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Create staging environments for Joomla
Have you got a Joomla site, and want to make changes?
If so, you'll know that it's a nightmare trying to get it right.
What if that new plugin crashes your site, or you want to make lots of changes without your users seeing what's going on until you're ready to launch the new site?
And that's why I built StageIt - the only staging environment extension for Joomla!
StageIt means you can make any change you like to your site, without those changes being 'live' until you're completely ready to triumphantly reveal your Joomla masterpiece!
Here's how it works
StageIt takes all the drama out of updating Joomla!
Step 1: Create a new staging envinronment, which is perfectly matched to your existing site and sits 'on top' of your site.
Step 2: Make all the changes you like on the staging environment, without any change affecting the live site.
Step 3: If you want to show your client a new feature or some work you've done, so they (or their legal team) can sign off the new content, simply show them the staging environment.
Step 4: When you're happy with the changes, simply click a single 'Sync with Live' button to sync the staging and live sites, and make all your changes live!
What is included?
- Create a staging environment in seconds
- Develop on the staging environment with zero risk to your live site
- Make any changes you like - update extensions, delete content etc.
- StageIt supports ALL third party extensions
- Sync the staging environment with the live site at any time
- Visual button allows you to instantly switch between environments
- Automatic backups allow you to restore your live site to any sync point
- Select data tables to include / exclude from the sync
- Select file folders to include / exclude from the sync
- Configure to work with a range of servers - even GoDaddy!
- Full documentation
- Purchase includes full support and updates
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
- Joomla 3.x or Joomla 4.x
- PHP 7+
- Enough free file space to copy your system
- Preferably run PHP in fastCGI mode
- Preferably use a decent server!
Screenshots
Your comments
I've just downloaded the Gold edition and once installed, plugin switched on on both the staging and live site, the "switch to Staging environment" button doesn't work and I cant access the staging environment.
I have changed the URL and all I'm getting is
"No configuration file found and no installation code available. Exiting..."
Any suggestions?
Hi Julie,
Tim Davis here, helping with support.
I would be happy to log into your site and take a look at what is going on.
Please email me at [email protected] and let's move forward there.
God bless,
Tim
Hi
I am in the mode to update buy another subscription to support the project.
Do you have the latest change log updates anywhere for public to see the progress and update?
Cheers!
Thanks for asking!
Here is the latest changelog:
=== CHANGELOG ===
Version 4.1.1
Date: 15th May 2023
Minor fixes
Version 4.1.0
Date: 21-03-2023
Joomla 4.x compatbiility improved
Plugin position changed slightly
Version 4.0.3
Date: 09-11-2022
Additional Akeeba compatibility
Version 4.0.2.1
Date: 13-10-2021
Added backwards compatibility for older versions of Joomla 3.x
Version 4.0.2
Date: 01-10-2021
Improved speed for removing backups
Version 4.0.1
Date: 01-09-2021
Minor bug fix with checking POST size
Version 4.0.0
Date: 19-08-2021
Fully compatible with Joomla 4.0.0 stable
Version 2.1.12
Date: 04-09-2020
Fixed issue with ACL
Version 2.1.11
Date: 04-01-2018
Fixed bug with excluding directories from initial deployment
Version 2.1.10
Date: 12-12-2018
Improved speed and memory usage
Version 2.1.8
Date: 04-12-2018
Refined the Remove Staging function with better feedback and functionality
Version 2.1.8
Date: 04-12-2018
Refined the Remove Staging function with better feedback and functionality
Version 2.1.7
Date: 29-11-2018
Added RecursiveDirectoryIterator for faster, more reliable file search
Version 2.1.6
Date: 27-11-2018
Added fix for where glob() function is not available
Version 2.1.5
Date: 28-05-2018
Added error logging where database tables can not be read for various reasons
Version 2.1.4
Date: 28-05-2018
Fixed a bug where part of Staging deployment was skipped
Version 2.1.3
Date: 22-05-2018
Added user access permissions so you can define which user groups can use StageIt
Version 2.1.2
Date: 25-04-2018
Added further feedback during deployment phase
Version 2.1.1
Date: 20-04-2018
Fixed a minor bug
Hi just made my own site getting toto know the rope
Thank you, goodness this is a smart website nvm a smart phone when you got a website like this hoooooraaaa i love it best birthday gift tyty
As we discuss before now the Joomla ACL fix is there for doing the concept of having other Joomla devs to your site.. see here https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/41262 will be subscriber again when this will be implemented and useful to have ACL access to different site Joomla devs on the site that can not interfere with other Joomla devs components.
