Staging Manager

About the Extension

Your staging environment in a few clicks: the Staging Manager copies your live shop as a test system and test environment, all in the admin, without a shell and without server access. Customer data is anonymized on the way, mails are caught, and a password page keeps strangers out. The live shop is only read.

You create a staging environment with the assistant, the preflight tells you whether server, database and web server are ready, and one click builds it. The run window shows every step with its progress. Then you test updates, new plugins, theme changes or interfaces in a complete copy of your shop, in a subdirectory such as your-shop.com/stage1 or under a domain of its own. A schedule keeps it up to date, and the comparison shows you what has changed since the copy.

The problem you know

• A copy by hand is tinkering. Copy the files, export and import the database, adjust .env, rewrite domains, switch off mails. And all of it again every time, with server access and a shell.
• Real customer data in the test system. Names, addresses and orders then sit in a system that is protected less well than the live shop.
• The copy talks to the outside world. Customers receive test mails, apps and webhooks pass test orders on, scheduled tasks keep running in the copy.
• Large shops break off. An export runs into the time limit, and nobody knows where it stood.
• Two weeks later nobody remembers what differs between the test environment and the live shop.

How the Staging Manager solves it

• All in the admin. Create with the assistant or an empty form, build, refresh data, rebuild, tear down: all with clicks. For automation there are schedules and console commands.
• Check first, then build. The preflight checks PHP, the database and the rights of its user, the web server, the free space and the services of your shop. If something is missing, it says what to do, down to the ready-made GRANT line for your host.
• Anonymized instead of left out. A ready-made rule set replaces names, addresses, mail addresses and phone numbers in customers, orders, newsletter recipients and reviews. The orders stay complete and testable. You can adjust every rule per column, with a preview.
• Nothing goes outside. Mails end up in the mail archive of the staging environment, at a catch-all address or only at approved addresses. Calls from apps and webhooks are blocked and written down, scheduled tasks and Google Analytics are off. All of this is the default and can be changed.
• No hanging run. The build runs in small steps, no matter how large your shop is. The window may be closed, and an interrupted run continues where it stood.
• Protected and easy to share. A password page in front of storefront and administration, IP addresses without a password, an admin login of its own for your agency, for example, and “Show credentials” to pass everything on.

The benefits at a glance

• A staging environment without server access, without a shell and without an agency.
• Testing with real orders, without real customer data.
• By default no test mail reaches a customer.
• Any number of staging environments, even in parallel.
• The live shop is only read.

Typical use cases

The Shopware update: You build a staging environment, switch on Shopware's maintenance mode there and install the update in the copy first. If everything works, you know what to expect in the live shop.

The new plugin or theme: You install and configure it in the staging environment at your own pace. Afterwards the comparison shows you which extensions and settings you need to carry over to the live shop.

The agency: Your agency receives the address, the password and an admin login of its own, only for the staging environment. With a limited lifetime the access ends on the agreed date.

The daily copy: A schedule refreshes the data every night. In the morning you test with the state of the day before and at the same time have a current copy of your shop to fall back on.

Features in detail

Create

With the assistant in seven steps (General, Database, Data, Plugins, Protection, Create, Check) or with the empty form. The staging environment lives in a subdirectory of your shop or under a domain of its own, with a database of its own. The plugin creates it, or you pick an empty database from your hosting panel.

Build, refresh, tear down

“Rebuild” copies files and database, “Refresh data” only the database. You decide per area which contents come along, such as customers, orders or newsletter recipients. By default carts, sessions, logs and the queue start empty. “Tear down” removes files and database contents again.

Anonymization

A rule set for customers, addresses, orders, newsletter recipients, reviews and individual promotion codes, with methods such as first name, last name, mail address, phone number, shift date, fixed value or empty. The preview shows on real rows of your shop what becomes of them. Customer passwords are emptied, and you get into a customer account with “Log in as customer”. Every build leaves an anonymization record.

Protection and access

The password page protects the storefront, the administration or both. Approved IP addresses get in without a password, and a link from the live shop opens the staging environment directly. On request the plugin creates a default user only in the staging environment, for your agency, for example. For a Shopware update you switch on Shopware's maintenance mode.

Mails and calls

By default no mail leaves the staging environment, they all sit in its mail archive. Alternatively they go to a catch-all address, only to approved addresses or to the real recipients. Calls through Shopware's app and webhook clients are blocked and logged, or on request let through and logged.

Services and extensions

For search (Elasticsearch or OpenSearch), Redis, the queue, a reverse proxy and Google Analytics you choose per staging environment whether it gets indexes or a Redis database of its own, does without the service or uses it like the live shop. The careful way is preselected each time. You switch plugins and apps on or off per staging environment, all at once if you like.

Schedule and lifetime

Daily, weekly or monthly on the full hour a schedule refreshes the data or rebuilds. A lifetime limits how long a staging environment is valid; after that it locks itself. Before it expires and with every run the plugin triggers events in the Flow Builder, and matching mail templates and flows are ready to use.

Comparison with the live shop

What has changed since the copy, in the staging environment and in the live shop? The comparison shows extensions and settings, records by kind with the changed fields, files and database structure, each with the side on which something happened.

Inside the staging environment

Shopware's staging mode with its banner, and robots.txt blocks search engines. A dashboard of its own shows caught mails, blocked calls and a self-test.

Runs and protocol

Every run shows its steps, the results of the closing check and a protocol. After every build the plugin calls the staging environment itself and checks addresses, banner, robots.txt, administration and media.

Hosting

Tested with Apache and nginx, MySQL and MariaDB, Redis, Elasticsearch, OpenSearch and Varnish. For nginx the plugin shows the ready-made location block. In the live shop the plugin writes only the staging folder, in a subdirectory a symlink in the web root, and its own tables.

Who it is for

For shop owners who want to test before an update, a new plugin, a theme rework or a new interface without touching the live shop, and for agencies that have been copying staging environments by hand so far. The result: a test system with real processes and without real customer data, which you build yourself whenever you need it.