PHP Code Deployment Tips

[danieljames123]

Hi everyone,

In the past, I have been developing in a very amateurish fashion, meaning I had a local machine where I developed and tested code and a production machine to which I copied the code when I was done. Recently I modified this slightly to where I developed locally, checked the code into SVN and then updated the production machine through SVN.

Now I would like to start a new project and improve my workflow. Ideally I had the following in mind:
- Have one or more local dev environments
- Develop and test on local machine(s)
- Use SVN (or Git) as code repository
- Use a build tool to set up new environments (either dev, staging or production) and deploy code

Since I am not very familiar with this process, I am looking for suggestions on how to best set this idea up and the tools to use, especially when it comes to the build tools. I was looking into Ant and Phing (possibly make), but I am so new to this that I would really like to get some guidance. Are there any good tutorials or books about PHP deployment, especially for beginners? What I am especially interested in are the following topics:

- Deployment to different types of servers with different settings (e.g. dev uses different db, db passwords, PHP error reporting than production or staging).
- Deployment that automatically pulls code from SVN.
- Deployment that temporarily sets a "Maintenance" page for production environment.
- Once I mastered the above, maybe even do some testing in the build process.

I know my question might sound quite confused... I admit, I am new to this and might be a little off the target in what I really need. That's why any help is greatly appreciated.