I'm using your Gold StageIt on all of my client's websites. Almost all are operating great. I have one, which happens to be my most important client, which I have not been able to use. The creation of the environment works as it should, but when accessing the staging area, the CSS is completely missing.
Hi Scott - doesn't it seem like things always happen on the always the most important one! when you say the css is missing, is that in the back end only, the front end only, or both? If you can send some screenshots to [email protected] (or even superuser login info and the url) I will take a look and see if I recognize the issue.
Hi Tim,
The staging administrator or backend is has a bunch of net::ERR_CONTENT_DECODING_FAILED 200 tied to CSS files. There are a couple of staging front end modules that are not working with jquery errors and missing CSS. But most of the template and content is not affected like the backend area.
One question, is the latest version 4.0.3 or 4.0.2? Joomla extension site lists 4.0.3. When I downloaded the latest, it reads 4.0.2 in the extension mgr area.
Hi Scott,
In the configuration for StageIt, do you have "Force Refresh" set to "Yes"? If not, change that setting and try making a staging area again.
Regarding the version numbers, the latest StageIt package shows as 4.1 in the Joomla extension manager, but the component shows as 4.0.2. I will touch base Barnaby about making sure the Joomla Extension Directory info gets update. BTW, there have been no recent changes or updates that are related to this 200 error issue, so I don't think that is aversion issue.
Hi,
We have been using Stageit for a few months and it works well. Nevertheless, from time to time during the synchronization the configuration.php file of our production server is overwritten with the one of Stageit and so it connects
to the stageit database and no longer to the production one.
Have you ever had this problem and if so how can we solve it.
Thanks
Hi Erwin,
Since this is happening only some of the time there must be something that is happening only under certain circumstances.
When this happens are the log and cache paths also staying with their "stageit" paths entered?
Also, in the Stageit settings, do you have the "Force Refresh" setting set to "Yes - refresh and rebuild all files and data tables"?
I also wonder if some caching setup or tool you use is monkeying around with things when you push to live, but just typing that makes me wonder how that could be.
Keep me posted on what you try/find as this might help should anyone has this issue in the future.
Hello
I just installed StageIt on 2 different websites. One is running on a local MAMP environment, the other on my provider's server. Both are running Joomla 3.x
When I start the components, the process runs to "Deploying your database" and gets stuck there, one process( local) at 89%, the other at 48%.
I just installed and then called "Begin". Have I forgotten something, or overlooked something? Any suggestion? Thanks in advance.
Rolf
Hello
I have tried again. The StageIt plugin was not activated. Now it went completely over the stage. Sorry. . .
No worries - I'm glad you got it sorted out!
Hello, I have used Stageit for my previous migration and it worked all good.
I wanted to rebuild my stageit test site for a new migration, everything seems ok in my system info, but I keep having this error 500 everytime when I try to rebuild :
Internal Server Error
An error has occurred. Please check you are logged in and try agin.
If this error continues, please contact support at PHP Web Design
Error status:500
Error response:
500 Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or
misconfiguration and was unable to complete
your request.
Please contact the server administrator at
postmaster@... to inform them of the time this error occurred,
and the actions you performed just before this error.
More information about this error may be available
in the server error log.
Hi Melanie,
I would be happy to look into this for you. Would you please email the superuser login info for your site and you webhosting account? [email protected]
God bless,
Tim
Hi,
I'm trying to use stageit to update my site from Joomla 3 to 4 and when I try to sync the stageit site with the main site, I keep on getting this error - 0 Class 'JRequest'. Have I missed something out?
Thanks
Gareth
Hi Gareth,
Something that is active in your install is not J4 compatible.
If you email me a super user login for your site (and the url) and a log in for your webhosting account I will take a quick look for you. [email protected]
God bless,
Tim
StageIt doesnt seem to be fully compatible with Joomla v4. Will there be an update coming soon that addresses compatibility issues with the latest Joomla version?
