Your Advice on editing live site

**mw4kids** · 1 Apr 2009, 12:25 AM

Hi All,

I want to make some changes to my css stylesheet and was hoping to get some advice how would be the best way to go about it on a live site.

I originally intended to make the changes on a test site but I've been having technical issues with copying over my template, so that is no longer an option.

I was thinking either doing it really late at night when hopefully little to no one is shopping or putting my site on Showcase mode.

Any advice on which would be the best route to go?

Thanks!

**afo** · 1 Apr 2009, 02:19 AM

You could take your site down for maintenance (setting in the admin) while you tinker with the stylesheet. I suggest you keep a copy of the original somewhere just in case you need it.

**mw4kids** · 1 Apr 2009, 02:29 AM

Thanks for the response Afo! would i be able to see the changes i make while it's in down for maintenance mode?

thanks!

**Steven300** · 1 Apr 2009, 02:31 AM

Depending on the extent of your changes, it might be an option to first use FireFox with the 'Web Developer' add-on. That way you could easily see what the changes would look like before actually making them.

**mw4kids** · 1 Apr 2009, 02:37 AM

oh my...i just installed that program and didn't even think about that! thanks!!

**afo** · 1 Apr 2009, 03:52 AM

Great suggestion, Steven300!

mw4kids, you can see your site while it's in maintenance mode if you enter your IP in the space provided.

**schoolboy** · 1 Apr 2009, 07:54 AM

While we have xampp on our local machines for functionality testing, I use the following method that does not necessarily require xampp.

For all of the sites we manage, we have full duplicates of all the files on the local machines.

There is a very strict procedure when making edits to files.

1. Files are edited/modified on the LOCAL copy first.
2. The copy on the remote server is backed up.
3. The edited copy from the local server is FTP'd to the server.
4. The desired functionality is tested on the live site.

So the files on our local drives are always identical to their counterparts on the live server, because we work on the LOCAL COPY FIRST - not the server copy...

Modules and addons are never ported up to the servers or installed until they have been fully tested on our test sites, and only after critical processes have been thoroughly tested (login, registering, checkout processes, etc)