Is it possible to make changes in a test environment?

[OliviaMichaelCo]

Hey guys,

I want to make some big changes to my store, but I cannot seem to do it in a test environment so that I can see how it looks and run an end-to-end check to make sure everything is okay before I go live. I can only seem to make changes to my live site and if anything goes wrong... Well... I don't know what would happen then.

Is there a hidden option I cannot see that would allow me to make and test changes in test and perhaps share a link for others to view and test before I put changes live?

Thanks,

Rosalind

[Jason]

What sort of changes?

If it is to do with the Theme code and design you can work in an unpublished theme copy and preview/test that. 

It's possible what you need to do is beyond the theme itself so would understand if the above doesn't quite work for you. With more context it's something the forum members could give deeper insights into.

[OliviaMichaelCo]

Thanks, @Jason 

So my main concern is that any changes I make need to be 'saved', and when they're saved they're immediately live. Some changes are bigger and take more time for me to do. What I would like to be able to do is work more as a traditional development team would do.

I'd like to be able to pull a copy of my main website into a test environment where I could make changes and save my work. View changes and get feedback. Then when I'm ready I'd like to be able to put those saved changes live to the public.

Does that make sense?

[Jason · Accepted solution]

That's the advantage of only working in unpublished themes. You're able to edit, save, and preview - all without making a change the published (live) theme.

If you needed to work on things that would effect content itself (say a product description) or change a fundamental menu then spinning up a seperate shop for a dev/staging environment makes more sense. 

[Ivy]

Hi there @OliviaMichaelCo.

Using an unpublished theme sounds perfect for your needs. You can change store layout, colours, images, videos and over all aesthetics without ever "publishing" the theme. As long as the theme is not published, then it will not be visible to your customers. You can have up to 20 unpublished themes at once for your store, which allows you to play around with different looks without changing the actual published store. 

I have a guide here on how to use themes within your store, I hope this helps. I'd love to help you out with some business growth ideas - how do you feel things are going at the minute? Is there anything you'd like to improve or change? 

[KathaIOM]

What if you are wanting to try new apps, is that something you can only do in live?