test mode

[gabrielcrowe]

returning from test mode, after a lot of cahnges.

actinic asks me if i want to 'delete contents'.

i'm being a noob here, because the manual says nothing about what will be deleted and neither does the popup box.

what the hell is this thing actually 'deleting'. The 'contents'?

[RuralWeb]

its supposed to remove the contents of the test site from the server. On some sites it actually does this on some it says it has done it but when you look on the server its still there.

[TraceyHand]

I've never actually had a site deleted, even thought it says it is doing.
I'm not sure if it's server specific or site specific or what but I always have to delete the whole 'test' folder from within acatalog as it is always still present and correct after 'deleting' although I know this isn't always the case.

As for what it is 'supposed' to delete, I would think all the contents of the 'test' subfolder in acatalog and the test mode scripts from the cgi-bin?

[completerookie]

I've always momentarily disconnected the network cable, then hit the "ok" button - I've never yet had it say "I can't find the site to delete the contents" though.

[fergusw]

As Malcolm says, the contents of the test site should be deleted.
This makes a kind of sense, however a preferrable method would be to have an option to delete.
In V7 you could click cancel and then it would return to production mode without deleting the test area. V8 keeps you in test mode when hitting the cancel button.

I get round this by temporarily killing net connetion and clicking "continue". Actinic cannot delete the test site, but switches to product mode anyway.

Perhaps Actinic needs to add this option into final V9 production, especially when you consider the following circumstance:

Massive actinic website (e.g. 10,000+ products, 1000's sections), moved into test mode for 'testing', then user wants to quickly switch to product mode to download orders or simply to upload changes live, and then wants to go back into test mode to continue testing. Switching from test to production in this mode will cause a long delay whilst the server content test area is deleted, then another long upload once switched back into test mode....

Hope this makes sense. Possibly a more succinct way to describe this, and perhaps then added to wishlist......

[Duncan Rounding]

I think there should perhaps be a database for the online store and a separate database for the test mode development - much like an independant site with MS. The site could then be 'applied' to the production database when required. A major rework but would make more sense.

[RuralWeb]

I think there is already a wish list item for a rework of the test site facility