Set Up A New Dev Site

Why we Use Demo/Dev Sites:

During the onboarding/design/redesign/testing process of a website, the Dev team will first build out a WordPress site that serves as a development “staging” area. This gives us the opportunity to test and break things before it is released as a live website. The Dev site serves as the testing ground and QA area for how the site will function prior to moving to a public production environment – “launching the site live”.

Example Demo site URL: sample.q4-demo.com
*if you see q4-demo within the URL you will know that you are in our Demo environment.

When the website goes live, we make a copy of the Demo site and move it live to production. Everything we’ve built within the Demo environment stays verbatim when moved to production.

 

Dev: Creating A Demo Site

C-Panel | https://www.host.q4-host.com:2083

 

SECTION 1: Setup Dev Site Subdomain

  •  1.1 In the C-Panel admin panel, click on the Subdomains tool under the Domains section.

  • 1.2 Subdomain: Input the customer name. Ex. alpineskiproperties
  • 1.3 Domain: Keep the same…DO NOT CHANGE
  • 1.4 Domain Root: Input the folder name where the website will live in the file system. Ex. public_html/alpinskiproperties
    • NOTE: The section will auto fill to sample.q4-host.com. Remove q4-host.com
  • 1.5 Click create to create new Subdomain for dev site

 

SECTION 2: Setup SQL Database

  • 2.1 In the C-Panel admin panel, click on the MySQL Databases tool under the Databases section.

  • 2.2 Create a new database and name it the as the customer URL. EX. alpineskiprotperties
  • 2.3 Click Create Database
  • 2.4 Add a New User (if necessary)
    • NOTE: this will only need to be done if a brand new user is being created. Previously created users you can skip to next step.

    • Username: Input the first name of the new user. Ex: Chris
    • Password: Insert a password for the new user. NOTE: This password must be a strong password 100/100…recommended to use a secure password generating tool.
  • 2.7 Create New User
  • 2.8 Add User to Database

    • User: Select the name of the user you want to add. Ex: q4launch_chris
    • Database: Select the database the user is to be added to. Ex: q4launch_alpineskiproperties
  • 2.11 Click Add
  • 2.12 Then Select All Privileges and click Make Changes

  • 2.13 Go back to previous page…NOTE: do not click the back button in the browser, be sure to click the Go Back button located on the bottom center of page.

 

SECTION 3: Copy WordPress Files

  • 3.1 In the C-Panel admin panel, click on the File Manager tool under the Files section.

  • 3.2 Navigate to the q4fw2 folder: File Manager–>public_html–>q4fw2
  • 3.3 Select all the files and copy to created document root folder that you created back in section 1 step 1.3.

  • 3.4 Navigate to customer’s Document Root folder: File Manage–>public_html–>”customer folder (ie alpineskiproperties)

 

SETION 4: WordPress Install

  • 4.1 Submit Register Info

 

  • 4.2 Check DISCOURAGE SEARCH ENGINES FROM INDEXING

  • 4.3 Install

 

SECTION 5: WordPress Admin Panel

  • 5.1 Activate all plugins except:
    • Litespeed Cache
    • Main WP Child
    • Favorites
  • 5.2 Settings Alert → Save Settings

  • 5.3 Enable Updates Alert → Click Yes

 

SECTION 6: CONFIGURE WORDFENCE ALERT (Alternative Path → Sidebar Panel → Wordfence → Firewall Setting)

  • 6.1 Register New User

    • Email Field: dev-team@q4launch.com
    • Click “NO” → Avoids joining mailing list
    • Check to agree to terms → Click Continue
  • 6.2 Click “No Thanks” when asked to submit a “Premium Key”

  • 6.4 Configure Wordfence

  • 6.5 Download .HTACCESS → Continue
  • 6.6 Firewall Status: Learning Mode

  • 6.7 Check “Auto Enable All” → Save Changes

  • 6.8 All Options → Email Alert Preferences Tab
  • 6.9 Deselect all boxes except:

    • “Alert on critical problems”
    • “Alert me when there’s a large increase in attacks detected on my site”
  • 6.10 Activity Report Tab

    • Deselect “Enable Email Summary”

 

SECTION 7: CUSTOM FIELDS → UPDATES

  • 7.1 Activate License Key

 

SECTION 8: SETTINGS

  • 8.1 General

    • Site Title: Custom (project) Name
    • Tagline: Remove “Just another WordPress site”
    • Save Changes
  • 8.2 Reading

    • Double Check that “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” box is checked
  • 8.3 Permalinks

    • Custom Structure: “/blog/%postname%/”
  • 8.4 Akismet Anti Spam

    • Ent API Key
  • 8.5 Maintenance Mode

    • Check “Enabled
    • Mode: Coming Soon Page
    • Wysiwyg Text: “Website Under Construction” | “Login here” – link “here” to wp-admin — For Development purposes only, it is good practice to have an alternative login option
    • Setup Advanced Settings
      • Check “Editor” and “Subscriber” boxes so user accounts can view the frontend of the dev site.
  • 8.6 Awesome Weather

    • Activate License Key

 

SECTION 9: Q4 ONLINE GUIDE SETTINGS

    • Name: Customer Name → URL (without “www” and “.com”)
    • Email: Customer Name@q4launch.com → create dummy email
    • Password: “password” → always use – this is not a placeholder
    • Register → Log Out
  • 9.4 Click on the arrow located by the use profile image

  • 9.5 Subscriptions → Select Online Guide → Fill Form → Subscribe
  • 9.6 Select Online Guide

  • 9.7 Update Payment info

    • Card Holder’s Name: test
    • Card Number: 4242 4242 4242 4242
    • Security Code: 012
    • Expiration: 01 2030
  • 9.8 Deselect “ADD” button to deactivate “Vacation Rentals”
  • 9.9 API → User Token: Customer Name → Create → Copy key to clipboard
    • NOTE: If you exit window without copying key, remove User Token and recreate User Token

  • 9.10 Go Back to WordPress Admin → Q4 Online Guide Settings (in side panel)

  • 9.11 Paste API key in form

 

SECTION 10: APPEARANCE → THEMES

  • 10.1 Activate Child Theme (Customer Theme)

 

SECTION 11: CUSTOMIZE

  • 11.1 Navigation “Menus” setup
  • 11.2 Setup Primary Navigation
  • 11.3 Setup Footer Navigation
  • 11.4 Homepage Setting

    • Select Static Page
    • Add “Home” for “HomePage”
    • Add “Blog” for “Posts”

 

SECTION 12: ADD USERS

  • 12.1 Form Setup Example:

    • Username: stevep
    • Email: stephen@q4launch.com
    • Role: Admin — This will be the role setting for every user you setup
  • 12.2 Add New User:
    • Stephen Parker
    • Chris Lugenbeal
    • CSM/CS
    • Guest User (find creds in keeper)

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