Test site environment

Best way to setup a test site environment

[stephen27]

Hello All,

I'm looking for a way to setup test environments for my websites.

I've been doing sites for myself & friends/family for a while but have recently found myself with a few business clients wanting websites built which is great, but obviously their expectations are much higher.

I don't have an issue with actually building the sites but I'm unsure how best to setup a suitable way to host a test environment so a client could see & test their new website before switching it to thier live domain.

As I'm starting out I'm doing these sites pretty cheaply so I'm looking for a cheap & easy solution (if one exists?!)

Any suggestions appreciated!

[wheel]

Easy enough. Grab an old laptop or a cheap desktop, and install linux on it. Install apache/mysql and away you go - you've got a webserver you can screw around with all you like.

[phranque]

set up a development subdomain such as dev.example.com and install your development version of the site in a separate directory.
use HTTP Basic Authentication [w3.org] to prevent unauthorized access, for example unintended requests by search engine crawlers.