Do you want to update your WordPress website, maybe even your online shop, but are worried that the update might cause problems? Are you about to try out a new plugin, but don’t want to do it directly on the production site that your web visitors access? The solution is obvious: set up a test or staging environment!

A staging environment is a duplicate of your website and is basically designed for testing. When you set up a staging environment, you create an identical state to that of the original site, the only difference is that the staging environment is accessible from a different web address. It is usually created on a subdomain, but can also be created in the domain directory where the production site is located.

There are several ways to set up a WordPress staging environment. You can use a dedicated plugin, which we’ve written more about in this article, or you can set up the whole process manually. The latter is quite time-consuming, and errors can occur, especially when changing database paths, leading to a non-functioning test environment. The good news is that cPanel users can set up a staging environment much more easily using the Softaculous tool.

Instructions for setting up a staging environment (Softaculous)

Below you will learn how to use the Softaculous tool to set up a WordPress staging environment on a subdomain (example: stage.vasadomena.si). If you want to set up a staging environment on a domain directory (example: vasadomena.si/stage), skip the first part of the instructions (creating the subdomain).

1. Creating the subdomain stage.vasadomena.si
2. Setting up a staging environment on stage.vasadomena.si
3. Transfer to the production environment: “Push to Live”

1. Creating the subdomain stage.vasadomena.si

1. Log in to the cPanel control panel (login instructions).

2. In the Domains section, click on the Domains icon.

3. Click on the Create a New Domain button.

4. In the Domain field, enter the desired subdomain, in our case we will enter stage.vasadomena.si. Make sure the box for Share document root … with “vasadomena.si” is unchecked and click Submit.

5. Wait a moment for the cPanel control panel to finish creating the new subdomain.

The process is completed in a few seconds and a notification is displayed that the subdomain has been successfully created.

2. Setting up the staging environment at stage.vasadomena.si

1. If you are not already logged in to the cPanel control panel, do so now (login instructions).

2. Within the Softaculous Apps Installer section, click on the WordPress icon.

3. In the list of WordPress installations, find the production site you want to build a test environment on (in our case https://www.vasadomena.si). Then, on the right-hand side – under Options – click on the second icon: Create Staging.

4. You will be taken to the Staging WordPress page, where you can edit the settings for setting up a test environment.

• Live Installation URL: This displays the “original” website(https://www.vasadomena.si).
• Choose Installation URL: Select the appropriate protocol(1) and subdomain(2). Leave the In Directory field(3) blank.

• Database Name: this is the name of the database(4). The field is already filled in by default and you do not need to edit it.
• Disable Search Engine Visibility: tick the checkbox(5) if you want to ask the web spiders not to index your staging environment.

• Site Name: the name of the WordPress site (6), which, if not filled in, remains the same as the name of the production site.

5. The only thing left to do is to click on the blue Create Staging button, and then Softaculous will start the process of creating the staging environment.

6. Once the staging environment is set up, a notification will appear with two links, to the staging environment and to its WordPress administration.

As you can see, the process of creating a WordPress staging environment with Softaculous is really easy. Now you can log in to the administration of your new environment for testing purposes and start making updates, testing new plugins, adding your own code and so on.

3. Migrating to a production environment: “Push to Live”

Once you have finished setting up your test environment, you can use Softaculous to easily “Push to Live“, i.e. transfer the data from the staging environment to the production environment.

1. In the cPanel dashboard, click on the WordPress icon in the Softaculous Apps Installer section.

2. In the list of WordPress installations, find the test or staging site (in our case https://stage.vasadomena.si). Then on the right-hand side – under Options – click on the third icon: Push to Live.

3. A new window will open for you to complete the process of transferring the data to the production environment. If you do not want to transfer all the database tables, select the Customize tab and edit the settings. Otherwise, stay within the Default Options tab and click on the blue Push to Live button.

This starts the process of transferring the data from the test environment to the production environment. When the process is complete, a notification will be displayed indicating that the transfer has been successful.