This is the kind of plugin you think you don't need until you do. When overhauling sites, especially eCommerce this will save loads of headaches. Order ID's can be a nightmare as once a ID is "taken" you can't change it. I've already got WPVivid pro definitely going to give this a spin. Paul as mentioned in some of the other comments, a tutorial on WooCommerce with WPVivid DB (live orders) would be pretty useful (& hopefully popular 😉). Great job as always - Thanks!
Another great video Paul! One thing I've not seen much about is how a WordPress coder/developer with an ecommerce site who is manually making a lot of custom code changes while user submissions keep coming in on the front end, can use Git on a local DEV environment and push to a hosted STAGING environment. Would love your advice on that - Keep up the great work
Very good demo. I think many of us would enjoy seeing a test of this scenario: After setting up a staging site with WooCommerce integration, and having live customers make production-system purchases, what would be the process to merge the staging site back to production -- without damaging the interim purchase records made before the staging changes were pushed to production.
@@WPTuts I think you can do it the other way around too. Where you only push the changes from staging to live and keep the orders as-is on the live site. That's what I'm going to test next week, so don't take my word for it.
Can I have a question? 1) Can you pull selectively from the life server? There can be sensitive data and maybe you do not want to have it on local development machine. 2) Does this merge also theme and plugin database entries?
hi there great video i just watched.. will the key liecence to staging / merging be in the vivid pro version, or will i have to buy just the database merging plugin which plugin will have the liecence key to do the staging part as in your video..
I created a staging site using the free version, but it only provides me with the home URL and login URL; neither of these URLs gives me access to the admin control. any advice?
Do you know if we can do zhe staging ceeation automatically? It would be awesome to get nightly a staging site and do automatically wp updates on the staging site.
Out of curiosity have you tested it with Local? Like, instead of using the staging feature on the server can you link a production to a cloned local instance?
That would be really useful. Also would like to know whether the standard plugin WPvivid Staging can do that irrespective of the Database Merging Pro. I guess Merging pro just merges (incremental?) staging to production, while WPvivid Staging pushes staging(overwrites) to production.
Thank Paul for this! I am still not sure about the recording part... what happens if you forgot to start recording before making changes? And what is you have extensive changes to do like brand new features or redesign of your website which will take days if not weeks to do before pushing it back up to Prod? Will it all be done in one recording or you do one recording per day and push them all to Prod at once when work is complete? Not sure if a recording can lapse many days/session. Thanks as always!
It does not work with bidirectional synchronisation, right? Something changes on live site, its pulled over to staging and vise versa is not an option. Right?
Hi Paul, will this work on multiple websites? I have a client with 8 car dealerships. Content change regularly with new models, but some of the pages such as contact and special offers need to be excluded from staging. At the moment I'm using Divi's page export/import. Is there perhaps an easier way to do this?
hi Paul, I am unable to locate the database merging function within the interface of wpvivid ultimater version. Would it be possible for you to create a tutorial video specifically for pro users?
I'm not him obviously....but I can tell you WP vivid is one of THE BEST LTDs I ever bought. And they are a class act as well, care about their LTD customers. We got things for free, where a lot of other companies would have charged us for.
I can’t tell you whether it’s the right tool for you, but I paid full price for my Ltd and use it on pretty much every site I have as well as most of my clients sites. Take that for what it’s worth. 😁👍
What about security plugins and firewalls? Could there be issues as with cache plugins? And Second Question: Are you still using wp remote, because wp-vivid has also a snapshot ingrained now?
Great video answering the “how?”! Watching it, my mind was asking “why?” Trying to understand: this merge plug-in is the answer to what question? I see it simplifies staging for some. However, for those of us who have staging already provided by the hosting provider, the plug in would not add value,right?
It reqally depends on your use case. If you have a small site, then staging would be a great option. but, if you have a site that is larger, having to push the entire site back from staging may be somewhat overkill and a slow process. This plugin makes it easy to simply push the changes and not the entire site from dev to production.
Hi, I wonder how this is different from using the normal staging site and after finishing the updates, push it to the live site again. I have the pro version and I used to use just a normal staging site.
Paul, thanks for this video. One question, have you ever tested WPvivid staging by trying the fresh wp install route? I know this question is not directly related to the DB Merging functionality but just wondering.
Hi there, great video, thanks! :) I was thinking about going PRO on some backup plugin and i really like this option. Can u tell my how long will your discont code be active?
This makes only sense if the site is changing on the live site while on is in the tweaking the stage… else one can just push the entire database from staging to live… correct? I mean with only the staging plug-in… I do that occasionally to fix issues in a major theme update and push everything back after fixing completely overwriting live with stage.
I think this is aimed at high traffic or regularly updated sites where doing a full site migration would be very time consuming. This is more aimed at just pushing the changes from dev to live, so it’s relatively quick in comparison.
