Hi,

I am building a site to replace an existing site like this:
www.StagingSite.com <--- building
www.ExistingSite.com <--- will eventually move to here

I have already customized the template and added numerous mods. I have a few remaining mods (outlined below), then I will be adding site content (products, ez pages, etc)

A number of the mods the new site still needs have APIs that will require my ZC to communicate with other sites:
  • Shipping mods (Fedex, Fedex LTL, USPS, etc)
  • Tax mod (Taxcloud)

Can I go ahead and install/configure/test these on the staging site or do I have to wait until I am on the final domain?

Similarly, I will be installing (I was already planning to save these two until the site is on the final domain):
  • Google Merchant Feeder
  • XML sitemap

I'm very nervous about installing w/o configuring and completely testing each mod before I move to the next. I'd hate to stack a bunch of untested mods, then go back and configure once I'm live! I'd prefer to install and configure one-by-one, in case I miss a file that needs merging or some other minor thing that screws everything up.

But the overriding important thing is minimizing downtime for my client when I replace the old site with the new. For that reason, it would be best to have everything completely installed and configured on the staging site.

If the API's in the shipping/tax mods are domain neutral, I'd like to go ahead and set them up now. That way the site will be good to go instantly.

What would you do? Would you go ahead and install the remaining mods now? Or simply move on to adding content, saving the last mods for after migrating to the correct domain?

Thanks,
Mike