Hi Aaron,
StageIt is working on the latest version of J4. That said, I don't doubt you have run into something that isn't working for you and I would like to look into that to help understand why.
Would you mind emailing ([email protected]) the url of your site and superuser credentials for accessing your site admin so I can log in and run stageit on it and have a look? Any description of what I am looking for would be helpful too.
Thanks!
Tim
I am trying to close down a site that has used your component for staging in the past. I am trying to do a final backup before I close the site. However, there is a big database and I'd like to trim it. Can I assume that I can delete all the tables starting stg_ ? Also, are there any directories under public_html that I can delete?
Hi Bob. If the StageIt extension is still installed you can use it to remove the staging area which will remove all tables beginning with "stg_" and the "/stageit" folder after that you want to manually remove the "/stgbackups" folder (if it exists.)
If the StageIt extension has been uninstalled you will want to manually remove:
- any DB table beginning with the prefix "stg_"
- the "/stageit" folder
- the "/stgbackups" folder
Tim
Hi there see you update StageIT and wonder if you have any changelog for it?
cheers!
We did just update the StageIt version info in the Joomla Extensions Directory, but there haven't been any changes since November 11, 2022 (the thing just runs so good!)
That change was to have StageIt *not* copy Akeeba Backup Files that end in .j## (the "##" being any number between 01 and 99.) Previous to this minor change, Stageit only skipped Akeeba Backup Files that ended in .jpa
The StageIt changelog is actually in the extension download package, but just for fun, here it is:
=== CHANGELOG ===
Version 4.0.3
Date: 09-11-2022
Additional Akeeba compatibility
Version 4.0.2.1
Date: 13-10-2021
Added backwards compatibility for older versions of Joomla 3.x
Version 4.0.2
Date: 01-10-2021
Improved speed for removing backups
Version 4.0.1
Date: 01-09-2021
Minor bug fix with checking POST size
Version 4.0.0
Date: 19-08-2021
Fully compatible with Joomla 4.0.0 stable
Version 2.1.12
Date: 04-09-2020
Fixed issue with ACL
Version 2.1.11
Date: 04-01-2018
Fixed bug with excluding directories from initial deployment
Version 2.1.10
Date: 12-12-2018
Improved speed and memory usage
Version 2.1.8
Date: 04-12-2018
Refined the Remove Staging function with better feedback and functionality
Version 2.1.8
Date: 04-12-2018
Refined the Remove Staging function with better feedback and functionality
Version 2.1.7
Date: 29-11-2018
Added RecursiveDirectoryIterator for faster, more reliable file search
Version 2.1.6
Date: 27-11-2018
Added fix for where glob() function is not available
Version 2.1.5
Date: 28-05-2018
Added error logging where database tables can not be read for various reasons
Version 2.1.4
Date: 28-05-2018
Fixed a bug where part of Staging deployment was skipped
Version 2.1.3
Date: 22-05-2018
Added user access permissions so you can define which user groups can use StageIt
Version 2.1.2
Date: 25-04-2018
Added further feedback during deployment phase
Version 2.1.1
Date: 20-04-2018
Fixed a minor bug
What would nice to have is if you could have set up different ”pre” stage copies for different devs access (with Joomla ACL) for different devs Joomla components.
So what that means is the each developer can only login to the site and only have access to their special StageIT area for their specific component.
When they then do testing and everything work they can push the update for the live site and then the only thing that is affected is there update for just their component.
Could that be a new feature enhancement for StageIT?
I like that idea a lot! Though, just thinking of how it would work and how much hosting space some sites would take up makes my head spin (though we all know I am a support guy and not a programmer.)
There are currently no plans to add any major features to any of our extensions. Maintaining them and keeping them running on Joomla (as Joomla version change) is all good, but Barnaby has some other projects he is committed to outside of Joomla that require the lion's share of his focus and energy.
That's why everyone had ended up talking to a dud (or should that be "dude") like me, lol!
Good bcs now with latest bug of ACL who can configure that solve a great problem too :) https://issues.joomla.org/tracker/joomla-cms/39706
Interesting. I t looks like a fix is going to come along soon for that one.