I'm curious how this toolkit works on large sites and/or multisite. I've always loved WP Migrate, but it seems to choke on large DBs in my experience (or take absolutely forever to migrate). I'd also love to know if this is truly "merging" the DB... what if changes have been made on the production site while you're working on staging? I don't want to override the prod site's new updates.
Can we use the merging function all the time (used during maintenance) or do we have to create a new version of the site when we have merged it? Just to know if the cloned version stays on the server or disappears once the transfer is done
You can leave the staging site online if you want to and then sync the DB from live to development, make changes and merge it back to the live site. Personally, I probably wouldn't leave the development (staging) site online all the time as it's just consuming resources. However, if you did decide to leave the staging site online, I would configure the initial staging site setup a little differently and have it use a separate domain and database to avoid increasing the size of your live sites database and potentially slowing things down on larger sites.
Congrats for your demo. I was thinking about getting Duplicator Pro for backup my sites but now i'm in doubt witch is the better solution for this. I like that they have Lifetime license and such good features. Any advice from you would be awesome.
Personally, I wouldn’t buy Duplicator pro since they raised their prices by around double for new users and filled the free version with a load of ads to buy the full version. As for buying WPVivid Pro, I can’t say if it’s right for you. All I can say is that I bought it and use it on all my sites and the majority of my clients sites. It’s one of those always installed plugins for me.
@@WPTuts thank you for your reply and advice. I'll give it a go for WPVivid, i'm still on their website and they really got what i need for a good deal. Keep the good work! Cheers from Portugal
I fail to understand why they haven't added this as upgraded feature with the backup plugin you can see this is already available with with other back up tools custom deploy only changes. The backup plugins needs to have more advanced features as we move on from the to the era don't forget as i cal it ai era...
I'm guessing as you don't need the pro version of the backup plugin, it makes sense to have this as a standalone feature. For the answer, you'd probably need to speak to the peeps behind the plugin itself.
Usual good plugin from WPVivid, I just find it a pity that you can only merge files from the dev page to the prod page and not vice versa. To have the current state of the files, you always have to import a backup. That goes with other tools in both directions.
It’s literally only 12 minutes long. Just watch it, he goes over everything patiently in detail. And yes, you can push and pull changes only in both directions. He shows it.
@@mikesteraz I have of course looked at it several times, but apart from importing a complete backup with all themes, plug-ins and files, I have not found a way to sync them from the prod to the dev. The Pull DB function does not pull any files to the dev.
First, when I beta tested it I used it on a staging site (created with WP Vivid) and had some bugs... When I reported, they simply told me it wasn't meant to be used with a staging site, but with a site on a different server... SO, glad they fixed it, as, IMO, this is the most logical use of this plugin... Second: as a little comment for improvement, you show how we can merge the staging site where we have made modifications to the site, but you didn't show what happenens where there are actual modifications on the live site meanwhile (client adds/modify content; new WooCommerce orders, etc. while us developing on the staging site). I would have been good to see if the data of both the live site and staging site are retained when merged together (which is the goal of the plugin in fact)...
@@WPTuts You did show the “Pull from live site” option, but I’m curious as well: let's say I make some changes on the staging site, and in the meantime there are some updates (ie. customer orders or posts created) on the live site. What would be the correct procedure then? Just pushing the changes from staging to production, and it will merge my changes with the updates on the production site? Or should I first pull the data from production to staging? (but wouldn't that override the stanging site?) A complete tutorial would be much appreciated.
@@bluetheredpanda I've got the same problem and also wondering if there's some solution other than having to manually export and re-import products, orders, users, comments, etc after the sync from staging.
I'm a bit biased about these kinda plugins.. as a developer, WP-CLI is wayyyy more powerful and intuitive than these methods, for free. But I understand most don't want to even learn how to use WP-CLI.. which keeps 'developers' in work 👍
If you have the ability to do it at that level, that’s cool and probably more powerful. But, I would say the majority of users would prefer something simpler or with less of a tech overhead. 😉
This is the kind of plugin you think you don't need until you do. When overhauling sites, especially eCommerce this will save loads of headaches. Order ID's can be a nightmare as once a ID is "taken" you can't change it. I've already got WPVivid pro definitely going to give this a spin. Paul as mentioned in some of the other comments, a tutorial on WooCommerce with WPVivid DB (live orders) would be pretty useful (& hopefully popular 😉). Great job as always - Thanks!
Another great video Paul! One thing I've not seen much about is how a WordPress coder/developer with an ecommerce site who is manually making a lot of custom code changes while user submissions keep coming in on the front end, can use Git on a local DEV environment and push to a hosted STAGING environment. Would love your advice on that - Keep up the great work
Very good demo. I think many of us would enjoy seeing a test of this scenario: After setting up a staging site with WooCommerce integration, and having live customers make production-system purchases, what would be the process to merge the staging site back to production -- without damaging the interim purchase records made before the staging changes were pushed to production.
