General Checklist Before Going Live

[christayah]

I have not seen this anywhere in the posts so I am going to start this new thread for myself and for all other new zenners out there. Hopefully we can get some good response in this thread.

With this thread I am trying to get as much Zen Forum users to contribute what they think are good practices, and essential "must-do's" before taking a zen-site live.

ANY suggestion or comment is a good suggestion or comment so dont think it has to be a long post. Just a general "make sure you (place your suggestion here)" will do!

Hopefully this will help the new zenner who has gotten over the hurdle of installing and configuring but is still hesitant to go live right away.

-Chris

[Ajeh]

Rule 1: Test ... test ... test ... test ... test ...

Rule 2: See rule 1

Then test it some more ...

[christayah]

Hey Linda.. Great rule!! Actually I think we all know this is Rule numero uno! (as you have clearly stated) BUT.. when one only accepts paypal for instance.. how are they supposed to test this process? As far as all other areas of the website.. yes I think we all agree with you, testing is rule number 1!

[Ajeh]

Create a private/personal account ...

Get friends ...

Get relatives ...

Make 10 customer accounts from different locations ...

Make 10 orders per customer randomly with different browsers and closing browser windows in between ...

Make orders based on 1 to 10 products ...

Check changing customer information from the customer's point of view ...

Check changing customer information from the Admin's point of view ...

If using Gift Certificates and Discount Coupons ... make 10 more orders per customer account ...

Test your shop as if you had a busy day of activity ...

Browsing, Searching, Buying, Processing, Checking Out ... Managing Orders, Receiving money, Cancelling Orders, Emailing ...

Contact Us, Tell a Friend, Reviews, etc.

Adding Products, Deleting Products, Moving Products, etc.

Adding Specials, Sales, Featured, etc.

Running out of stock ... over-ordering ...

Test, Test, Test ...

Then test some more ...

[christayah]

WOW that was a great runthrough of what testing your site might be - awesome Linda.. you never cease to amaze!

Anybody else with some good tips on a "Going Live Checklist"?

I know that one thing I have been doing ALOT is making sure that ALL of my links work properly. And making sure all pages look as good as you want them to look.
One thing that I did find in the posts (i will post it here just for reference) when I clicked on "Site Map" in the "Information" sidebox of my zen site, "Page 2, Page 3, and Page 4" were still listed in my sitemap although i was not using them.
I found the solution to this easily by creating a new folder in /includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE.. the folder you create in that directory is "templates". then you modify the "tpl_site_map_default.php" into that new folder and if you search for "Page_2" it will jump down.. just change that "1" next to it to a "0" this will turn off that page 2.
OK so keep the good stuff coming all!

[DesignbyDemeter]

Hey Chris,

Good going on the sitemap catch - I don't think I've even looked at mine!

I have a test site that I can add mods and break without fear. It breaks a lot. Right now I'm configuring a slide show javascript I found online that keeps giving me problems...but...I don't care - It's a test site~

As you become more zen-efficient - you'll probably want to start installing certain things - so upload a fresh install of Zen and create your test site if you haven't already.

Sounds like you're learning the ropes!

--Oh, and when I used to use Paypal - I had a lot of $0.01 test sales.

[Ajeh]

You could just use the switches in the Define Page Status to turn off the links to page 2-4 by setting them to 3 so both the defines and links are disabled ...

[christayah]

Hey thanks for the encouragement (i guess i'm still trying to redeem myself for that stunt i pulled before! ;)) but yes i am slowly but surely learning the ropes thanks to this awesome forum.

Great idea on the .01 cent products for the test site.. i wasnt even thinking about that!

Just one question.. how exactly do you use a "test site"? do you have it in a totally different folder? I mean how do you go about doing this and what is your basic "technique" to doing this? I'm sure you use an ftp client, which do you use? and how do you "save" something that worked out on the test site?

[christayah]

See THIS is the type of stuff we need to know! lol I didnt even know that was there.. sheesh! Well thank you again Linda.. but of course I went and already did it the 'hard' way.. but that will be great for the next guy!

You could just use the switches in the Define Page Status to turn off the links to page 2-4 by setting them to 3 so both the defines and links are disabled ...

[DesignbyDemeter]

See THIS is the type of stuff we need to know!

Most of this nifo is in a FAQ, WIKI, or forum thread, and the hardest part of my learning curve was learning to find it. It's just A LOT of information to absorb and there are no short cuts.

Okay - now for the Test Site:

I uploaded a fresh install of Zen and designated a different folder for it (like.../test). Remember to edit your two configure.php files to point to the right dir so it sees your test store.

When I need to try a new mod out, I upload it to my test site. Once all is working, I upload the mod and make any changes (if needed) to my overrides dir.

There are a lot of free FTP programs around, however I tried a free one - Core, and didn't like them. I went with WS-FTP.

Hope this helps,
Laura