Switch an existing Staq site to a brand new Staq site

Question

I have an existing website on Staq. I’ve just completely rebuilt a brand new one on a different staging URL. How can I switch it over as the new production website?

Answer

Since it’s a brand new rebuild and you have it separated anyways inside Staq, below are the steps to consider before taking the website live.

301 Redirects

Are you using the Redirects function inside the Staq interface (Staq Panel, under Domains, click Redirects) or are you using a WordPress plugin to handle this? If so, make sure you’ve brought across all the data.

WP Config File settings

Under Advanced inside the Staq Panel of the production website, do you have any custom settings inside the WP Config File that you need to bring across to the staging site before it goes live?

PHP Runtime Config settings

Under Advanced inside the Staq Panel of the production website, do you have any custom settings inside the PHP Runtime Config that you need to bring across to the staging site before it goes live?

Cron Manager settings

Under Advanced inside the Staq Panel of the production website, do you have any custom settings inside the Cron Manager that you need to bring across to the staging site before it goes live?

Nginx Config settings

Under Advanced inside the Staq Panel of the production website, do you have any custom settings inside the Nginx Config that you need to bring across to the staging site before it goes live?

Firewall settings

Inside the WordPress backend of the production website, under Staq Hosting plugin > Firewall, do you have any custom settings that you need to bring across?

Website Users

Under the production website inside Staq Panel, do you have Third Party assigned users to the site that you need to extend access to once you switch over to the other site?

Disable CDN

Before switching and changing the DNS, disable the CDN (Next-Gen CDN, Traditional CDN or Cloudflare) by going into your Staq Panel and under Domains, click CDN.

DNS Switch

Since this is the second last step, go into DNS Zone inside your Staq Panel for the production website. Click Unassign Website:

Then, go to the staging site’s Staq Panel and click DNS Zone.

Click Assign DNS Zone and find the domain URL inside the list. Click Assign.

Go Live

Once you’ve completed all your steps, under Domains, click Go Live and this staging site will become the new production website.

Make sure you re-enable the CDN again.

Consider the following steps below:

Assigning site in Staq Billing

If you have Staq Billing enabled, go to the main menu and click Clients > Assigned Plans then click +Assign Plan to change over the website to your client/customer so that they are charged fees.

Do you need to keep the old site?

If yes, follow the steps below. Otherwise, you can delete the old site. All billing (both your agency and your client) will automatically cease upon deletion.

The old production site

Go to the old production website and then Domains inside Staq Panel. Click Revert To Dev:

You’ll continue to pay for this site despite it being reverted back to dev.

Are you still going to charge hosting fees for a dormant site?

If yes and you have Staq Billing enabled, and you wish to keep charging your client/customer, and they are already assigned to a plan, then there’s nothing to change.

If you wish to unassign the plan but keep the site

If Staq Billing is enabled and they are on a plan, and you wish to remove the plan, go to Clients > Assigned Plans.

Find the site in the list then in the dropdown menu, click Cancel: