Developing on a live server

[L4DD13]

Is developing on a staging server a bad idea?

Ive done it a few times using Dreamweaver but it can be bloody annoying waiting for the script to upload every 2 minutes lol.

[eruna]

For me it is easier because I develop on a Mac and test on a PC. Its convenient to be able to type in the url. (You are cross browser testing..right?)

It is also critical if you are doing back-side coding.

You only have to upload the page you changed not the whole site.

[L4DD13]

Yeah, im constantly cross browser testing, I use VPC so I can test earlier versions of IE, etc.

Its just a pain to be uploading all the time.

[wiggsfly]

I do all my development on live remote servers. The only downside is that it keeps me pretty much locked into Dreamweaver as it's built-in FTP is far superior to anything on the market.

[Iimitk]

Dreamweaver isn't that bad if you use Code View for writing markup & styles.

[Elledan]

For any kind of important site development should never be done on a live (production) server. A second, development server which in terms of installed software and configurations is identical to the production server is used to develop on and test any changes before uploading to the production server.

An additional advantage of a dev server is that it can be available locally, either on the LAN or workstation (I've got both options available here). Saves a lot of time.

[L4DD13]

The main problem is I have never been able to set up a mail server on my pc so trying to build something that requires emails to be sent every now and then is a pain.

[Iimitk]

Why? Use XAMPP with the Mercury service enabled & you'd be able to send email from your localhost server.

[L4DD13]

I use XAMPP but I've never been able to get Mercury to do a thing

[L4DD13]

Why? Use XAMPP with the Mercury service enabled & you'd be able to send email from your localhost server.

Do you know of any guides for setting up Mercury?

[L4DD13]

Does anyone know how to setup mecury?

[Iimitk]

Do you know of any guides for setting up Mercury?

Just press the "Run" button next to "Mercury" in XAMPP's control panel. Use the address postmaster@localhost to send email. You can change that or whatever settings you might want in the Mercury console.