Merged several threads from other forums into this one. If it makes 10+ supporters here, I will place this into our Roadmap

I'd like to be able to swap out a theme and mock up a page and preview it without having to save or abandon it and without having to modify the real site. In other words, having the ability to build out a new design on a new theme without changing the current live site and then take the new site live, replacing the old, when we consider it ready.

Best news I've had all day! I'll be in touch.

You can contact our support and they will make a complete test clone of your current site. Then, you can use this as a sandbox to do all the changes you need and when you're satisfied with results, you can easily transfer them into your real site.

My client is interested in a fairly major site redesign, to include:

1) Changing width of the content area

2) Going from a vertical to horizontal menu

3) Relocating the login to the upper right

4) Using four columns (common in the 920 model)

5) Adding a slider (not offered by WA, so will have to import a js or html5)

Since WA does not offer a way to copy or backup a site this all becomes very clumsy. Our current site has highly modified CSS. We are also just considering going to a WordPress site because WA is so difficult to update and customize. Perhaps changing templates would work, but I have little confidence in the result and am hesitant to try it out. Could I just switch back without any loss of content/features/function etc? Anyone have any ideas/thoughts of how to approach this problem? Thanks so much.

Jan

I agree. An undo on headers, titles, etc. would be very helpful. Especially when I'm uploading a background picture and it doesn't look right.

We could clone your account, send your account details to support@wildapricot.com

We want to make major changes to the website as far as the design is concerned. Is there a sandbox environment where we can play around without messing up the website that is online right now?

yes, I meant the trial accounts - before they convert to free plan.

I understand this is not a long-term solution, but wanted to mention this workaround.

Hi Dmitry,

I was just about to say "oh no it isn't" but you mean the 30-day trial accounts and not the free ones that they transmute into after 30 days don't you?

When we signed up for the Professional plan, I also started a trial account to be used for testing CSS, flash, Javascript snippets etc. That account is obviously no longer "trial" and so the advanced CSS customisations are disabled. Having to keep starting new trial accounts would be a pain.

Regards,
Ian
worthing and adur chamber of commerce

Ian, CSS customization is available in trial accounts so feel free to open trial accounts as needed for your testing.

Alternatively simply allow CSS customisation on the free WA sites.
That way we can play and test in private and no work for you guys :-))

Regards,
Ian
worthing and adur chamber of commerce

Current behavior:
Clients can only experiment on CSS on their own site. Any change they want to try out and test can impact their live site, meaning that if they make a mistake, or if their experiment isn't as good as expected it impacts the look and feel and usability of their public site.

Proposal:
Create a CSS sandbox area, either as part of help as as associated with a testing site, where they can try out different CSS setups and see how they look before doing them on their own site. This would allow them to practice CSS, as well as give them a place to experiment with different setups.

On the same theme, it would be nice if there was an undo command that would take you back to a prior setting.

There have been a few times where I changed things on a page and it wasn't until a bit of time had passed before I realized there was a problem.

Ability to make changes to the site which are not yet visible to the public.

Sometimes, changes are complicated, incremental, or need to be reviewed before going live.

WordPress has this feature.