Did you come any further with this feature suggestion? I think it would be very great and also if you can have another domain test site and then remotely also update the main domain site with one component and its dependencies..
cheers!
No, there are still no plans for major feature additions - that that idea would be a whopper to add! There is so much overlap between some components that different people would be tripping all over each other. For instance, if extension A and extension B both access user profiles, and let's say custom fields, and make changes to settings and other things, stuff would be breaking all over the place. The solution would be to lock out one developer at a time, which basically is what you already have with only have one staging area.
OK thats a pity bcs this should be the solution for doing this https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/39879
Hi,
We use Stageit for ages with the same "issue" since the beginning : Stageit does not include the folders which are not in the core in the staging creation. We can debate about these folders as bad usage of J! by 3rd party but it's here. We manually sync each time but if it could be done through an option in the live env in the configuration it could be great.
Thanks
Hello,
Yes this is by design - it won't create /yourrandomfolder for the staging environment - most additional third party folders that are actually *needed* will be in (say) /media , and this avoids copying /copyofbackup1 etc.
After the initial deployment, you usually won't need to redeploy the staging environment, so just copy any third party folder that you really do need manually to /stageit/
Then , make your changes in /stageit/yourfolder/ and any changes made will be copied BACK to the live folder when you sync with live.
The workflow is usually:
Live >> Deploy to Staging
Staging >> Make changes & test
Staging >> Sync changes to live
Staging >> Keep making changes and syncing to live
i.e. you don't normally need to redeploy the staging to the live.
So normally you also won't need to recreate your third party folder in the staging environment. The only time you *would* need to is if you've completely removed and rebuilt your staging environment, or if you've had changes in your live /randomfolder
Best wishes - Barnaby
I'm looking for a component for staging, but we don't want to publish the whole website only a few selected items, say, only selected categories and its content or only publish selected articles, or modules or menu... but not the whole DB, only selected items, this is for a very large site multi-language(16lcl), can your component do that?
Good morning John Doe :-)
StageIt is a full site staging environment, it doesn't allow for selected items to be published or unpublished.
Best wishes
I have two questions: Q1. Does StageIt use or require a separate subdomain, e.g. staging.domain.com Q2. Can StageIt be used to manage an upgrade from Joomla 3.10 to 4.1?
Hi David,
Q1 - StageIt uses the subfolder /stageit/ , it doesn't work on a subdomain.
Q2 - Yes although it's not built for this - if you want a specific Joomla 4.x migration tool I'd suggest MigrateMe 4. This has many inbuilt tools and functions to ensure the migration is seamless, and offers additional backward checks to ensure the data structures are correct. There's also a 'safe-mode' function, so if you migrate and something goes wrong (e.g. a whitescreen is caused by an incompatible extension) use safe-mode to ensure you have a useable J4 environment, and you can then install the latest J4 version of the outdated extensions.
Best wishes - Barnaby
Love the component, but suddenly getting a "Save failed with the following error: Duplicate entry '7-8' for key 'PRIMARY'" error when attempting to create a new article or modify an existing article. I get this error in either staging or live. Each time you save, the entry increases 8-8, 9-8, 10-8, etc. I tried running a repair on the database tables in PHPMyAdmin with no change in this issue.
Any suggestions?
Hi Scott
That's an index issue, in the database (?) not sure which table. It'd be worth checking which index is throwing the error, if you check the database structure in PHPMyAdmin for that table, it will show indexes... you'd be looking for a compound unique index e.g. category_id & article_id . This won't be related to StageIt, which is entirely 'inert' while not being used, my guess is it's something in the database configuration.
Hi Barnaby,
I just purchased your StageIt extension, but am having an issue with using Akeeba Backup with it. I'm getting an error has occurred message:
0 Class "Joomla\Plugin\System\BackupOnUpdate\Extension\BackupOnUpdate" not found, after updating the live site and click on the switch to live button at the top right area. I've checked the configuration area on the Staging area. Using another browser I will not be able to access the production website. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
Never mind, I disabled all Akeeba Backup plugins in staging and then pushed the changes to production. I was able to log into production. Next, I reinstalled the backup component in production, reenabled plugins, and then updated staging. Works fine now.
