Clarification how staging site works

Question

We have a single installation of Craft that is live and with lots of users and lead generation going. Now the client would like to have a staging environment where we can prepare new pages, or add scripts and test them before going live.

I know about staging in PHP, where you modify a file(s) and when it works on the test server, you copy it over and overwrite the file(s) in production.

But can this be done in a cms like craft where the database is also affected? Like we create in staging a new template, in the craft admin backend we create the article, with the form (we use Formbuilder). Then when the client is happy can I just 'push a button' and have it live in production?

I guess i have to copy template, and affected database tables over to the production server, but how to know what DB tables have been modified ?

Thank you

Peter

Answer 1

I am new to craftcms and webdev. Therefore I am unable to tell you an exact route, but this can definitely be solved, I already read about it. This guy has excellent tutorials about craftcms and development and these two topics could solve your question. Just give it a spin and read through:

https://nystudio107.com/blog/database-asset-syncing-between-environments-in-craft-cms

https://nystudio107.com/blog/multi-environment-config-for-craft-cms