[rant]
Excuse my French but, some f###ing web-devs, what is going on in their minds ?
For the THIRD time now, this guy has overwritten all of my optimised pages on the website of a client, he is the client's webdev.
I was gobsmacked when it happened the first time, but get this text he sent me :
"I don't download, modify then upload the site. I have a main site that i upload after i modify."
Jesus Flipping Christ! JESUS FLIPPING CHRIST !
Maybe i should start doing that, instead of the normal download, edit, upload cycle that PRESERVES THE WORK OF OTHERS !
Three times, i can't believe it !!!
[/rant]
Flip side of this is that I used to get driven mad by SEOs who didn't understand what version control was.
If he is just updating a local site and overwriting your work he is a dick for working like that. If the project is running in version control and you are uploading direct to live then someone is a dick for not explaining that and ensuring that everyone was deploying through the correct route.
I've been on both ends. Lot's of SEOs need to get with development practice, lots of devs have to stop being precious and arrogant. Fecking annoying though. Get FTP details and overwrite his work :D
Yes i know what you're saying, luckily most of the devs i work with are fine, this guy is fine apart from the overwriting :/
Feels better to rant though :)
What platform?
Is this a database-driven site or static?
Are your optimizations in the DB or in code or both?
If it's all in code, then require that the webdev use git. If he won't, then install git on the server and every time he makes his changes without it, you just throw them away until he learns the lesson.
Near the end of my freelance days I made it a condition of work that all code files would be managed via git (if you're on an MS platform, then it would be some other tool).
If it's in the DB, that's more complicated, but still utterly inexcusable. A moderately professional workflow for any webdev work is, as a min
- log into server
- git add, commit and push
- local git pull
- download remote DB
- upload remote DB to dev platform
- do work
- git add, commit and push from local
- create DB dumpfile
- git pull to remote
- upload DB
The "big" shops should have something like Puppet and Vagrant running and they should spin up a new server instance every time they work and push not only the site, but all server settings. The above workflow is mine, but I was starting to feel like I was falling behind the times and the above is no longer a truly professional workflow.
Your guy is working like it's still the twentieth century.
Thanks Ergo, interesting stuff, though my clients are all small businesses so no version control.
It's just static HTML via FTP.
Thanks,
Gary.
My clients are *very* small businesses too, but I still run git for *everything* no matter how small.
If it's a Linux box, it has git installed, you just need to get the dev to use it.
The client need not even know that you have the site under version control. Only you and the webdev need know.
And if the webdev is not really a dev, but a guy who maintains the site, you can teach just the absolute minimum (by the way, I would say the title "developer" is completely inaccurate if this person not only doesn't, but won't use version control).
- FTP is no longer allowed
- and then teach about six git commands.
end of headaches.
I'd make a comment but ...... "if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all....." started going around my head....
Yeah, I would just upload my last version over his when working. lol
But, really...what Jason said.