Overview
After you have tested your staging site and have confirmed it's functioning as it should, you can then push those changes to your live website with just one click. DreamPress also makes a backup of your live site so you can always revert back to it if needed.
The following describes how to publish your staging site to your live website.
Step 1 — Create a staging website
See the following article on how to copy and make edits to your DreamPress staging website:
Step 2 — Open your staging website
- Navigate to the Manage Websites page.
- Click the Manage button to open the Manage Websites page, which allows you to adjust various settings for your site.
- Click the Staging tab.
- The Staging Website dashboard opens, showing the following options on the right.
The following options are available:
- Publish Staging to Live — Publishes your staging site to your live website. Be careful! This action overwrites your live website.
- Copy Live to Staging — Copies your content from your live website to your staging site.
- Remove Staging — Removes the staging website. You can create a new staging website by following the instructions here.
- Select what you want to copy to your live site.
- Just Files — Select this option if you've only adjusted the files on your web server. This would include any manual changes you made to your theme or plugin files.
- Just Database — Select this option if you've only changed your site's database. This would include creating/editing posts or pages or changing any plugin settings.
- Complete Overwrite — Select this option if you've made changes to both your files on the web server, as well as making any changes in your WordPress dashboard.
- Click Publish to copy your staging site to your live website.
Step 3 — Publish your staging site
Click the Publish Staging to Live button to publish your staging site to your live website.
Ensure you do NOT make any changes to your live website before publishing your staging site, as the following actions will overwrite any changes you've made.
Copying or Publishing a site generally happens quickly (depending on how much data there is to import). When finished, you'll receive a confirmation email to the primary address listed on your DreamHost account.
After the import is complete, your live site is updated with the changes you made to your staging website.
Troubleshooting publishing issues
You may see the following git status error message, which appears under Tools > Site Health (in the 'Background updates may not be working properly' section under Security in the WP-Admin panel):
The folder /home/wp_xyz/example.com/ was detected as being under version control (.git).
This message will always appear for every DreamPress staging site, and you can safely ignore it. Git will not break your site.
If you receive a 'Publishing Failed' message or the published content does not match the staging site, do not make any further changes to the staging environment. You must contact support for further assistance.
