurance policy should something go awry.

Once a sync is set up on Navicat it’s cake to run them, if you’ve not used it before or need a little help I’d be glad to lend a hand.

Adam

I would be hesitant to do some sort of DB syncing to the production database while working on changes b/c you could fubar something on development, and not realize it when moving to production.

Honestly, while it sucks, the best approach I’ve found is to just take note of every custom field you add, then manually add them to the production database when it’s ready to go live (put up an offline page if necessary). MX Tool Box will help in cloning fields too… just export the dev fields, and import into production.

I haven’t found a perfect solution to this other than to take notes, be careful, and take your time when moving new stuff to production. I haven’t used Navicat though.

Why not keep it simple and do the redesign in separate template groups?  You can use global variables to avoid lots of renaming at launch time (update in one spot).  And prefix the template groups to keep them together and organized.

Thanks for the replies guys! Now I just have to decide which route to take for each project. I’ve done the simple approach that Lisa mentioned and while it does feel a bit “novice-y” for some reason and can get messy, it does work.

Adam - I may take you up on the offer for help with Navicat at some point so look out!! 😊