[development] Staging content to production servers

[Boris Mann]

On 15-Jun-06, at 11:16 AM, Khalid B wrote:

>> Alan -- thanks for this write up. I think the staging/production
>> server issue is one that merits attention. A lot of times, it means
>> we're running without a safety net -- it is too hard to merge
>> (config, content) changes between a dev site and a live site...so
>> lots of people just don't, or do extra work in re-doing the same
>> config steps on a live site.
>
> Boris/Alan
>
> I have had clients ask me on this as well. The idea is to have a  
> production
> server than no one posts content to directly, and a staging server  
> where
> content is posted, edited, refined, ..etc. Then a button is clicked  
> to push
> selected content from the staging to the production.

OK...so for *content only*....you can use John Van Dyk's publish -  
subscribe modules to do this *today*. They are done for 4.6, and he  
is working on improvements in the 4.7 line.

(well, content and taxonomy terms....)

> Perhaps a starting point would be something similar to the Node  
> Import/Export
> that Jeremy Epstein is writing as part of SoC.
>
> If this is coupled with:
>
> a) an API that modules can use to push/pull their own data along with
> what core does.

pub - sub doesn't yet have hooks. I have a request to "group enable"  
pub - sub, so it is OG aware. Haven't scheduled a call with JvD yet,  
but have talked to Moshe about it.

> b) an XML RPC or some other protocol for sending the data from one
> server to the other.

publish - subscribe

> c) Users and roles as well.

pub - sub has filters.

> d) all of the above is configurable (push content only, content +  
> comments,
> users only, user + roles, all the above)

pub-sub has filters.

In some ways, the pub - sub filter system is VERY similar to  
"Views"...and lots of modules are views enabled. So there might be an  
interesting play here to pub - sub enable Views (I don't think pub -  
sub should necessarily depend on views...)

> If this happens, we can have truly federated servers and other neat  
> things.
> For example, this can be the solution for sharing of users and  
> roles across
> sites. If the sites are multi site on the same physical server, or  
> across the
> globe, it will still work.
>
> Just some thoughts.