General information
A staging environment is a copy of your live environment where you can develop or test your app. A 1:1 copy of your app, including all plugins and themes, is created.
With internex, you have two staging environments available per WordPress package. You can create one environment for development (DEV environment) and one for quality assurance (QA environment).
The following limitations apply to staging environments compared to the live environment:
No domains can be added: Domains cannot be added to a DEV or QA environment; work is done under a test domain.
App Password Protector: Password protection is automatically enabled in a DEV or QA environment and cannot be removed. These environments can only be accessed in a browser after entering an additional password. You can find the username and password after creation in the menu of the respective environment under "Settings" -> "Security" -> "App Password Protector".
Screenshots not possible: Screenshots cannot be taken for preview in DEV and QA environments.
The "Staging & Cloning" feature described in this guide is currently only available for the "Simple," "Grow," and "Owner" packages.
You can check if your package includes this feature by searching for "Staging & Cloning" in the package overview.
1 - WordPress Studio
In the terminal, navigate to your Managed WordPress package. You can find instructions on how to access WordPress Studio in the article "Where can I find my Managed WordPress product in the internex terminal?"
2 - Create a staging environment
In the WordPress Studio menu, click on "Staging & DEV". On this page, you will see schematic representations of the "LIVE", "DEV", and "QA" environments.
App Password Protector
Please note that password protection is enabled as an additional security measure in DEV and QA environments. You can view the username and password after creation in the menu of the respective environment under "Settings" -> "Security" -> "App Password Protector".
2.1 - Creating a DEV environment
To create a DEV environment, click "Create Now" in the red window. A popup window will open, offering various data set options. Select the desired source and data set, and then click "Create Now".
2.2 - Creating a QA environment
To create a QA environment, click "Create Now" in the yellow window. A pop-up window will open, offering various data source options. Select the desired source and data source, and then click "Create Now."
2.3 - Deleting the DEV or QA environment
If the DEV or QA environment is no longer needed, you can delete it by clicking the gray "x" next to the corresponding environment.
After a brief confirmation, the environment will be deleted.
Warning: This step is irreversible! All settings and changes to the DEV or QA environment will be lost!
3 - Put the Staging Version Live
First, open the menu of the environment you want to put live. To do this, either click directly on the corresponding colored box under "Staging & DEV", under the app domain (in our case "app00000000.internex.host") click on "Switch Environment", or in the package overview (in the left menu under "WordPress Websites") click on "Go to App".
Select "Staging & DEV" from the menu and click the green "Deploy changes to LIVE-App" button.
In the pop-up window, you have the option to create a backup of the current live page. You will also be asked to confirm the change. Clicking "Make changes LIVE now" will overwrite the current live environment.
