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As far as just HTML/CSS/PHP/JQuery goes, I would love a tool/setup that automatically creates a staging area on my server (literally duplicates code) so that I

As far as just HTML/CSS/PHP/JQuery goes, I would love a tool/setup that automatically creates a staging area on my server (literally duplicates code) so that I can test things live in my production environment before live to the public. Then, when I'm happy, I'd like it to be one-command simple to make my new setup go live. I'd also like to edit live on the server. I know there's some tools to do this already but I'm talking about all in one package and easy. It may not be for every programming language, but when I've got simple HTML/CSS or Wordpress (a good deal of small business work), I want it easy.

apsurd 16y ago
Well you are right, there is stuff out there, but its not in one dead easy package. You kind of are talking about Rails, git, and capistrano. Surely any version control system can clone code but I know git so I'll talk about how setting up repos is as simple as git clone, and then there's the greatness of http://github.com http://github.com Rails because you can use git to clone a starting environment with things like authlogic and then have clear development/testing/production environments. Then use http://www.capify.org http://www.capify.org (which is defaulted to rails) to deploy to a staging/production path. With capify you really do literally change ONE command to deploy to a staging area, stop/start your application, and/or do rollbacks. You can technically deploy any application (PHP) with capistrano but it's kind of a pain (I have done it, and you need to install and understand ruby). The point is, yes it's a pain in the ass, but you really should just run Linux :p Command line is your friend. Linux, git, github, capistrano, ruby/rails, passenger = pretty decent! Am I missing anything?
- dedward 16y ago
  I think the real lesson in here is that the key is the deployment tools - or rather the fact that you need to spend time setting those up as an integral part of your workflow - it's not something to do "some day later". This can be as simple as some bash scripts cobbled together - or whatever you automation language of choice is - but it's an aspect of web development that is simply generally ignored completely.

apsurd 16y ago

Well you are right, there is stuff out there, but its not in one dead easy package. You kind of are talking about Rails, git, and capistrano. Surely any version control system can clone code but I know git so I'll talk about how setting up repos is as simple as git clone, and then there's the greatness of http://github.com http://github.com Rails because you can use git to clone a starting environment with things like authlogic and then have clear development/testing/production environments. Then use http://www.capify.org http://www.capify.org (which is defaulted to rails) to deploy to a staging/production path. With capify you really do literally change ONE command to deploy to a staging area, stop/start your application, and/or do rollbacks. You can technically deploy any application (PHP) with capistrano but it's kind of a pain (I have done it, and you need to install and understand ruby). The point is, yes it's a pain in the ass, but you really should just run Linux :p Command line is your friend. Linux, git, github, capistrano, ruby/rails, passenger = pretty decent! Am I missing anything?

dedward 16y ago
I think the real lesson in here is that the key is the deployment tools - or rather the fact that you need to spend time setting those up as an integral part of your workflow - it's not something to do "some day later". This can be as simple as some bash scripts cobbled together - or whatever you automation language of choice is - but it's an aspect of web development that is simply generally ignored completely.