Production Databases Copied to Staging Site

Developers often use staging sites when creating and updating websites. Staging sites allow multiple developers to work together, and project managers to proof changes and finalize a project before rolling it out to a production server. A staging environment is sometimes called a sandbox and is the preferred method of streamlining workflow for most web professionals.

If you are going to create a staging site, you will need a special license for it. A staging license acts exactly as a real license, but it is free and designed to help stop rebills from activating. If you want to request a staging license, please review the Requesting a Staging License documentation.

We recommend that production data not be used to populate staging sites. Not only does this create the risk of accidental billing, but also the possibility of unexpected emails/push notifications being sent or any other actions taken by MemberMouse as part of normal operations occurring on your staging site.

If it is important you copy your live database tables to the staging site, here are the suggested steps to help minimize problems:

1. Keep the MemberMouse plugin active
2. Get a staging license
3. Copy the live site to a licensed staging URL
4. Disable all automations involved, such as the MemberMouse Push Notifications, both emails and scripts, plus any email integration you may have active.
5. Lastly, consider any other plugins you may have that have actions that may fire after a certain amount of time.

It is rarely necessary, but if you want to remove database entries that are involved in rebills, here are those details:

1. Make a backup of the database on your staging site.
2. Delete all the rows in the mm_scheduled_payments table on your staging site.
3. Delete all the rows in the mm_scheduled_events table on your staging site.
4. Delete all the rows in the mm_card_on_file table on your staging site.