I've been doing a job that the client has required that your site stay online and in the same way until all changes are made. How can I do this ?? Would I have to use another domain ?? I would like to change the theme but I'm afraid the site will not come back as before.
I tested the theme using the THEME TEST DRIVE plugin and the site gave a slight crash in the css when it came back.
Here's what I'd do
Make a clone / database backup
Create another database with cloned data
Duplicate (copy and drop) the entire WP installation to another folder ex /public_html/novo
Change in wp-config.php to point the database to the cloned database.
Correct the possible errors that will be caused by the URL, basically a link like this http://meudominio.com.br/nome-do-post would have to be http://meudominio.com.br/novo/nome-do-post . Of course this will change according to where you placed the copy. wp-cli can help a lot, not only in this but in other things as well.
At this point you should have a copy of the site running independently, there you can make your changes and tests without affecting the current site.
