Setting up a professional development environment

how to setup a web development environment

[rogoff]

When developing websites I typically use a /dev/ folder off the root with a duplicate set of code. I'm not very keen on this method of development for a number of reasons and I was wondering if there was a more professional way to do it.

Are there any other methods that people use? Ie using a subdomain or different port?

[txbakers]

the ultimate way to do it is to have a second server, just for development, where you can duplicate the complete environment (not just the code) entirely

[henry0]

Welcome on WebmasterWorld
Not sure I follow you 100%
However I dev on a local Linux server
Then copy the whole thing to my production server
Just be sure to make your config and DB conn functions
easily portable with just a few changes

Regards

Henry

PS) Your test bed can be set on your local machine
PC or Linux machine

[rogoff]

thanks for the replies guys. sorry, i should have said that i only have one server (ie my site is hosted by a third party). although it's a virtual private server and i do have root access. i can also setup subdomains or even brand new domains.

maybe i'll setup a new domain and do all the development there.

[wackal]

a better way to do it might be to setup iis on your local machine and use that for dev work

[Essex_boy]

I thought about buying an old server just to do this, seems the best way to go.

Should I avoid anything?

[henry0]

Verify that as per Txbaker
you will be able to duplicate your production settings

I will look first at my production settings to be sure that if I want to replicate the "live" settings then I will not have $cost install suprises
Now for those on a shared server many ISP won't let you know in depth about settings
so you will be better of setting a server on a local machine
Regards
Henry

[grandpa]

duplicate set of code

I prefer not to have exact duplicate code. When a page gets modified, there is an extension added to the file name. When the page is uploaded, the original and the new page get renamed, until I know the new page is working/looking right. Then the original gets zapped. The original source is still intact, in case it's needed.

file.html - Original
file_A1.html - First modification

This manual process works for my small site and a few hundred pages.