Looking for an honest opinion

No, but we can try and have at least one that works for every main functionality. Need SEO?.. there’s now Classic SEO. Want e-commerce?.. Classic Commerce is on the way. If you like using a page builder there is now Beaver Builder.

I would actually much prefer to have a small group of well-maintained plugins that I trust, rather than a lucky dip of 57,000.

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They have different benefits.

Going with your host means that the whole environment should be exactly the same as your live site. Setting a clone up on your own computer means you don’t need an internet connection to test things out.

Neither option is particularly difficult to set up if you take things steadily. And you can see that plenty of people here are ready to help so, if you get stuck, you can just ask.

Absolutely! Couldn’t agree more!

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I don’t think I would!

The moment I joined CP was the day I stopped using page builder, although, it took some time but I eventually built my own theme from scratch (Not necessarily from scratch).

Fast forward few months, I started playing with meta boxes/custom fields, again, I was able to create my own modular design.

80% of my plugins are optional, the only problem I have is with Seo, and again, I’ll be switching to Classic Seo.

I am not trying to brag or show off, I am just prepared for the long haul. Whoever is migrating to CP should be using one or more of this options:

*Plugins That are Built For CP
*Officially Supported Plugins
*Plugin That Doesn’t Integrate With GB

I know every one can’t cope. If you are having an issue that is affecting your businesses and your last resort is WP, you gat no choice.

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I was out all day yesterday. (Three hours up to Rutland Water, four hours there, finally leaving in the dark and another three hour drive home. No food or drink all day…)

My host has just replied saying they don’t offer a staging environment, but then telling me how to back up my cPanel account, create an addon domain and something about editing the “hosts” file. I’m in way over my head here. My husband may be able to help - he’s very techy, although he knows nothing about WP or creating web sites. I’ll get him to sit down with me when we can find the time and yes… if I do need further help in here, I will certainly ask.

One quick question though - it seems that every time I go into my dashboard there are two or more plugins that need updating (this is about once a week). Obviously updating at the moment is the press of a button. How long should I expect this testing to take once I’m properly set up?

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Rutland Water is beautiful! But why no food or drink?!

I would say you should take a bit longer to start with. Once you’ve got a “feel” for how to do it, then you’ll get faster.

The sort of testing workflow I’d suggest would be this:

  1. Don’t click Update immediately, even on the test site. Instead click View Details. This should give you some idea of what has changed in the plugin, and so will help you to know how to test it best.
  2. Click Update.
  3. If relevant, test out the changes in (1). In particular, consider whether the changes suggest things happening on the front-end or the back-end, and so test accordingly.
  4. If the list of changes was unhelpful, then test more generally whether the plugin still works, and whether your site still works the way you want it.
  5. If all seems good, sleep on it. Never rush! It will still be there in the morning!
  6. Give it another, quick test the following day. (Ideally, try and test things in a different way or different order.)
  7. If all seems good, update the live site.
  8. If you become comfortable with particular plugins or their developers, you may be happy to update those plugins together and test them as a group, rather than just one-by-one.
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Something beginning with B. B-B-B-B-Br-Bre-Brex…

What’s it called again? :slight_smile:

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No food or drink because I was so busy :slightly_smiling_face:

I’ve just looked at view details for one of my plugins that currently needs updating. It means nothing to me. Neither does front-end or back-end and I would have no idea how to test, either in a different way, or a different order. I do pretty well making changes that are visual, but I start to struggle from there. Basically I Googled top ten plugins and found I needed SEO, backup, security, deleting revisions, optimizing database etc. Then I battled with them one at a time. I have notes on updating the PHP, but there is no real understanding. I perhaps shouldn’t be using CP (or WP), but previously I had a drag and drop web site with jAlbum and I got bored. I like a challenge and I’m pleased with what I’ve done. Maybe this explains why I get spooked easily when I read about changes.

