# Making a Development Site

## Goal

Make a copy of a site that you can use to develop new features and test updates
on.
## Prerequisite knowledge

[Concept: Development Sites](/link/766)
## Site prerequisites

* You have a live, developed site that you would like to make a copy of for
development purposes.
* If you want to use Drush for some of the steps in this task, Drush must be
installed. See [Concept: Additional Tools](/link/699).
* If you want to use DDEV for your local environment follow the steps in
[Setting Up an Environment with DDEV](/link/701). Then, follow the instructions in the DDEV-specific section
below.
## Generic steps for making a development site

1. Follow the steps in [Preparing to Install](/link/697), so that you have hosting set up for
    your development site, you know where the web root is for your development site,
    and you have an empty database and database user for your development site to
    use.
1. The next step is to make a database dump file, containing the contents of your
    site's database. This file can be quite large, but there are two things you can
    do to reduce the size:
    * Compress the file, using gzip or another compression utility.
    * Exclude the contents of the database tables for the internal caching system,
     by truncating these tables. Their data is temporary, and you need only the
     table structure and not the table contents in order to make a copy of the
     site.
    To make the database dump, try one of the following methods:
    * If you use Drush, use this command, which will include only the structure
      and not the contents of the cache tables, and gzip-compress the output:
    ```text
    drush sql:dump --gzip --structure-tables-list="cache,cache_*" \
      --result-file='PATH/TO/BACKUPFILE.sql'
    ```
    * If you are using MySQL and have access to the command line, use this
      command after truncating the cache tables (substituting in your site's
      database name, user name, and password):
    ```text
    mysqldump -u'USERNAME' -p'PASSWORD' DATABASENAME | \
      gzip > PATH/TO/BACKUPFILE.sql.gz
    ```
    * If you are using MySQL as your database, and your live site's server has
      phpMyAdmin installed (it is available from many hosting control panels),
      you can truncate the cache tables by selecting them in the phpMyAdmin table
      structure list and choosing the _Empty_ operation at the bottom of the page.
      Then use the _Export_ tab in phpMyAdmin to export in _SQL_ format, with
      _gzip_ compression to reduce the file size.
    * Use the [contributed Backup and Migrate module](https://www.drupal.org/project/backup_migrate)
      from within your live site. See [Downloading and Installing a Module from _Drupal.org_](/link/762) for instructions on
      installing contributed modules.
    You now have a database dump stored in the file _BACKUPFILE.sql.gz_. For
    security reasons, avoid storing this file on your hosting server anywhere under
    the Drupal site root. This will prevent others from getting a copy of your
    database.
1. Copy all of the files from the web root of your live site to the web root of
    your development site. You may wish to use Git to do this; if so, see
    [Managing File and Configuration Revisions with Git](/link/770).
1. Edit the _sites/default/settings.php_ file under your development site's
    top-level directory in a plain-text editor. Find the lines near the end that
    contain the database name, database username, and database password, and update
    them to the information about the development site database you set up. The
    lines look something like this (before editing):
    ```text
    $databases['default']['default'] = [
      'database' => 'live_site_database_name',
      'username' => 'live_site_database_username',
      'password' => 'live_site_database_password',
      …
    ```
1. Check whether your _settings.php_ file has the following setting; if yes, then
    you will need to edit this to point to your development site URL instead of your
    production site URL:
    ```text
    $settings['trusted_host_patterns']
    ```
1. Check whether your _settings.php_ file has the following setting, and has it
    set to a random string value. If it does not, then you will need to add or edit
    it in order to prevent fatal errors:
    ```text
    $settings['hash_salt'] = 'any_string_value';
    ```

    One way to produce a random string for the hash salt is the following Drush
    command:

    ```text
    drush php-eval 'echo
      \Drupal\Component\Utility\Crypt::randomBytesBase64(55) . "\n";'
    ```

    If you don't use Drush, there are numerous web sites and applications that
    provide random string generators; you'll want to generate a string that is about
    74 characters long.

1. Import the database dump file you created, into the development site's
    database. Try one of the following methods:
    * If you are using MySQL as your database, and your live site's server has
      phpMyAdmin installed (it is available from many hosting control panels),
      use the _Import_ tab in phpMyAdmin. You may find that you have to restart the
      import a few times, if your database was large.
    * If you are using MySQL and have access to the command line, use this
      command (substituting in your site's database name, user name, and password;
      if you made a gzip-compressed backup file, you will also need to uncompress it
      first):
    ```text
    gunzip < PATH/TO/BACKUPFILE.sql.gz | \
      mysql -u'USERNAME' -p'PASSWORD' DATABASENAME
    ```
    * If you prefer to use Drush, use this command:
    ```text
    drush sql:query --file='PATH/TO/BACKUPFILE.sql.gz'
    ```
1. If your development and live sites need to have different configuration, then
    you have to use configuration overrides in the _settings.php_ file. The
    _$config_ variable will help you maintain override values separately from the
    standard configuration data. For instance, you might want the site name to be
    "Anytown Farmers Market" on the production site, but "Development Site for
    Anytown Farmers Market" on the development site. To do that, you could have the
    production value in the site configuration (in the database), and on the
    development site, in the settings.php file, you would need to have:
    ```text
    $config['system.site']['name'] =
      "Development Site for Anytown Farmers Market";
    ```
## DDEV-specific steps for making a development site

1. In the directory where you copied all of the files from your live site, run the
      following command to configure, and start, the DDEV environment:
    ```text
    ddev config --project-type=drupal11 --docroot=web
    ddev start
    ```

    This assumes that you are using the recommended directory structure where the
    web root is in a subdirectory called _web_. If you are using a different
    directory structure, you will need to adjust the _--docroot_ option accordingly.

1. Use the following command to import the database dump file you created:
    ```text
    ddev import-db --file=PATH/TO/BACKUPFILE.sql.gz
    ```
## Expand your understanding

* Verify that the development site is working correctly.
* Log in to the development site as an administrator, and clear the cache. See
[Clearing the Cache](/link/773).
* [Deploying New Site Features](/link/768)
* [Managing File and Configuration Revisions with Git](/link/770)
## Videos

[Making a Development Site](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSBNm4oAkaA)

## Additional resources

* [Installing a new Drupal application on your local machine](https://www.drupal.org/docs/official_docs/en/_local_development_guide.html)
* [Creating a Drupal demo application for evaluation purposes](https://www.drupal.org/docs/official_docs/en/_evaluator_guide.html)