Testing Mods Before going live?

Hi All,

I am told by many a person that i should be testing mods i am installing into my store before i put the site up on the web and that's all good and well to say that however no one has been able to tell me HOW i should go about testing the mods.

i have a copy or backup of my site on my computer in two files.
1, is the backup as the store is now
2 is the store i load the mods into / make the adjustments in and then use filezilla to upload to my host.

if it all goes bad i just delete my store from my host and load the #1 file.
If it all goes good then i backup to the #1 file.

i have dream-weaver and fireworks from adobe and notepad ++ also.

If anyone out there can give me an insight into the better way of doing this and HOW to test the mod i would be most appreciative.
I should mention that when it comes to code and stuff i would say i know VERY VERY LITTLE so please try and right any instructions in ZEN CART for DUMMIES first day on the job!!
step by step would be nice or even just a link to something that will help.

Thanks
Andrew

you need some of kind version control system, like WINCVS, etc.

It's a little work, but I have a separate domain I use for testing sites, and have several installations of Zencart on it now. A subdirectory of your current domain would be fine, too. If I want to test a mod, I install it on one of those, and try it out. If it seems to work OK, then it goes on the live site.

The main issue with multiple mods is the possibility that two mods will change the same file, so when you install the second mod, it overwrites that file (or those files) and your store can be broken. I don't know an easy way to prevent that. The way I do it is by having a folder on my local computer named after each site I have, with subfolders containing the mods I have installed. If I want to install a new mod, I manually check the files it contains against the ones I have installed already, merging if necessary.

It's a certain amount of work, but it also serves to help keep mods to a minimum, which I think is a good thing.