[support] Keeping dev and live site in sync

[Sohodojo Jim]

[Bill Prothero wrote:]
>
> Nice video. I was trying to follow your presentation and found it a bit
> confusing. You talked about your "Sandbox" and I wondered what db was the
> sandbox db. Also, when you said you had a "Mirror" site, was this just a
> copy of the live site (and its db) or was it some kind of automatic
> mirroring system that kept them in sync?
> 

[Jim replies:] 
By "sandbox" I just mean the version/copy of my public site that is running
locally on my development machine (which is also my Wamp-based server -- I
use Wamp because it has a scriptable config/mgt system that lets me
configure on-the-fly virtually any combination of PHP/MySQL/Apache that I
might need based on needing consistency with various project-based configs
-- but that is another story (needing its own webcast, actually).

On my development machine, the database that runs my local copy of the site
is always named the same as the database that runs the live site. It
probably isn't clear as you say -- but is obvious to me as I evolved this
workflow and all this is automatic to me -- and that is, the X_dev and X_rem
databases are "no touch"/"no run" copies of the database that, in effect,
are pristine copies (never accessed other than for whole-database copying)
of the database that support all the roll back and forth that are often a
part of daily development.

And while I didn't make this explicit, another good feature of this approach
is that by definition you will have a very active and flexible set of
back-up copies of your database, including your remote live database.

Although it has been many years, I am pretty sure that one of the original
motivations for my thinking this through and coming up with this routine was
the number of times that my "unforced human errors" (you are too tired, too
much in a hurry, or just not concentrating enough) have caused me more
"gotcha" moments than any actual (hardware or data transfer, etc.) problems.

>
> Thanks for the info. I use Navicat, which I like and seems to have much
> of the same functionality as SQLyog.
> 

[Jim replies:]
I used Navicat for a while, too, but let its maintenance/upgrade contract
lapse long ago as I narrowed my personal choices for which tools to use. In
that regard, the _two_ most must-have (and these are Windows-based) database
commercial apps that I rely on daily are SQLyog -- it's pure "lean and
clean" and would be the keeper if I had to choose only one -- and EMS' SQL
Manager for MySQL -- it has truly amazing 'bells and whistles' features that
I use for complex query development, ad hoc reporting, and other database
prototyping, etc.

Regardless of the specific tool of choice, as I mentioned, the general
strategy and tactics can be applied in varying degrees depending on your
need and interests. I hope this info helps clarify any confusion you may
have. And thanks for your comments. I will use this thread of conversation
to develop clarifying content to the article on Sohodojo.biz that points to
the YouTube webcast.

--Sohodojo Jim--