Improve WordPress Staging: Selective Database Sync
The actual staging feature was a big step forward to deal with business related WordPress sites.
But for now only the entire database could be pushed/pulled between staging <> live environment.
For more complex WordPress sites with WooCommerce or membership systems the actual staging feature is not enough. While in staging mode the live site changes permantly and new orders/users are created. When pushing back the entire datebase all changes would be overwritten!
A selective database sync (select which tables should be copied) would really improve the staging feature. With that in place Cloudways would be a very good host even for these complex WordPress sites.
PS: A similar feedback was already posted but with bad explanation:
http://feedback.cloudways.com/forums/203824-service-improvement/suggestions/34850656-ecommerce-staging-enviroment-enhanchment
Jeff
shared this idea
15 comments
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AdminCloudways
(Admin, Cloudways)
commented
Respected users,
Thanks for your patience. The requested feature would soon be available on Platform.
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Ron Sayers
commented
In order to handle the most different situations you would need to be able to protect: Certain Tables, certain items within tables and certain files in the file system. The current setup which allows you to exclude the entire database or the entire file system is too crude to be useful. I regret the hours that I spent testing the staging feature just to find out that it wasn't ready for primetime.
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Jeff
commented
This would be really helpful for websites with complex database structure.
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Alexanne
commented
That would be very helpful with big e-commerce websites!
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Dave
commented
This missing feature is also the show stopper for us to move our sites to Cloudways.
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Anonymous
commented
This would be a great addition. Gridpane offers this, but their push to live i had problems with the urls not updating consistently!
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Mattias Fjellvang
commented
I totally agree, this is also a huge competitor advantage as WPEngine and other with similar staging environments don't offer this feature either. So if you're running WooCommerce you can't really use this feature.
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Jonathan
commented
I suggest it's also important to be able to select which files/folders to push/pull. On sites with massive amounts of images, it seems to take a really long time for the staging system to push/pull. As all but a few (the latest since last push/pull) of those images never change, it seems pointless copying them all back and forth each time. Doing a push/pull on our largest site can take around 45 minutes each time. It's somewhat ridiculous.
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Anonymous
commented
The actual staging function is only useful for small standard sites. Any larger site has specific functions which change the tables all the time.
These changes get lost on Cloudways without the ability to choose which tables should really be pushed back into live site.
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Roman Makarenko
commented
Hi,
Excellent information, I was just thinking how to make it so that you can selectively synchronize my database. Thank you so much for sharing this information, it's not so much on the Internet.
Best,
Roman, writer from https://medium.com/theymakedesign/top-branding-agencies-bcf12154af9b -
Ben
commented
Thanks for the useful information, to me as a WordPress user, this was very important.
https://www.pngix.com/ -
Paul
commented
Would be great to have a selection like on WP Enginge.
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Peter Hiller
commented
The missing selection which databases to sync from staging to live keeps us from switching to CW.
We use an LMS plugin and members are logging in all the time and their course states change. So we need the ability to exclude certain tables from synching. Otherwise all changes while working in staging get lost after pushing back to live!
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PeterFinch
commented
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Scott
commented
Yeah that would be really helpful! Actually we can't move our WooCommerce site to Cloudways for this reason.
And please add the ability to have different .htaccess files for staging and live.