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Applying updates in development, testing, and production environments.

Pantheon is a hosting provider that gives you three versions of your website, and the tools to deploy code changes, independently from your data. When making updates to a Backdrop site hosted on Pantheon or using a similar workflow, each instance of a site should be updated and tested individually. Here are the steps to do so:

  1. When Pantheon tells me there is a new upstream ready, I click the button provided in the yellow box on the dev environment to update my code.
  2. I then run update.php manually on the DEV site through the Backdrop interface (the button on the Pantheon interface does not work yet) - and test that everything is okay afterward.
  3. I then deploy my code to test, as usual, using the Pantheon UI.
  4. I then copy my database AND THE FILES from live to test.
    • Note: This is important on Backdrop sites because the config is stored in the files directory, and it's not safe to copy the database without the config.
  5. I then run update.php manually from the Backdrop UI on the TEST site - and test again that everything is okay afterward.
  6. I then deploy my code to live, as usual, using the Pantheon UI.
  7. I then run update.php manually from the Backdrop UI on the LIVE site - and test again that everything is okay afterward.