Porting a Redesign

Your client has tasked you with developing a new website for them, so you have developed this new site on a redesign instance on the WineDirect platform. You have the client's approval, passed the Designer Launch Q/A, and have the go-ahead from WineDirect to transfer the new design over to the existing website. Now what?

We have created a guide on the steps and precautions during this transfer process. Read the following text/steps to learn how to port a redesign instance successfully:

Backup The Website Files

Step 1: A local copy of your client's content v65 folder files for their existing website is always good.

Before you port the development site to the live site, download a local copy of all the client's current site files via the FTP, as you will be removing or overwriting them with your new .htm files. 

Copy New Content

Step 2: To minimize downtime, you must manually copy all the new content you've created from the development site to the existing site before getting to step 3. This may include any photo galleries, forms, products, content blocks, pod locations, blog posts, events, or pages on the redesign site that are not already on the existing site. Note that this step needs to be done manually through the Content Editor tools since you cannot copy this created content via the file system. 

If you add new pages and do not want them to appear until the site is ready, set the page to inactive in the page settings, as inactive pages are easier to identify than hidden pages.

Once the site is ready, you can activate your new pages and deactivate any old ones that are no longer needed.

Several system pages, such as the checkout, store, club list, and member pages, can only be in the system once. If any new pages will be added to these sections, add them as sub-pages of the existing page.

Upload Splash Page

Step 3: As you will be modifying the design of the live site, you want to add a splash page to the live site so that visitors will not see the website until it is ready. In the www folder, create a file called index.html with your splash page layout, and it will be used instead of the WineDirect system homepage. This should be pure HTML and not use any WineDirect Designer Launch tags.

If you want to access the site while the splash page is active, you can access any page using an index or a specific URL/marketing URL. Cfm to access the homepage. To limit downtime for the live site, you can hold off on uploading this page until you change the content or layouts that affect the live site.

Copy Over Layouts and Assets

Step 4: We strongly recommend not to skip backing up the client's layout files in step 1, as you will now be deleting any unused layout files through the FTP from the v65html folder and adding the files from the development site. Do the same with any new files in the images, CSS, and js folders. 

Old files make maintenance more difficult when changes need to be made, so removing unused files makes everyone's lives easier. Once you've cleared out the old, upload any other assets the new design requires through the FTP.

Parse New Layouts

Step 5: With the live site blocked by the splash page, all the new layouts can be parsed, and the new design can be ready to view on the live site. This would be a good time to deactivate any old content and activate the new content you copied in step 2.

Timestamp CSS and JS Files

Step 6: To avoid caching, ensure your CSS and JS files use our v65:css and v65:js designer launch tags, enabling you to easily timestamp these files by accessing /index.cfm?reload=1.

Remove Splash Page

Step 7: Once you have reviewed the website with the new design applied to it, remove your splash page, reveal the new website, grab a glass of wine, and celebrate!