Use the sync DB button shown in the video and it will push the changes from the live site to the staging or dev site.
@@WPTuts I think you can do it the other way around too. Where you only push the changes from staging to live and keep the orders as-is on the live site. That's what I'm going to test next week, so don't take my word for it.
Can I have a question? 1) Can you pull selectively from the life server? There can be sensitive data and maybe you do not want to have it on local development machine. 2) Does this merge also theme and plugin database entries?
hi there
great video i just watched.. will the key liecence to staging / merging be in the vivid pro version, or will i have to buy just the database merging plugin
which plugin will have the liecence key to do the staging part as in your video..
I created a staging site using the free version, but it only provides me with the home URL and login URL; neither of these URLs gives me access to the admin control. any advice?
How resource intensive is this DB merging and recording? Should you put the live prod site in maintenance mode during the final merge?
Do you know if we can do zhe staging ceeation automatically? It would be awesome to get nightly a staging site and do automatically wp updates on the staging site.
Out of curiosity have you tested it with Local? Like, instead of using the staging feature on the server can you link a production to a cloned local instance?
wouldn't that be useful!!
That would be really useful. Also would like to know whether the standard plugin WPvivid Staging can do that irrespective of the Database Merging Pro. I guess Merging pro just merges (incremental?) staging to production, while WPvivid Staging pushes staging(overwrites) to production.
Thank Paul for this! I am still not sure about the recording part... what happens if you forgot to start recording before making changes? And what is you have extensive changes to do like brand new features or redesign of your website which will take days if not weeks to do before pushing it back up to Prod? Will it all be done in one recording or you do one recording per day and push them all to Prod at once when work is complete? Not sure if a recording can lapse many days/session. Thanks as always!
Can you do a video on doing this on a high traffic woocommerce website ❤️
It does not work with bidirectional synchronisation, right?
Something changes on live site, its pulled over to staging and vise versa is not an option. Right?
Not automatically, no. You use the Sync DB button on the live site to push the latest version if content to the dev site.
Hi Paul, will this work on multiple websites? I have a client with 8 car dealerships. Content change regularly with new models, but some of the pages such as contact and special offers need to be excluded from staging. At the moment I'm using Divi's page export/import. Is there perhaps an easier way to do this?
hi Paul, I am unable to locate the database merging function within the interface of wpvivid ultimater version. Would it be possible for you to create a tutorial video specifically for pro users?
It’s a separate plugin and not part of WPVivid Backup Pro. 👍
Do you recommend buying UpDraft yearly license or WP-Vivid lifetime package? Kindly recommend
I'm not him obviously....but I can tell you WP vivid is one of THE BEST LTDs I ever bought. And they are a class act as well, care about their LTD customers.
We got things for free, where a lot of other companies would have charged us for.
Wondering this myself. I've been using updraft for about 4 years now without many problems but this looks good.... Should I make the switch Paul?
I can’t tell you whether it’s the right tool for you, but I paid full price for my Ltd and use it on pretty much every site I have as well as most of my clients sites.
Take that for what it’s worth. 😁👍
What about security plugins and firewalls? Could there be issues as with cache plugins?
And Second Question: Are you still using wp remote, because wp-vivid has also a snapshot ingrained now?
Curious as well.
Great video answering the “how?”! Watching it, my mind was asking “why?” Trying to understand: this merge plug-in is the answer to what question? I see it simplifies staging for some. However, for those of us who have staging already provided by the hosting provider, the plug in would not add value,right?
It reqally depends on your use case. If you have a small site, then staging would be a great option. but, if you have a site that is larger, having to push the entire site back from staging may be somewhat overkill and a slow process. This plugin makes it easy to simply push the changes and not the entire site from dev to production.
Hi, I wonder how this is different from using the normal staging site and after finishing the updates, push it to the live site again. I have the pro version and I used to use just a normal staging site.
I believe the staging method pushes the entire site back and not just the changes.
Paul, thanks for this video. One question, have you ever tested WPvivid staging by trying the fresh wp install route? I know this question is not directly related to the DB Merging functionality but just wondering.
Hi there, great video, thanks! :) I was thinking about going PRO on some backup plugin and i really like this option. Can u tell my how long will your discont code be active?
It’s a permanent discount I believe. 👍
This makes only sense if the site is changing on the live site while on is in the tweaking the stage… else one can just push the entire database from staging to live… correct? I mean with only the staging plug-in… I do that occasionally to fix issues in a major theme update and push everything back after fixing completely overwriting live with stage.
I think this is aimed at high traffic or regularly updated sites where doing a full site migration would be very time consuming.
