Always Test Your Changes

Periodically, we see an anxious query

I just got an email from a friend

Your blog looks like crap.

What do I do now? Help! Oh yes, I think I tweaked the template a couple weeks ago.

So if you made the change to the template "a couple weeks ago", why did you wait until today, to find out from your friend that you have a problem?

Blogger Blogs are easy to work on. As easy as they are to work on, though, they still demand respect, and responsible practices are still relevant.

If you make changes, test your changes using different browsers.

Any time that you make a change to the blog, or even when you post a new article, check out the change, preferably using multiple browsers. When you test, you need to see the blog as your readers may see it - so prepare to logout and login a few times, to view changes then make adjustments.

If you have a second browser or computer, this would be an excellent way to use one - to stay logged in on one browser, and make changes much easier. Or, using a sandboxed browser is an alternate way to check what your readers see - you won't be logged in, from there.

Alternately, an online website display service may be useful.

When making template changes, setup a test blog and change there first.

If you're making changes to the template, consider setting up a blog for testing, and make your template changes there first. Blogs are free - Xanax isn't.

1. Setup a test blog.
2. Save the template from your production blog, to your computer.
3. Load the template, saved in Step 2, to your test blog.
4. Export posts from your production blog, then import them to your test blog. This gives you a real test bed.
5. Make changes, and test them, without worrying about what your readers see. They only see the production blog. If you mess up badly, go back to Step 3.
6. When you're happy with the test blog, save the template to your computer.
7. Load the template from Step 6 to your production blog.
8. Save the template copy from Step 2, as a fall back.
9. Wasn't that easier on the nerves?

Just copying the template won't give you a cloned blog.

Nowadays, and if you develop a template and decorate it using a lot of custom gadgets, merely copying the template from one blog to another may not leave you with an elegantly developed blog.

Right now, there is no procedure for backing up or restoring gadgets. If that's a problem, you develop the template, then transfer the comments, posts, and URL to the newly developed blog.

This is a bit more work, but it will preserve your gadgets.

1. Setup a test blog.
2. Save the template from your production blog, to your computer.
3. Load the template, saved in Step 2, to your test blog.
4. Export posts from your production blog, then import them to your test blog. This gives you a real test bed.
5. Make changes, and test them, without worrying about what your readers see. They only see the production blog. If you mess up badly, go back to Step 3.
6. When you're happy with the test blog, transfer the existing comments, posts, and the URL to the new blog.
   • Extract the comments and posts from the existing blog, to an XML file.
   • Import the XML file to the new blog, and publish all posts not already handled in Step 4.
   • Re publish the existing blog to a new URL.
   • Publish the new blog to the publicly known URL.
   • If you have administrators / members / readers, you'll have to add them to the new blog.
7. Save the old blog, published to the new URL, as a fall back.
8. Wasn't that slightly easier on the nerves?

And of course, in both cases, backup the blog and the template, before and after making any major changes.

Don't wait for your friends to complain.