Test Site - Bug

[RuralWeb]

Meant to post this erlier but I have found that the test site is not being deleted from the server when switching to production mode. Also the test site is being indexed by google on several of my V8 sites so it is VITAL that it is removed when switching to production.

[wjcampbe]

What outside link is Google following that gets them onto the test site? If there is no incoming link then the bots should never find the site, should they?

[RuralWeb]

What outside link is Google following that gets them onto the test site? If there is no incoming link then the bots should never find the site, should they?

Exactly my thoughts bill BUT it is - there are no inbound links so it is a bit of a strange one. It never happened with V7 so I was surprised when the pages started to show.

This combined with the test site not being removed when switching could get nasty.

[pinbrook]

This needs to be considered in full.

There are occasions when you don't want the test site to be deleted. Take the example of someone swapping between test and production during a test phase. ie developing new site in test whilst downloading orders in production. If that test site has 1000's of products you don't want the test mode constantly deleted.

Personally I add one simple line to my test sites in the outer layout ie

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">

maybe this could be considered along with a tick box to select if you want the test site to be deleted

[RuralWeb]

maybe this could be considered along with a tick box to select if you want the test site to be deleted

Good idea jo - one for the wish list. Also a spider block for the SEs would be good.

[leehack]

A number of us have posted test site URL's in this forum, i would imagine it is getting the addresses from here.

[RuralWeb]

The sites showing the problem have never had links published.

[Duncan Rounding]

A number of us have posted test site URL's in this forum, i would imagine it is getting the addresses from here.

Good point, maybe a good idea to usr tinyurl.com or similar instead of direct links.

[pinbrook]

I've started to use the designer closed forum instead... and the no index, no follow meta tag