I will look into creating a clone, but it’s going to take some time…

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Hi @Zooey,
I’m late on this thread. Whew! This seems like a lot of work! :sweat_smile:

However, people are correct here, you need to be careful with the updates. Yeah, don’t touch the main site, and use a clone or staging site.

We fully support ClassicPress hosting, and could easily make you a ClassicPress staging site, so you don’t need to touch your main site. Also, the Installatron App installer (which we have) will easily make clones.

We could even install UpdraftPlus for you, so you can make all those auto-backups before updates. More importantly - roll back if there are problems. We have this setup for our WordPress clients. I just tested that environment yesterday for CP:

Message me directly if you are interested, and we will get you setup on the weekend!

Cheers
Avrom

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Front-end refers to the parts of your site that visitors see. Back-end refers to where you edit content, insert photos, and manage themes and plugins.

Many plugins affect only one or the other. Testing means just trying to mimic what a visitor would do on the front-end or what you normally do on the back-end and seeing if things still work as you expect.

As for not currently understanding a plugin’s update details, you soon will understand at least some of what they say once you get accustomed to testing.

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Hi Zooey. This approach concerns me, and I suspect you may have a lot more plugins than necessary. You should only be using the plugins you need, not the ones Google tells you to install.

For example, deleting/managing revisions can be done with one line in wp-config.php - Revisions – WordPress.org Documentation - no plugin required for that.

And I’m personally not all that convinced you need to worry about cloning/staging to test your updates. If it was busy a e-commerce site and 30 mins of downtime was critical then it would certainly be necessary. But you should ask yourself what happens if my site is down for 30 mins? Is it that big a deal? The absolute most important thing is to (a) have backups and (b) know how to restore them quickly. In fact, it’s worth practicing this part. My host has hourly backups I can restore with one click in cpanel.

One final point. There are updates, and there are updates. I tend to be fairly relaxed about ones like 4.3.7 to 4.3.8. But if it’s 4.3.7 to 5.0.0 then it’s certainly more of a concern.

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@Zooey – you may already know this but version numbers follow a general rule (though for some plugin authors, it seems to be a bit open to interpretation). As I understand it –

The left-most number is a major update. These should always be undertaken with care. Even if the number is a leap from 4.9.9 to 5.0.0, that’s still a major update (because the left-most number has changed).
Personally, I tend to wait on those types of updates, because major updates often are buggy and it takes developers a little time to find and fix those bugs. As they fix them, you’ll see them come out with new numbers over in the right-most space; these are generally very minor bugfixes and sometimes security fixes:
5.0.1
5.0.2
5.0.3
Once I see the pace of these updates slow down, then I’ll update, because the slower pace tells me they’ve probably stabilized the update. Still… it is a major update, which can indicate a breaking change, so I still use caution.

You will also see minor updates – these are indicated by the number that’s second from the left (or in my example, the middle number). These are often small feature updates or other changes that were deemed too large to fit into a bugfix-style update. They look like this:
4.4.9 to
4.5
or
4.7.27 to
4.8.2

Most minor updates aren’t earth-shattering, but it’s worth skimming the update documentation just in case the plugin developer mentions something about a possible conflict or issue.

Sometimes you’ll see version numbers that have more numbers tacked onto the end – just remember that the farther to the right you get, the more minor the change, and the less you probably have to worry about.

I hope this is helpful!

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It’s bad advice to say someone doesn’t need a staging or test site. What if Zooey gets locked out or experiences a white screen of death? Sure, they are both fixable, but they can feel quite scary. Much better to have them happen on a test site, when you can take your time to correct such a problem.

In any event, testing on a test site takes no longer than testing on a live site; the only added effort is setting up the test site in the first place. And that’s just once-and-done.

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This is very correct, and it applies to most things in general, if I had tested my server on my local machine before rebooting, I wouldn’t have been locked out for 3 straight hours(3 hours of downtime). It’s not something you would wanna get yourself into, so, make sure you stick with this advice.

