What is a staging site?
A staging site is a website that is not live (internet users cannot visit it), used to test updates for your existing website. You can edit, upgrade, or create an entirely new site, without affecting your current website.
Staging sites are widely used in the professional web builder space, but thanks to Softaculous, you can now utilize them as well.
While this feature is available for many of the Softaculous scripts, we will look at the WordPress site, as it is the most popular.
How do I create a staging site?
Before you can create a staging site, you need the following prerequisites:
- Subdomain: For help to do this, check out our subdomain creation guide.
- WordPress site that is being managed by Softaculous: For help to do this, check out our Softaculous WordPress Installer guide.
Step 1: Go to: https://manage.christianwebhost.com/ or click the "Login" button located at the top right of our website. Unless you change them, your login details are the email address and password used when the account was created.
Step 2: Once logged in, click the Services block and choose your cPanel service to access its management page.
Step 3: From the Actions menu on the left, click Login to cPanel (you do not need your cPanel credentials for this method).
Step 4: Scroll down to the Software section. You now have two options to proceed.
- WordPress Manager by Softaculous: If you choose the WordPress Manager by Softaculous app, you will see several options for managing your WordPress site. For this guide, we will focus on the Staging button at the bottom.
- Softaculous Apps Installer: If you choose the Softaculous Apps Installer app, you will now see a list of all your Softaculous installs, divided by type. Find your WordPress site and click the Staging button.
Step 5: Regardless of the method you used, you should now be on the Staging WordPress screen. Choose the subdomain that you created and click Create Staging. This will create a copy of your original website that you can access and update as needed, without affecting your original site. While the staging site is technically live, you can password-protect it so that the public cannot access it from the WordPress admin section.
How do I push staging site changes to my live website?
Once you have your new staging site ready to go live, there are two Softaculous options to merge it with the existing site.
Option 1: Softaculous Apps Installer
Step 1: From the Softaculous Apps Installer app, click Manage Installations in the upper menu bar.
Step 2: Both your live site and staging site will be visible. Your staging site has an additional button (the merge icon). Click the Merge button.
Step 3: Navigate to your live website. It should now show the changes you made on the staging site.
Option 2: WordPress Manager by Softaculous
Step 1: From the WordPress Manager by Softaculous app, click the Push to Live button. This will replace the files of your original website with those of your staging site, merging them into a single site. Your current site will be deleted at this time, and the staging site will now be the main site. This operation is not reversible, so be certain that you are ready to proceed.
- Selecting Unlock this installation from live instead of Push to Live will remove the site’s status as a staging site and unlock it from the original site, effectively making it its own site.
Step 2: From the Push to Live page, you can customize your merge by selecting only specific parts of the staging site, such as site files or database sections. This option should be used by advanced users only.
Step 3: Once you are ready, click Push to Live to merge your staging site.
- Once you push your staging site to live, it is not deleted. You can continue to use your staging site to add updates to your live site and then push them to your live site when you are ready.
- If you no longer need your staging site, you can delete it.
Step 4: Navigate to your live website. It should now show the changes you made on the staging site.