The machine running the live website will usually reside at an Internet hosting datacentre. It is recommended that the web manager should keep one or more additional 'mirror' copies of the organisation’s website on a local PC. This is in order to facilitate the development and testing of updates to the website's content and organisation prior to installing the changes on the live site.
One commonly adopted solution is for the web manager to establish a development environment and a second checking (or staging) environment in addition to the live website. It is possible to have the development and staging versions of the website on the same computer. However, it is important to keep the development and testing functions well separated regardless of whether the two mirror copies are on the same computer or separate ones.
Maintaining local copies of the website will also allow the complete and latest version of the site to be available at all times when only a dialled or slow speed connection to the Internet is available. It may also be desirable to automate the updating of the live website in order to minimise the time that it is unavailable while updates are being installed.
With a local development copy of the website, it is easy to see how any new documents will fit into the existing structure. Maintaining a staging copy of the website enables content and links to be checked and general usability to be tested prior to applying changes to the live website.
It is likely that a local PC’s filesystem naming and organisation rules will be different from those used on the live server. In order for the development and test environments to be of value and easy to use, it is important they should replicate the directory and file organisation and naming used on the live website. Often this can be achieved quite straightfordwardly by keeping all file and directory names and the references to them in hyperlinks within pages in lower case and always using relative URLs in internal hyperlinks (ie, reference all links from the root of the website). Refer to section section 1.9 and section 3.2.3 for recommendations on directory and file naming schemes for websites. Following these recommendations will improve the chances that the live website directory structure and the files it contains can be copied to a PC where the site hyperlink navigation will work without having to make changes to all the files.
It is a role of the web manager to assess the technical requirements for the website development and testing environments in consultation with server managers. Typically the requirements will depend upon issues such as the size and complexity of the website and aspects of the regime under which it is managed, for example, whether it is being updated by more than one staff member or from multiple geographical locations.
One commonly adopted solution is for the web manager to establish a development environment and a second checking (or staging) environment in addition to the live website. It is possible to have the development and staging versions of the website on the same computer. However, it is important to keep the development and testing functions well separated regardless of whether the two mirror copies are on the same computer or separate ones.
Maintaining local copies of the website will also allow the complete and latest version of the site to be available at all times when only a dialled or slow speed connection to the Internet is available. It may also be desirable to automate the updating of the live website in order to minimise the time that it is unavailable while updates are being installed.
With a local development copy of the website, it is easy to see how any new documents will fit into the existing structure. Maintaining a staging copy of the website enables content and links to be checked and general usability to be tested prior to applying changes to the live website.
It is likely that a local PC’s filesystem naming and organisation rules will be different from those used on the live server. In order for the development and test environments to be of value and easy to use, it is important they should replicate the directory and file organisation and naming used on the live website. Often this can be achieved quite straightfordwardly by keeping all file and directory names and the references to them in hyperlinks within pages in lower case and always using relative URLs in internal hyperlinks (ie, reference all links from the root of the website). Refer to section section 1.9 and section 3.2.3 for recommendations on directory and file naming schemes for websites. Following these recommendations will improve the chances that the live website directory structure and the files it contains can be copied to a PC where the site hyperlink navigation will work without having to make changes to all the files.
It is a role of the web manager to assess the technical requirements for the website development and testing environments in consultation with server managers. Typically the requirements will depend upon issues such as the size and complexity of the website and aspects of the regime under which it is managed, for example, whether it is being updated by more than one staff member or from multiple geographical locations.
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