mediabeastnz/Staging&ProductionUsingGit

## Staging&ProductionUsingGit
If you are running a large website where you will need to test new features on a seperate url before pushing them live then the following instructions are for you ;)

For this example imagine your url is apple.com and you want a development/staging site on a subdomain which is dev.apple.com

#Setup#
1. First thing you'll want to do is go ahead and create your website in plesk and add the subdomain dev.apple.com at the same time.
2. ssh into the server e.g. $ ssh username@ipaddress
3. Once logged in cd into the private directory (this will be where all git repos are stored) e.g. $ cd ~/private
4. Create the main repo e.g. $ git init --bare apple.git
5. Now to clone this new repo on your local machine. $ git clone ssh://username@ipaddres/~/private/apple.com
6. This repo will be simply for version control only, I will explain workflow after we have setup each required repo.
7. On the server in the private directory create a new repo named staging e.g. $ git init --bare staging.git
8. Once the staging directory is create do the exact same for production e.g. $ git init --bare production.git
9. You will now have 3 repos on the server and 1 local clone.
10. Now it's time to setup some deployment hooks (these will be used to automatically deploy to a specific directory).
11. Lets add a hook to the staging repo. cd into the staging.git folder and then into the folder called hooks e.g. cd staging.git/hooks
12. Once in the hook folder we will need to either create or edit the file named "post-receive" run the following cmd: $ touch post-receive
13. Now to edit that file run: $ nano post-receive and enter the following:
  * #!/bin/sh
  * GIT_WORK_TREE=../../dev git checkout -f master
14. This hook tells the repo to automatically pull and checkout the latest version of your website in the dev folder. WE'll talk about how initiate this hook soon.
15. To save that edit do a Control-X, hit Y and then Enter.
16. Now we need to do exactly the same for the production.git repo except the hook will be slightly different (it will deploy to the live website not the dev folddirer).
17. The contents of the post-receive file in the production repo should be:
    * #!/bin/sh
    * GIT_WORK_TREE=../../httpdocs git checkout -f master
18. To ensure you run into no permission issues run this command on each of those files: $ chmod a+x post-receive
19. On your local copy you will need to add the following lines so your local repo knows where each repo is:
    * $ git remote add staging username@ipaddress/~/private/staging.git
    * $ git remote add production username@ipaddress/~/private/production.git
20. And you're done! I will explain how this works in your everyday workflow below.

##Workflow##
Ok so we have these 3 repos setup e.g. staging.git, production.git and apple.git, now what do I do?

So basically every commit you do will need to be pushed to the main repo (This ensures all commits are saved in one place) for example say I just added some new files, i'd then need to run:
  1. $ git add --all
  2. $ git commit -m 'added some awesome new features'
  3. $ git push origin master
This saves the changes but doesn't actually get deployed (EVER), as said previously it's simply for version control.
Now lets say I want those new files pushed to the staging (dev.apple.com) repo, id' run this:
  1. $ git push staging master
The hook we setup will now be initiated and will automatically checkout these new files into the dev folder. Awesome right?
Now after some intense testing on the those new files we just added lets say were now ready to deploy... we'd run:
  1. $ git push production master
The hook for that repo will be initiated and now all changes made are in the httpdocs folder and will be live!

Now as long as you remember to push to origin first all other developers working on the same site will be able to pull your work. This way everybody is on the same page.
	If you are running a large website where you will need to test new features on a seperate url before pushing them live then the following instructions are for you ;)

	For this example imagine your url is apple.com and you want a development/staging site on a subdomain which is dev.apple.com

	#Setup#
	1. First thing you'll want to do is go ahead and create your website in plesk and add the subdomain dev.apple.com at the same time.
	2. ssh into the server e.g. $ ssh username@ipaddress
	3. Once logged in cd into the private directory (this will be where all git repos are stored) e.g. $ cd ~/private
	4. Create the main repo e.g. $ git init --bare apple.git
	5. Now to clone this new repo on your local machine. $ git clone ssh://username@ipaddres/~/private/apple.com
	6. This repo will be simply for version control only, I will explain workflow after we have setup each required repo.
	7. On the server in the private directory create a new repo named staging e.g. $ git init --bare staging.git
	8. Once the staging directory is create do the exact same for production e.g. $ git init --bare production.git
	9. You will now have 3 repos on the server and 1 local clone.
	10. Now it's time to setup some deployment hooks (these will be used to automatically deploy to a specific directory).
	11. Lets add a hook to the staging repo. cd into the staging.git folder and then into the folder called hooks e.g. cd staging.git/hooks
	12. Once in the hook folder we will need to either create or edit the file named "post-receive" run the following cmd: $ touch post-receive
	13. Now to edit that file run: $ nano post-receive and enter the following:
	* #!/bin/sh
	* GIT_WORK_TREE=../../dev git checkout -f master
	14. This hook tells the repo to automatically pull and checkout the latest version of your website in the dev folder. WE'll talk about how initiate this hook soon.
	15. To save that edit do a Control-X, hit Y and then Enter.
	16. Now we need to do exactly the same for the production.git repo except the hook will be slightly different (it will deploy to the live website not the dev folddirer).
	17. The contents of the post-receive file in the production repo should be:
	* #!/bin/sh
	* GIT_WORK_TREE=../../httpdocs git checkout -f master
	18. To ensure you run into no permission issues run this command on each of those files: $ chmod a+x post-receive
	19. On your local copy you will need to add the following lines so your local repo knows where each repo is:
	* $ git remote add staging username@ipaddress/~/private/staging.git
	* $ git remote add production username@ipaddress/~/private/production.git
	20. And you're done! I will explain how this works in your everyday workflow below.

	##Workflow##
	Ok so we have these 3 repos setup e.g. staging.git, production.git and apple.git, now what do I do?

	So basically every commit you do will need to be pushed to the main repo (This ensures all commits are saved in one place) for example say I just added some new files, i'd then need to run:
	1. $ git add --all
	2. $ git commit -m 'added some awesome new features'
	3. $ git push origin master
	This saves the changes but doesn't actually get deployed (EVER), as said previously it's simply for version control.
	Now lets say I want those new files pushed to the staging (dev.apple.com) repo, id' run this:
	1. $ git push staging master
	The hook we setup will now be initiated and will automatically checkout these new files into the dev folder. Awesome right?
	Now after some intense testing on the those new files we just added lets say were now ready to deploy... we'd run:
	1. $ git push production master
	The hook for that repo will be initiated and now all changes made are in the httpdocs folder and will be live!

	Now as long as you remember to push to origin first all other developers working on the same site will be able to pull your work. This way everybody is on the same page.