This is more aimed at just pushing the changes from dev to live, so it’s relatively quick in comparison.
I'm curious how this toolkit works on large sites and/or multisite. I've always loved WP Migrate, but it seems to choke on large DBs in my experience (or take absolutely forever to migrate).
I'd also love to know if this is truly "merging" the DB... what if changes have been made on the production site while you're working on staging? I don't want to override the prod site's new updates.
Bought one with your code :)
Can I use it on other sites if I delete the plugin on one site or remove keys?
I believe so. You can remove the license key from any site via your WPVivid account.
Can we use the merging function all the time (used during maintenance) or do we have to create a new version of the site when we have merged it?
Just to know if the cloned version stays on the server or disappears once the transfer is done
You can leave the staging site online if you want to and then sync the DB from live to development, make changes and merge it back to the live site. Personally, I probably wouldn't leave the development (staging) site online all the time as it's just consuming resources.
However, if you did decide to leave the staging site online, I would configure the initial staging site setup a little differently and have it use a separate domain and database to avoid increasing the size of your live sites database and potentially slowing things down on larger sites.
@@WPTuts Thank you for these informations
Congrats for your demo. I was thinking about getting Duplicator Pro for backup my sites but now i'm in doubt witch is the better solution for this.
I like that they have Lifetime license and such good features.
Any advice from you would be awesome.
Personally, I wouldn’t buy Duplicator pro since they raised their prices by around double for new users and filled the free version with a load of ads to buy the full version.
As for buying WPVivid Pro, I can’t say if it’s right for you. All I can say is that I bought it and use it on all my sites and the majority of my clients sites.
It’s one of those always installed plugins for me.
@@WPTuts thank you for your reply and advice. I'll give it a go for WPVivid, i'm still on their website and they really got what i need for a good deal.
Keep the good work! Cheers from Portugal
Great Video
I fail to understand why they haven't added this as upgraded feature with the backup plugin you can see this is already available with with other back up tools custom deploy only changes. The backup plugins needs to have more advanced features as we move on from the to the era don't forget as i cal it ai era...
I'm guessing as you don't need the pro version of the backup plugin, it makes sense to have this as a standalone feature. For the answer, you'd probably need to speak to the peeps behind the plugin itself.
Hey Paul@@WPTutsI am one of the early adopters for the LTD Ultimate backup pro version 😊
Usual good plugin from WPVivid, I just find it a pity that you can only merge files from the dev page to the prod page and not vice versa. To have the current state of the files, you always have to import a backup. That goes with other tools in both directions.
Yes you can. He shows how in the video.
only the files changed on the prod side to the dev side, not from dev to prod? Can you give me a hint where in the video?
It’s literally only 12 minutes long. Just watch it, he goes over everything patiently in detail. And yes, you can push and pull changes only in both directions. He shows it.
@@mikesteraz I have of course looked at it several times, but apart from importing a complete backup with all themes, plug-ins and files, I have not found a way to sync them from the prod to the dev. The Pull DB function does not pull any files to the dev.
First, when I beta tested it I used it on a staging site (created with WP Vivid) and had some bugs... When I reported, they simply told me it wasn't meant to be used with a staging site, but with a site on a different server... SO, glad they fixed it, as, IMO, this is the most logical use of this plugin...
Second: as a little comment for improvement, you show how we can merge the staging site where we have made modifications to the site, but you didn't show what happenens where there are actual modifications on the live site meanwhile (client adds/modify content; new WooCommerce orders, etc. while us developing on the staging site). I would have been good to see if the data of both the live site and staging site are retained when merged together (which is the goal of the plugin in fact)...
Thanks for the feedback - I'm pretty sure I highlighted the option to push data between the production and development sites earlier in the video.
@@WPTuts You did show the “Pull from live site” option, but I’m curious as well: let's say I make some changes on the staging site, and in the meantime there are some updates (ie. customer orders or posts created) on the live site. What would be the correct procedure then? Just pushing the changes from staging to production, and it will merge my changes with the updates on the production site? Or should I first pull the data from production to staging? (but wouldn't that override the stanging site?)
A complete tutorial would be much appreciated.
@@bluetheredpanda I've got the same problem and also wondering if there's some solution other than having to manually export and re-import products, orders, users, comments, etc after the sync from staging.
honestly if you need reliable staging i would just charge my client to use cloudways and use the server side staging.
This is less about the physical staging side of things and more about managing the database sync.
I'm a bit biased about these kinda plugins.. as a developer, WP-CLI is wayyyy more powerful and intuitive than these methods, for free. But I understand most don't want to even learn how to use WP-CLI.. which keeps 'developers' in work 👍
If you have the ability to do it at that level, that’s cool and probably more powerful.
But, I would say the majority of users would prefer something simpler or with less of a tech overhead. 😉