Going Live

This checklist is used whenever a project is going live at https://spatie.be

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1. Browserstack tests

• Desktop: test on latest versions of Chrome, IE/Edge, Firefox, Safari

• Mobile: test on latest versions of Mobile Safari, Android

2. Front end checklist

Assets

• Search sources for http://. Replace by https://

• Lint (s)css sources

• Webfonts: is the live domain configured in services like Typekit, Fonts.com etc.?

• Is the browserlist properly configured for autoprefixer and babel-preset-env?

• When using PurgeCSS: check if layout is preserved.

Scripts

• Is yarn.lock present?

• Check JS lint errors. Remove all console.log lines in scripts

• Check for console errors

Page weight

• Evaluate total weight of at least homepage

• Open Inspector network/timeline tab to identify heavy assets

• Check if heavy assets are cached

Audits

• Use the Chrome DevTools (in incognito mode) and perform a mobile audit (with throttling) to fix common problems.

• Repeat with a desktop audit.

3. Check content (with an open console)

• Are all strings / images present (and translated)?

• Does menu/submenu have a correct active state on every page?

• Are 404, 500 and 503 pages provided? Do they provide useful content like 'back to home', search or a navigation tree?

• Check all pages for n+1 problems

Meta

• Check page titles / descriptions

• Test Facebook sharing. Provide og-tags if needed

• Does Favicon load? Pin the tab in Safari to check pinned icon

Repeat this section for all languages

Components

• Google Maps

  • API key needed/configured?

  • Check info windows

  • Prevent zoom out beyond 1x world

  • Try clicking on markers

• Forms: fill out with wrong/right values

• Video: check with sound on

• Try subscribing to a newsletter with incorrect & correct email (use correct mail twice to get 'already subscribed' message)

• Check layout of emails

• Check structured data for news, events, products,... https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/

4. Back end checklist

• Open up /blender

• Remove unused modules from main menu

• Configure Analytics dashboard

• Create a new admin and try to log in

• Try the password reset flow for existing user

• Try saving article / news / ...

• Verify all e-mail recipients are correct

• Scan database for urls to development domain

• Check client's logo in header

5. Server, DNS & Services

• Add redirects from old to new pages if necessary.

• Install Let's Encrypt certificate

• Check SSL certificate health https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/

• Check your hostfile to make sure you're looking at the live site

• Try visiting www domain, should redirect to non-www

• Try out visiting http, should redirect to https

• Verify that all http status codes are ok with https://github.com/spatie/http-status-check

• Scan for mixed content with https://github.com/spatie/mixed-content-scanner-cli

• Verify that indexing is not prohibited with x-robots-tag: none by checking curl -I https://url | grep 'x-robots-tag'. Allow robots in .env

• Remove development DNS record

• Check dns propagation with https://www.whatsmydns.net/

• Verify Tag Manager / Analytics have been correctly set up

Google Search Console

• Submit all www/non-www http/https variations

• Set up non-www https as the preferred domain

• Crawl > Fetch as Google > Submit to index to kickstart index

Server

• Are DigitalOcean backups enabled?

• Are Amazon backups enabled?

• Is the output of artisan task backup:run ok?

• Is artisan scheduled on Forge?

• Is Horizon configured in Supervisor on Forge? Command should be php artisan horizon. Path should be /home/forge/my-new-site.com/current

• Is the url being monitored by Oh Dear!?

• Is the server being monitored by our server-monitor?

Github

• Remove develop branch or other stale branches

About Spatie

Spatie is a webdesign agency based in Antwerp, Belgium. You'll find an overview of all our open source projects on our website.