A checklist for all projects that are going live

This checklist is used whenever a project is going live at https://spatie.be

1. Browserstack tests

• Desktop: test on latest versions of Chrome, IE/Edge, Firefox, Safari
• Mobile: test on latest versions of Mobile Safari, Android

2. Front end checklist

Assets

• Search sources for http://. Replace by https://
• Lint (s)css sources
• Webfonts: is the live domain configured in services like Typekit, Fonts.com etc.?
• Is the browserlist properly configured for autoprefixer and babel-preset-env?
• When using PurgeCSS: check if layout is preserved.

Scripts

• Is yarn.lock present?
• Check JS lint errors. Remove all console.log lines in scripts
• Check for console errors

Page weight

• Evaluate total weight of at least homepage
• Open Inspector network/timeline tab to identify heavy assets
• Check if heavy assets are cached

Audits

• Use the Chrome DevTools (in incognito mode) and perform a mobile audit (with throttling) to fix common problems.
• Repeat with a desktop audit.

3. Check content (with an open console)

• Are all strings / images present (and translated)?
• Does menu/submenu have a correct active state on every page?
• Are 404, 500 and 503 pages provided? Do they provide useful content like 'back to home', search or a navigation tree?
• Check all pages for n+1 problems

Meta

• Check page titles / descriptions
• Test Facebook sharing. Provide og-tags if needed
• Does Favicon load? Pin the tab in Safari to check pinned icon

Repeat this section for all languages

Components

• Google Maps
  • API key needed/configured?
  • Check info windows
  • Prevent zoom out beyond 1x world
  • Try clicking on markers
• Forms: fill out with wrong/right values
• Video: check with sound on
• Try subscribing to a newsletter with incorrect & correct email (use correct mail twice to get 'already subscribed' message)
• Check layout of emails
• Check structured data for news, events, products,... https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/

4. Back end checklist

• Open up /blender
• Remove unused modules from main menu
• Configure Analytics dashboard
• Create a new admin and try to log in
• Try the password reset flow for existing user
• Try saving article / news / ...
• Verify all e-mail recipients are correct
• Scan database for urls to development domain
• Check client's logo in header

5. Server, DNS & Services

• Add redirects from old to new pages if necessary.
• Install Let's Encrypt certificate
• Check SSL certificate health https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/
• Check your hostfile to make sure you're looking at the live site
• Try visiting www domain, should redirect to non-www
• Try out visiting http, should redirect to https
• Verify that all http status codes are ok with https://github.com/spatie/http-status-check
• Scan for mixed content with https://github.com/spatie/mixed-content-scanner-cli
• Verify that the content of robots header is current with curl-I https://url on x-robots-tag
• Remove development DNS record
• Check dns propagation with https://www.whatsmydns.net/
• Verify Tag Manager / Analytics have been correctly set up

Google Search Console

• Submit all www/non-www http/https variations
• Set up non-www https as the preferred domain
• Crawl > Fetch as Google > Submit to index to kickstart index

Server

• Are DigitalOcean backups enabled?
• Are Amazon backups enabled?
• Is the output of artisan task backup:run ok?
• Is artisan scheduled on Forge?
• Is Horizon configured in Supervisor on Forge? Command should be php artisan horizon. Path should be /home/forge/my-new-site.com/current
• Is the url being monitored by Oh Dear!?
• Is the server being monitored by our server-monitor?

Github

• Remove develop branch or other stale branches

About Spatie

Spatie is a webdesign agency based in Antwerp, Belgium. You'll find an overview of all our open source projects on our website.