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I really do appreciate all the advice. First of all… plugins. I don’t think I have more than I need, but how was I supposed to get an idea of what was needed without Google? I read many sites and opted for the plugins that were common to all, like SEO, backing up and security. I know almost nothing about code, so why would I search for some that could replace a plugin? (There are times when I will tinker with code - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, more often the latter).

One thing that I did pick up with WP was the version numbers. My problem is jumping in too soon with the updates. Probably because they keep coming. I’m more level headed with Photoshop and Lightroom and will wait to see what is being reported.

It doesn’t matter if my site goes down, but it would freak me out as I lack the knowledge and confidence to put it right. On the other hand, I’ve made so many changes to a live site and not managed to break it yet, so that has to be good.

I think I should be using a test site because it’s the right thing to do and something I need to learn. I was once locked out by iThemes and it’s not something I wish to experience again. Hubby and I both have colds at the moment, but I will be researching this as soon as we’re better :slightly_smiling_face:

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I think you did.
This person is indeed trying to learn and in this post she states that many times.
Fact is everyone learns at his/her pace.
And the advise given about staging site/environment is good.

We are here to offer assistance to whoever wants to stay with CP, no matter how fast they learn, or if they need to hire one of us to do the job.

CP is for everyone.

EDITED TO ADD:

Since I am not the best communicator in town, I want to summarize the above with a question.

Is it compulsory the wanting to learn ins and outs of development to have a site?

IMHO no. One can setup a site also when he has no will to learn it all

The non-willingness to learn is a choice. I can desire to have a site and investigate how to build it to a certain extent and ask for help for things I do not want to dive in

This to me is ok.

People deserve help in any case.

On the “CP may not be for everyone”. CP is for everyone who chooses it and wants to stay with it. Regardless of knowledge level or willingness to learn, IMHO.

If the staging site suggestion isn’t working for them when they try it (she mentions being both affected by a cold), then we can offer to help in other ways, like someone helping for a fee or whatever else is needed to ease their issue remaining with CP.

IMHO, plainly advising a solution like wix (they were with wix before if I am not mistaken) is not weloming.

And please, when we reply let’s try to read all topic and understand it instead of blaming the freezing cold. :smiley: (I was on shift 5 utc-8 utc and not yet caffeinated. Sorry for being so direct)

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I’m definitely a she - retired, disabled and with a zoo to care for. The animals take around 5 hours a day, weekends pretty much the whole day and in fact, I will be steam cleaning litter trays later today. I love to learn new things, but if there is any spare time, then I spend most of it on my photography. I’m struggling at the reserves and with my street photography now, so I want to get out while I am able. Anything techie that I pick up tends to get swept away with worming schedules and claw trimming. Interesting fact - I built my very first site with code. Hubby got me started with a frame and I just carried on. I Googled code I needed and asked hubby for help when I got stuck.

I like the work involved with my current site and I certainly don’t want anything like Wix. I think once I’m over this cold (and the worry about our llamas and goats outside in the current storm), then I will get my head around a staging site too :slightly_smiling_face:

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Storm Ciara. Such a lovely name for a storm don’t you think? :slight_smile:

I tried to generalize. Sometimes it helps remembering that what happens may happen to everybody.

But, did I heard right? Llamas? And goats? Oh fluffy soft!

And, it’s ok to take things slow because of life. If we do not live having a site to tell the story is just… Useless.

We are here to help. Everytime there is a question.

I am working to release a tutorial on how to set up a local site with open source software. Are you on win 10 by any chance? Or Linux?

For now I am writing some notes on how to set it up on win but I also have Linux machines. So I think I can prepare it also for Linux.

Will publish on the forums when ready.

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It’s delightful. Llamas and goats tucked away in the field shelter and being monitored on our llama cam. We have to go outside to feed and muck out in around an hour. In the meantime, our 11 cats are safe and warm indoors and the 6 ferrets are fast asleep in their room. I doubt they even know what it’s like outside :joy:

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