Want to make some changes on your site, but not quite sure the best way to do it?
Need to correct some data but are nervous that doing so might wreck your other data?
Just want to play with some ‘What ifs’?
That is exactly why we have set you up with a Test Site where you can mess around as much as you like without any risk of damaging your live data.
Here’s how you do it:
- Make a backup of your live site (always a good idea to do that). Go to Manage -> Site Maintenance -> Backup and Restore Database and click the green button. This will always backup your live data, no matter if you are currently on the Test or Live site.
- On the same page, select the backup you just did, or a previous one, and Restore to Test Site.
- Go to your Test Site: Manage -> Site Maintenance -> Go to Test Site.
- Play around to your heart’s content.
- Once you are happy with your strategy, go back to your Live Site and implement it there. Note that you cannot export the database from the Test Site and load it into your Live Site (that is for your own protection), so you will have to manually make the changes to your Live Site that you just tried out on your Test Site.
For example, maybe you deleted some records by mistake, but have since added other records. Would it be easier to restore an older database and then add the new records, or keep the new database and try to recreate the old ones that got deleted. And just what data did get deleted? Load it all up into the Test Site (maybe in a different browser tab), and see which strategy would work best.