Hi all,
I have a CakePhp Website that is currently live. I would like to keep working on the site, without impacting the deployed site.
What is the best way to keep a production version separate from a deployed version, and then merging the two when appropriate?
Currently, I am using Git for version control.
Thanks!
First thing, get to know a version control system Subversion, Git, Bazaar, Mercurial are some examples. They are a safety net that can save your bacon because they save EVERY change to EVERY file in your fileset.
Then, typically I have a local development server and also a subdomain (staging.example.com) on the production server. I then do my heavy development on the local development server. Then I use SVN to archive all my site changes. Then, using a shell account on the production server I check out the new version of the software to the staging subdomain. If it works ok there, I can then update the live site using just a single SVN check out.
I've also heard of people placing a symbolic link in the location where the site root should be (/var/www/public_html) that points to the live directory (/var/www/site_ver_01234) , then set up the new version in a parallel directory (/var/www/site_ver_23456). Finally, just recreate the symbolic link pointing to the new version's directory. The switch is instantaneous and transparent. I'm sorry I'm not more clear on this method though, I read about it a while back but never tried it myself though.
I've also looked at Bazaar (another version control system) that has a plugin that automatically ftps any changed files to a given server every time a version is checked in.
The general idea, first of all, is to use a version control system. Using this, you're developing your site on your local machine or with several people, having a central repository somewhere.
When you're happy with a certain revision and would like to deploy it, you "tag" it. That means you freeze the state of that revision and separate it from the continually evolving "trunk". What that means specifically depends on your version control system.
You then take that tagged revision and copy it to the live server. Possibly you may copy it to a "staging server" before to test it in another environment. This copying can be as simple as overwriting all existing files using FTP, or it can involve automated deployment systems which will take care of the details for you and allow you to roll back an unsuccessful deployment. If a database is involved as well, you're probably also looking at database schema migration scripts that need to be run.
Each of these steps can be done in many different ways, and you'll have to figure out what's the best approach for you. If you're not doing so already, start using a version control system such as SVN or git. Do it now! Then you might want to google or search on SO about different techniques to tag and branch using that system. For serious deployment, start with a keyword like Capistrano or one of its PHP clones.