Siteground Staging Tool Hangout

We are big fans of SiteGround and their developer features. This hangout introduces their new more advanced version of the SiteGround Staging Tool. The tool allows you to copy your website quickly your website, make changes to the copy, and then push those changes to live once you are happy with it.

We have used the Site Staging extensively, so if you have any further questions feel free to post in the comments below. Alternatively, SiteGround’s live support is also extremely helpful.

The video of the Hangout is no longer available, but we have included a summary of what was said below:

Why Use a Staging Environment?

• You won’t break your live website when making changes.
• You won’t show your visitors unfinished designs.
• Makes testing much easier and gives more freedom to try new things without worrying about breaking your website.

Why the Staging Tool is “Awesome.”

• It is fast and easy to use.
• No additional configuration is needed (one click setup).
• It is great for design and development teams, as well as the casual blogger.
• It is safe (backups taken before changes pushed live, with easy restore).

Single-Click Staging Copy Creations

The staging tool can be accessed via cPanel with a simple click, choosing the relevant CMS:

Once clicked, you will see copies of all your websites currently on the server to which you can create a staging copy from:

If you have installed Joomla or WordPress manually rather than through the SiteGround installation script, then just click the “Add Joomla” or “Add WordPress” to add those websites.

Instructions for setting up the Staging Copy

1. To set up, a staging copy, click the “Create Staging Copy” button.  One of the new features of the upgraded Staging Tool is that now you can add folders to staging that are outside of your WordPress install.  This is great if you have design elements or images outside the main installation.  You will get this option when creating the staging copy:
2. You will then be asked if you want to password protect the staging copy.  This is important to prevent search engines indexing your staging copy (bad for SEO), and also to prevent your unfinished work being read by your visitors.
3. The Staging Tool will then go through all the configuration that takes about 5-10 seconds.  You will then be taken to the admin. screen for your new staging copy:

If you have followed this process on the video, you will see that this whole process took less than 2 minutes (with commentary added).  You could easily setup a staging copy in about 20 seconds!

You can then start working on the staging copy by clicking on “preview” in the top left-hand corner under “Create Staging Copy” button.  You will have to enter your password if you set up password protection.

Two ways to make changes “live” on Site Staging

1. Simple Push

This pushes all the changes made to the staging website.  Any changes that have occurred to your live website since creating the staging copy will be lost.

2. Advanced Push

This will allow you to see all the differences between your live website and your staging copy and let you choose which ones to apply.

To do either “Simple Push” or “Advanced Push” click the green “Push to Live” button:

You will then get asked if you wish to carry out an “Easy Push” or an “Advanced Push”:

If you chose the Easy Push, a few seconds later your changes will be live.

If you chose the Advanced Push option you will get some further options so you can specify what files database tables you wish to push to live:

As you can see above, in the “Changes in Databases” table you can de-select the comments (as one example) to avoid overwriting all your comments on the live website.

Why use the Advanced Push?

Sometimes there is data that continues to be entered on the live website after you make the staging copy, for example, comments, or in the case of online store orders.  In these situations, you will want to use the Advanced push to ensure you preserve any data that needs to be kept.

Site Staging Backups

SiteGround Staging has an automated backup system to ensure that you can quickly revert any “push to live.”  It features automated backups, single click restoration, and multiple restoration points to ensure that if you do make a mistake or something expectant happens you can quickly revert to the immediately preceding the “push to live.”

The backup is restored in seconds.

Site Staging Git Integration

One of the new features in the latest version of Site Staging, probably more suitable for the more developer types is the new Git Integration.  This allows multiple users to work on the staging copy via GIT and then push those to the Staging copy before pushing the changes live.  The following diagram shows this a little more clearly:

The GIT repo can be created with one click, and then you get all the information you need to access the repo in a pop-up box within a few seconds.

Other Cool Features of the SiteGround Staging Tool

There are a few other cool features of the new staging tool:

1. Easy staging copy replication - This is useful if you have some changes in your staging copy, but want to experiment with further changes without messing up your existing staging copy.
2. Easy password protection so you can control who can make changes.
3. Easy Access to your administration panel

Limitations

Some significant, but not overly restrictive limitations apply:

1. Maximum database size: 104 MB (this was clarified in the questions; higher limits are available on their VPS)
2. Maximum Staging Copies: 10
3. Maximum Daily Actions: 15

Hangout Questions

At the end of the Hangout, there was a chance to ask the SiteGround team some questions.  We have highlighted below some of the most interesting ones (you can view the hangout from the 25-minute mark to hear them all):

As we said before, there is a little more detail in the video, so you may find that useful to watch.  You can also read a more general overview of all the other developer tools available on SiteGrounds GoGeek plan here.