Setting up WordPress development environments

Before this past weekend, I was developing WordPress sites by creating new pages in one installation. It was becoming a pain because I would have to turn off certain plugins when creating a new design, but it was working for me. Then one day I installed a template that I didn't realize would overwrite what I created. I lost more than five designs! And no I didn't backup the files. But thankfully my webhost keeps backups so I paid a reasonable fee for them to restore the pages. (I've since installed UpdraftPlus and now backups are done automatically on a daily basis and stored on Google Drive, all for free.)

I've been developing sites from PSD designs, and my decision was confirmed when I read this article on how to get unlimited ideas for web coding projects. The only way I can continue developing sites without interruption is to have an environment that works for me.

I became interested in WordPress multisite because I use it at my job. I like how it works and thought the idea could work well for me. So this weekend I tried to setup multisite on my own domain. It didn't go well. I followed all the steps from the WordPress codex, even found tutorials from reliable blogs I've referenced in the past. I could not get it to work the way I wanted. So I've found another way!

My webhost offers a one-click install of WordPress into any folder I choose. So my development environment will be on a subdomain, and every new WordPress install will have its own folder on the subdomain. This allows me to install the themes and plugins I need just for that design, without disrupting any other pages. I'll keep track of the URLs and pages in a Google Doc spreadsheet. Easy peasy!