How to verify code transfer from one client to another

Question

My client has recently taken ownership of an existing web site, with final deliverable s due in the coming weeks.

The former consulting firm will continue adding new features and maintaining the website until then.

My question is, how would we be able to verify that we have the most up to date, code running on their production servers? I don't expect any malice on their part, but I don't want to get into a situation where, we take what they call their latest code, do some modifications, then push a release which is missing some functionality.

Is there a way to "search" the current site running on production to verify that we get all the files.

I doubt this can be done, but I was just wondering if anyone has come across this situation before.

Thanks again guys!

Answer 1

Likely there is no automatic process that will help you. In some cases, depending on platform, you might be able to get everything you need, but for the most part, you're going to have to rely on the honor system. Contracts will likely help you out best in that regard.

It's either that or gain full control to their entire system and trawl through it yourself.

I somehow doubt they'll let you do that, however.

Answer 2

You don't say what the website's based on.

All the client-side stuff (HTML, Javascript, whatever) is right out there, and you can grab it yourself.

Server-side code requires cooperation, and verifying it depends on how much access you have to their system, and/or how open the transfer process is.

Personally, I'd say this is a contractual issue. Make sure the contract says you get what you think you'll get, and if there's any reason to think you haven't gotten it you investigate.

Answer 3

Of course, you can't check the live source vs. development source unless you have access to the live source!

So you will need access to the live site, and you will need to zip up all the files and save a copy of them on your local machine. Save them alongside the code provided by you.

Then, if you're on a Linux/Unix platform, use "diff -r" to get a recursive difference listing of the two trees.

As David says, if the entire site is static and implemented in HTML + JavaScript, then you can use a program like "wget" to suck down all of the files, even if you don't actually have access to the production system.