Thanks for the update!
Should Stageit be used (or not) to migrate from J3 to J4?
Hi Karen
Technically that'd work fine - but with StageIt is that you'll need to use the Force Refresh option when you Sync with Live, to ensure all the old J3 caches are updated.
StageIt doesn't include any error checking or database updates, and doesn't verify the J3 environment... so for a more comprehensive option use MigrateMe 4, which has 1000s of checks, and the ability to load a working J4 environment, even with major compatibility issues or a blank J4 screen etc.
Hope that helps
Hello Barnaby.
I have the problem that when i login in frontend with steageit/index.php?option=com_users&view=login, after clicking on login i will land on live site instead of the stageit site.
i already did the
RewriteBase /stageit/
thing in .htaccess in stageit folder which is listed as a solution in another comment, but without success.
Any other idea?
Regards
Marco
Hi Marco
Please open a support ticket through https://www.php-web-design.com/Barnaby-Dixon.html and include the website you're looking at, and I'll check it out for you.
Did you put the RewriteBase in the /stageit/.htaccess file ?
Thanks!
Hello Barnaby
thx for your fast answer :)
i saw i made a big mistake. I wrote /steageit/ in url instead of /stageit/ and copy/pasted this url the whole time. Didn't recognize this typo because also with this wrong url i landed on login site.
Now when i found this mistake and type the url the right way, it seems to work, together with the .htaccess thing.
Regards
Marco
Thanks for the update!
Hi Barnaby,
We have been using Stageit for a couple of years. I have updated Stageit to the last version on our site with Joomla 3.10.4, we noticed the following issues:
- we have found so far JomSocial and EasyBlog are not working properly.
- the style of the site changed: font size, family font, spaces, margins, etc.
When I disable the StageIt plugin everything seems to be working correctly.
Please Advise,
Thanks!
Hello,
Those extensions do not play nice with the Joomla core, and override it in places, so they are in conflict with the StageIt plugin. Just change the plugin behaviour in StageIt > Configuration > Environment > [set to Backend only]
Best regards
I tried your configuration and did not work. Any other ideas to try it out?
Thanks!
Hi Ivan,
Disabling the plugin in the frontend through the StageIt configuration will prevent it from displaying. If this didn't work, try clearing your cache.
If you do need further assistance with this please contact support through the Contact page. Thanks!
Hi I wonder if its possible to have 3 instances?
I would like to set up development, test and live.
Would it be possible to have these 3 instances where you can have the first as lab dev the second as test instance and then the live.
Hello
StageIt is designed to operate as a single live staging setup. It's not designed to work as test staging live ... since this would make the average system overly complex and make it unclear which environment is the 'master' leading inevitably to unintentional overwrites
Kind regards
I'm having difficulty with Stageit and the Helix Ultimate framework. The changes do not save when running a Stageit copy. I reached out to Joomshaper first. They said it was caused by the third-party component. I can send a screen recording to demonstrate the issue. Can you help?
Good morning Karen,
Sorry to hear you've hit some issues. I think this is likely down to a cache, try clearing your Joomla and template caches, and see if that helps.
If not, please open a support ticket by clicking Contact Support and I can help further.
Thanks & have a great day! Barnaby
Hi Karen and Barnaby hope this issue is fixed now with new release? I will also use StageIT with Joomla 4 and Helix Ultimate latest versions..
Cheers!
Hello! Yes it was all very simple to resolve - I just reinstalled the latest version of StageIt, and all is working well.
Regards
Ok great. Do you use php 8 too? I have a site with php 8.0.13 and hope it work with latest php version there. I guess also next Jommla 4 version have support for php 8.1..
cheers!
We'll continue to update to meet latest standards - just a question of time as always :-)
I purchased Stageit about ten days ago and have been using it on all my sites.
The backup removal however is not working as expected. For example, in an attempt to remove a 55mb backup, it spins with the message "removing your backup" for what has been 20 minutes at the point of this message. I don't think this is typical. It has happened on two sites where I tried to remove the backup via Stageit instead of via FTP.
Can you advise, please?
Hi there Karen,
Thank you for reaching out! I found a little issue where backups would delete, just very slowly. Please install the latest version of StageIt (4.0.2) which has this bug resolved.
