Deploying Websites

As a general rule, we deploy websites during a phase that business is slow. For non e-commerce websites, the weekends are ideal. For e-commerce websites, the ideal time is during the middle of the week at night.

Deploying Staging to Production in SiteGround

If deploying a non-WooCommerce site

1. Check and test if everything works as designed and developed
2. 1. Check desktop, tablet, and mobile views
   2. Ensure content is consistent with all views
   3. Check for misalignments
   4. Make sure there is no dummy content (Lorem Ipsum)
   5. Check for misspellings
   6. Make sure styling and formatting is consistent with all pages
   7. Check buttons if they work and properly linked
   8. Make sure all images are licensed and have no watermarks
   9. Check Copyright year
   10. Check that all required plugins are installed and setup
   11. Update out-of-date plugins
3. If good to go, perform the following steps:
4. 1. Create a manual backup first before deploying
   2. If on SiteGround:
   3. 1. go to Site Tools > Wordpress Staging
      2. Click Full Deploy
   4. If built on SiteGround but will be hosted somewhere else:
   5. 1. Install the All in One WP Migration plugin + premium extension on staging and live website
      2. Create a backup of the live site by click on Export >  File in the All in One WP Migration plugin 
      3. Make sure the plugins are updated before you export / import
      4. Go to the staging branch of the website > All in One WP Migration in the WP dashboard of the staging site > Export > Export to file > Download
      5. Go to the dashboard of the live site > All in One WP Migration > Import > Import file
5. Quality Check
6. 1. Check if content, images, css, and other scripts are loading properly
   2. If on SiteGround
   3. 1. Perform Search and Replace if not:
      2. 1. Site Tools > Search and Replace > Select Installation (live site) > 
         2. In Search String, add staging URL
         3. In Replace string, add the production site URL
      3. Hit Search and Replace and test. Delete browser and server cache if necessary.
   4. If hosted somewhere else, check manually.
   5. Clear cache as necessary
   6. 1. Server cache
      2. Browser cache
      3. Divi cache
   7. Update forms:
   8. 1. Make sure the email address is the designated recipient
      2. Add Google Recaptcha

If deploying a WooCommerce site

1. Check and test if every thing works as designed and developed
2. Migrate WooCommerce activities
3. 1. Check the latest activities in the staging site and compare with the production site
   2. Export all activities from production and import to staging
   3. Review that all activities are properly migrated
4. Quality Check
5. 1. Check if content, images, css, and other scripts are loading properly
   2. 1. Perform Search and Replace if not:
      2. 1. Site Tools > Search and Replace > Select Installation (live site) > 
         2. In Search String, add staging URL
         3. In Replace string, add the production site URL
      3. Hit Search and Replace and test. Delete browser and server cache if necessary.
6. Test by going through the whole checkout process
7. 1. Use a coupon code with 100% discount to waive off charges
   2. Use your onevector.net email address
   3. Use a fake address generator to get an address within the website's service area

If deploying an Odoo website

1. Check and test if every thing works as designed and developed
2. Login to Odoo > Go to Databases > Locate the database you are deploying
3. Click the gear icon beside the database name
4. Click Domain Names in the dropdown
5. Select Use My Own Domain if there is an exiting domain name. Otherwise get a new domain name (rare cases)
6. In the Use Existing Domain Name window, enter the domain name and click verify
7. Login to the domain name's DNS settings.
8. 1. Go to the DNS settings
   2. Create a CNAME record
   3. Point the domain name to the database name
   4. 1. Example: www.onevector.net to ovdco-erp-03.odoo.com
      2. Where the domain name will be the actual domain name url and the database name is whatever is use in Odoo
   5. If you want to use the naked domain (e.g. yourdomain.com), you need to redirect yourdomain.com to www.yourdomain.com.
9. Go back to Odoo and hit "I confirm it's done" button
10. Depending on the domain registrar, propagation may take effect in two up to 48 hours
11. Check propagation progress occasionally by using tools like https://dnschecker.org/

If deploying a Shopify website