Updating from development - Joomla! Forum - community, help and support

hello,

can point me in right direction instructions / suggestions on how people develop on copy of joomla , update structure changes (cms & db) live @ later date while allowing live site continue having user updates.

my searches have produced nothing better manually make same changes on live site once development complete isn't particularly practical.

thanks in advance,

this how it. have 3 different clones (environments) of sites. test changes on development (local) version. when code seems work, make script of changes.

then apply changes clone site on server (internet). includes making database changes, file changes etc. once changes applied, perform testing on clone site (clone site not accessible robots , people not know it). if no issues found on clone site, apply exact same changes on live site sometime on mid-night when site traffic low. if changes extensive might want put site offline while making changes.

for small changes, edit code directly on live site using editor component extplorer.