Cheers
Hi I got a problem after doing a set up that went well. Then I want to exclude Akeeba comp and I get this error Joomla 3.10.1 php 8.0.9
"An error has occurred.
0 strlen(): Argument #1 ($str) must be of type string, array given
Return to Control Panel"
Hello,
That doesn't sound like a problem with StageIt, more likely a problem with Akeeba / Joomla, since it was triggered when saving an Akeeba / Joomla setting.
But if you can send me a screenshot I'm happy to check for you?
Cheers!
Is the current version of StageIT fully compatible with Joomla 4?
Hello
StageIt will be released for Joomla 4.x in the next few days.
Kind regards
Just to confirm, StageIt is now fully Joomla 4.x compatible.
I have been well pleased with StageIt. It solves both backup and updating issues on live sites. I think it ought to be a part of Joomla.
I do not like the staging copy to be available for public access. Is there a way to protect that access?
Hi Paul
Thank you for your message. You can do this in a variety of ways.
The best way is through .htaccess - enable this on your staging environment, and exclude traffic except from your own IP address with the following code:
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from <Your IP Address>
Note: the .htaccess is *not* deployed to live, so this change will not affect your live site during any sync.
Alternatively you can do this through staging environment Joomla admin - in System > Global Configuration > Site set the site to offline. This will require you to log in as an admin to see the site frontend.
Have a great day! Barnaby Dixon
I currently have version 2.0.20 of Stage IT. Will that version be compatible with Joomla 4 or will I need to upgrade?
Hi there
Thank you for your message. Joomla 4 will be a major change, so since it's not yet released it's impossible to say with certainty that StageIt will work perfectly. However, it's been developed to the latest available standards, so it should work - just can't guarantee just yet!
Have a great day
Hi Barnaby,
I am from the SAP world, where any development is based on a transport system Dev-->Test-->Prod. Usually only the configuration or code changes are sent into the next system, leaving the "content" (transactional data, master data) unchanged.
In a CMS, the situation is slightly different. There are "programs" in a directory and content data in a database. They are dependant on each other as the define the overall site.
So, when I change a Joomla site, I might change settings, change components, but also add content like a new web-page represented by an new article.
I am looking for a tool to control the dev-to-prod workflow.
Questions:
- Is there a function, where I can push all program changes into Prod but only ADD dedicated content (e.g. articles, forum content) leaving the rest of the content in Prod unchanged?
-I have read in the comments above that you can exclude directories/tables from transport. I am not a Joomla expert. Is there a tool to identify automatically, in which "place" (file/table) an object sits, which I want to transport? Thus, I could exclude all other files/tables from transport into Prod. :-)
- Can I update Joomla or components in the "Dev. environment" without influence on the Prod and role back, if needed?
- The Enterprise Edition comes with 180 support. I assume that only during this period I would be entitled to updates. So if Joomla4 comes up in 181 days, I need to subscribe to E.E. again?
Please consider to offer some kind of "upgrade edition" without the free support, which costs your time :-)
Greetings from Switzerland
Hi Petro,
The Joomla system is complex and interdependent, so there aren't many changes that can be made without impacting the whole system due to internal UUIDs and the asset system.
It's not possible to make individual, granular changes such as pushing a single article edit to the live site. That would introduce too much potential for data inconsistency due to Joomla's internal asset system.
So with StageIt, it's by default an all-or-nothing system. You deploy the staging environment, which is an exact replica of the live system.
Then you make changes on the staging environment.
Then you push changes to live. It will check all files and folders for changes, as well as all data changes, and if it finds a change on either the live or the staging, it will push the staging version to the live site. This maintains data consistency.
With the enterprise version, you can opt to exclude specific files, folders and data tables from the sync. This is so that you can push staging to live, without impacting user-updated content (such as a sales system, a blog, user ratings etc).
It's not intended to exclude *everything except one folder*. That would again risk introducing inconsistencies.
You can make whatever changes you like on the staging system, and if you don't want to keep them, redeploy the live site > Staging, so that you revert the staging system to an exact replica of the live site.
