There are a couple of main ways you can use a staging site. One way is to develop on a staging site and then migrate to a production site, prior to going live. Another way is to clone a production site so you can test a new version of MemberMouse or something else before deploying it in a production environment. 

If you intend to clone a production site to a staging server, make sure to read This Article first! Also, in no circumstances should a staging server database ever be migrated over to an already live production database. 


Prior to migrating your site, you should upgrade the MemberMouse plugin on your staging site to the latest version. This will ensure that there's no discrepancy between the tables when you go to migrate to your live site.

For general information about moving a site from one URL to another, see the "Moving Directories on Your Existing Server" section of this documentation provided by WordPress: 

http://codex.wordpress.org/Moving_WordPress

Below we'll add some specific details you'll want to keep in mind specifically related to MemberMouse.

When you're ready to go live on your new site, the following steps should be done all at once and at a time when you can take your live site offline until the migration is completed:

1. Do a database dump from your staging site and move all tables over to your new server. Generally speaking, all database tables would be copied over in a migration. For your information: All MemberMouse data is stored in tables prefixed with mm_ . Core pages are linked to WordPress pages and WordPress content is stored in the wp_posts table. All MemberMouse members are tied to users in the wp_users and wp_usermeta tables and some MemberMouse configuration settings are stored in the wp_options table. All MemberMouse options are prefixed with mm- .

2. After copying all tables onto the live site, visit your new site and make sure everything works as expected.


Cautionary Note about Existing Subscriptions

When employed as intended, staging sites will not accept live payments or create subscriptions for real customers. However, if you've ended up in a situation where subscriptions have been created for real customers on your staging site you'll want to pay extra attention to this section. 


If you're using an offsite payment service such as PayPal or a non-card-on-file payment service such as Authorize.net (non-CIM), then the only thing needed will be to adjust your IPN callback URL. The IPN URL locations can be located in the configuration article for that payment method; PayPal, Clickbank, Coinbase, Authorize.net (non-CIM).  You can disregard the next paragraph if you do not also have an onsite payment method. 


On your staging site, if the real subscriptions you have are being processed by a card-on-file payment service such as Stripe, Braintree or Authorize.net CIM then this section applies to you.  If you have existing subscriptions being processed by a card-on-file solution, this means that MemberMouse is handling the billing for these subscriptions and these subscriptions are now tied to your staging license. In this situation, instead of migrating to a new site, it's best to simply make your staging site your live site by changing the URL of the site in WordPress and then changing the URL associated with your existing staging license to that same URL, essentially making it your live site. You will also have to contact our support team for them to adjust the license.


IMPORTANT: If you have existing subscriptions for real customers make sure you understand everything clearly above prior to taking action. Failure to take the proper steps outlined above could result in your customers being unable to be billed going forward. If you have any questions, please contact our support team.  


To see a list of your existing licenses:


  1. Log into your account on membermouse.com.

  2. Go to the Dashboard

  3. At the top of the Dashboard, you'll see a list of your active MemberMouse licenses. If you need to manage or change anything about these licenses, such as the URL or the associated plan, click on the Manage Licenses button.