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Version: 4.x

security-checklist-testing-and-development

Secure Testing and Development​

Develop locally, deploy globally​

Develop and test your site on a local machine first. Installing Joomla locally is not as hard as it may sound, and the exercise will greatly boost your confidence.

Use an IDE​

Consider using an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). One free IDE that many Joomla! developers use is

Visual Studio Code. See also [Configuring Visual Studio Code for joomla development](https://docs.joomla.org/Visual_Studio_Code 'Special:MyLanguage/Visual Studio Code') for instructions on installing and configuring Visual Studio Code.

Use a versioning system​

Be able to roll back to an earlier version of your site using a modern version control system, normally

git. The Visual Studio Code IDE indicated above includes plugins for git. This allows you to work with the Joomla! source repository hosted onGitHub as well as any other projects on GitHub, GitLab or BitBucket (the 3 most popular git versioning systems).

More suggested tools​

Check out the Joomla! community's list of popular

Developer Software and Tools.

Setup a backup process first​

The most important rule​

Thou shalt at all time be able to return your site to a previous working state through regular use of a strong, off-site backup and recovery process.

Be sure your backup and recovery process is ready and tested BEFORE your site goes live.

This is the single best way (and often the only way) to recover from such inevitable catastrophes as:

  1. A compromised/cracked site.
  2. Broken site due to a faulty upgrade.
  3. Hardware failure, such as dead hard drives, power failures, server theft, etc.
  4. Authoritarian government intervention. (More common than some think.)
  5. Needing to quickly relocate to a new server or hosting provider.