StageIt is already Joomla 4 compliant, and has been for over a year :-)
Kind regards, Barnaby Dixon
Hi
I have a site and a staging domain of the same.
Is it possible to use staging domain instead of creating staging environment from the stageit extension and use the pre-existing staging to sync the files onto live.
Thanks and Regards
Prince Nitin
Hi there,
Thank you for your message.
The staging environment is always at /stageit/ , it's not possible to use a separate subdomain or different folder. It is created and managed automatically by StageIt
Regards
Hi,
We discovered your great extension today and worked with it on our test environment. Works great, but with one question/remark.
When developing on stage, but also working on live, is it possible to have some kind of compare option? For example when in the same article or Pagebuilder page has been made some changes, you can select which one to use?
Regards, Carst
Hello,
Thank you for your message.
StageIt is an environmental staging extension, it'll exactly replicate your Live > Staged > Live environment, but it's not possible to take minor or granular changes and apply them individually.
Have a great day!
Failure of SiteGround's staging environment:
1) The no cache settings for pre-production environment are replicated in the production environment thus forcing editing of the settings in the production environment.
2) Template settings must be edited in the production environment to compress css, php, and image files.
3) Sp Pagebuilder requires some absolute urls in links which are carried forward in the production environment thus forcing editing of menus and page links.
Will any of those issues be found in Stageit?
Hello,
StageIt is smart, intuitive and works well, and is specifically built for Joomla. Not comparable with other staging environments. None of the issues you've mentioned are an issue with StageIt.
Hope that helps
I was able to do a backup a few weeks ago. I wiped it out, and attempted to start fresh. I am now continuing to get an error 500. I've tested with different speeds, and now have it set to extremely slow, with acceleration turned off, and its made no changes.
When I checked the logs, I'm seeing, "End of script output before headers: index.php, referer: https:///index.php?option=com_stageit".
Any suggestions?
Good morning
A 500 error means your server isn't able to process something.
Often it means a memory limit, space limit, or CPU limit has been reached, and the server has timed out or prevented the process from running.
Reducing the deployment speed will help if it's a server resource limitation, although in some cases the server will still block you if it's a low budget shared option. But it's also worth checking available disk space.
In other cases, it'll mean an issue with the PHP environment, where a required function isn't available, this might happen for example if you are running a very old version of PHP, or if it's a custom install of PHP without standard functions available.
That will be resolved by ensuring PHP is up to date and appropriate for your version of Joomla, for example PHP 5.6 for Joomla 2.5, or PHP 7+ for Joomla 3+
Also it'd be helpful to note exactly where the issue happens, e.g. is it during database analysis, file and folder analysis, etc...
Hope that helps! Please reach out if you need further assistance, and if you'd like me to take a look email me separately with access.
Barnaby
Sorry for the delay. It is a shared server, but when I initially installed the plugin, I was able to run a backup without any adjustments.
There is plenty of space on the hard drive (and I don't have any restrictions on my login profile).
I'm running PHP 7.3.15, and it's a stock install of PHP.
Joomla is on 3.9.15.
The system chokes at "Deploying your Files and Folders" (20% completed). I'm wondering if it's a possible user rights issue?
Hi again,
It could be a permissions issue, where the system isn't able to either read something in the live folder, or write to the staging environment folder.
It could also be where you have a folder with millions of files (such as logs), especially on a shared server since the system will struggle to load the folder contents into memory.
I've also see this happen where the system has a virus, which blocks the process. So worth checking some of your key files if they seem to have an infection of some kind - check index.php and configuration.php for example.
You could also check the log in /administrator/components/com_stageit/ to see if that gives a clue exactly where the process is failing...
If none of that helps, please send me a login and I'll check it out for you, as it seems to be a specific issue to your system.
Have a great day!
Thanks for guiding me to the log file. The file showed:
"17-07-2020 12:55:44 WARNING: Could not copy ../administrator/components/com_akeeba/Master/Installers/angie.jpa - incorrect file permissions. Please copy this manually".
I don't know why the system choked on this file. The rights were the
same as the other files, but once I copied this manually, I was able to run the staging site setup.
Good morning,
Great ! Thank you for the update, and I'm glad you were able to resolve this with the log information.
Have a great day
I have another Question.
In my setup, an important component is MightySites from Alterbrains.com, but they say that most likely StageIt will conflict with Mightysites.
Mightysites makes it possible to run slave sites (on different domains) running on a Master-site.
In my scenario, I only want to have StageIt running on the master site, because all slave-sites is running on databases etc. from Mastersite (with a few exceptions).
Altebrains said: I doubt that it will work with StageIt because StageIt will probably update /configuration.php file.
Can you somehow help me determine whether StageIt can work with MightySites?
Maybe you too could email each other directly. I would really appreciate if you could help me figure this out
ps. I do not know anything about coding or programming. I am just a creative designer trying to use the best tools together ;)
Hi again,
StageIt was designed to work with a single (standard) Joomla system, rather than several - but it will work with MightySites, you just need to allow for the extra configuration files, which are not standard for Joomla.
As it's non-standard I can't directly support this use of StageIt & MightySites, but the below information should help :-)
MightySites overrides the default configuration.php file, which is needed to run StageIt. So If you do want to run both together, you will need to make some manual changes as follows:
1. Run the StageIt deployment from the main Joomla site... then log into the Staging Environment, open the MightySites admin component, and Move all subsite data under stageit/ and update the configuration for each MightySites version of your site that you want to use.
2. edit /stageit/components/com_mightsites/configuration/configuration__com.php to ensure that the db_prefix is 'stg_xxxx' where xxxx is your original prefix
3. edit /stageit/components/com_mightsites/configuration/configuration__com_.php in the same way
4. Copy /stageit/components/com_mightsites/configuration/configuration__com.php to /stageit/.../configuration__stageit_com.php
5. Copy /stageit/components/com_mightsites/configuration/configuration__com_fusioncruise.php to /stageit/.../configuration__stageit__com.php
6. enter into the staging admin site and go to the mightytext component to update all database entries to use prefix stg_
7. When you Go Live, you need to do the reverse of these changes, so you update your live configuration_.php files to make the db_prefix just 'xxxx_' (your original prefix)
All the best, Barnaby Dixon
Hi I got the same questions and will use this for a Joomla 4 future setup. Thnks for clarificaiton and hopefully use this later for a Joomla 4 setup. cheers!
Hi
This is a pre-purchase question.
a. Will StageIt be compatible with Joomla 4.x? And will StageIt be available for J.4.x when the stable version is released?
b. does the backup system run on akeeba or is it included in StageIt?
c. Do you have a documentation for StageIt?
b. Do you have a changelog for StageIt?
The StageIt component really looks great and I hope it is as good as it looks :)
Hi Morten,
a - Yes
b - StageIt
c - https://www.php-web-design.com/stageit.pdf
d - Yes included with the package
Have a great day!
Perfekt thank you for those answers :)
Hello
How can I rebuild the stage it version from the live site?
I am hoping to be able to do it without having to uninstall / reinstall it.
Thanks for your excellent work!
Hi there!
If you open StageIt on the live admin, you can click the Rebuild button. This will reset your staging environment to an exact replica of your live environment.
Have a great day!
Hello,
I just purchased StageIt and everything seems to work fine in the backend but I am not able to get the switch to work in the frontend. When I logon as the super admin nothing happens. It tried many things to no avail. When I go directly to the StageIt sub directory the orange switch bar shows up but it doesn't solve the issue as it immediately goes back to the live version.
Any help very much appreciated.
I just discovered that when I disable the Search Engine Friendly URLs option in the Joomla global configuration that is solves the problem. Any idea what might be the issue? Or the staging environment cannot work with Search Engine Friendly URLs?
Good morning Sima
Thank you for your great question!
StageIt does work with SEO urls, and should normally work without any issues. However, on your server, you might ensure that /stageit/.htaccess is present and enabled, and you might also need to change this line in that file:
#RewriteBase /
to:
RewriteBase /stageit/
(ensuring you remove the initial #)
Have a great day! Barnaby Dixon
I am running nginx. Should I still enable .htaccess?
Hi again,
Ngnix is a bit different to Apache / Linux, You'll have to ensure the configuration is right for your system - and it might be best to contact your server host to find out why the SEO urls aren't working in /stageit/
Regards, Barnaby Dixon