Go-live checklist

Walk through top-to-bottom on launch day or any theme deploy. Every step is a click in WP admin or a URL to load.

1. Backup

• [ ] UpdraftPlus → Backup Now on live. Uncheck uploads if the site already has them via CDN — DB + themes + plugins is enough for most deploys.
• [ ] Wait for it to complete. Download the files locally.
• [ ] Second belt-and-braces backup via the host's snapshot tool if available.

2. WordPress core sanity

• [ ] Settings → General — Site URL + WordPress Address both https:// + no trailing slash.
• [ ] Settings → Reading
  • "Your homepage displays" = A static page
  • Homepage = Home (or blank — theme uses front-page.php either way)
• [ ] Settings → Permalinks — Post name (/%postname%/). Save Changes even if unchanged to force rewrite flush. Required for /my-account/wishlist/ to resolve.

3. Theme upload

• [ ] Appearance → Themes → Add New → Upload Theme → dankcave-theme.zip → Install Now.
• [ ] When WP detects the existing "Dankcave" theme, click Replace current with uploaded.
• [ ] Wait for the "Theme activated" message.

Site hangs after activation? Elementor Pro Theme Builder templates can hijack rendering.

1. /wp-admin/plugins.php (new tab).
2. Deactivate Elementor Pro temporarily.
3. Refresh the front-end.
4. Reactivate Elementor Pro after running the migrator plugin (step 5) — its templates will be trashed, so no more hijack.

4. Cache flush

• [ ] Admin bar → Autoptimize → Delete Cache (critical).
• [ ] Purge LiteSpeed / WP Rocket / W3TC if active.
• [ ] Purge CDN cache (Cloudflare, Bunny, Fastly).
• [ ] Hard-refresh the site in incognito: ⌘⇧R / Ctrl+F5.

5. Migrator plugin (one-shot, first-time only)

The migrator cleans up state from the previous theme.

• [ ] Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin → dankcave-migrator.zip → Install → Activate.
• [ ] Green notice appears listing what changed.
• [ ] Site looks fine → click Deactivate & delete this plugin.
• [ ] Site looks broken → click Undo migration.

Every change is backed up to wp_options.dankcave_migrator_backup. Undo cleanly reverses all of it.

6. Front-end QA (~5 min in incognito)

• [ ] Home loads.
• [ ] Age gate appears → Yes, I'm 21+ → dismisses.
• [ ] Cookie consent banner → OK → dismisses.
• [ ] Shop archive → grid + filters visible.
• [ ] PDP → hero, gallery, add-to-cart, related products.
• [ ] Hover PDP image → zoom activates.
• [ ] Add to cart → drawer opens + cross-sell rail populated.
• [ ] Search modal → type "dab" → autocomplete shows product cards.
• [ ] Compare → tray appears with items → modal shows table.
• [ ] Wishlist heart on card → visit /my-account/wishlist/ → item shows.
• [ ] About page → all patterns render.
• [ ] Contact page → form + FAQ render.

7. Payment gateway (release-specific)

• [ ] WooCommerce → Settings → Payments — confirm Authorize.net is enabled.
• [ ] Test transaction with a small dollar amount. Confirm the order lands.

8. SEO

• [ ] https://dankcave.com/robots.txt — no Crawl-delay.
• [ ] View source home page → search og:image → should be assets/img/og-share.png, not the tiny logo.
• [ ] Yoast → Tools → Optimize SEO data.
• [ ] Submit sitemap to Google Search Console if not already indexed.

9. Analytics

• [ ] Site Kit / GTM container installed and firing.
• [ ] Browser console → window.dataLayer → array with page-view entries.
• [ ] Trigger add_to_cart → console → dataLayer.find(x => x.event === 'add_to_cart') returns object.

10. Rollback plan

If anything is broken:

1. Undo migration button on the migrator plugin (if kept installed).
2. Appearance → Themes → activate Twenty Twenty-Five (fallback).
3. Re-upload the previous theme version zip → activate.
4. UpdraftPlus → Restore the pre-deploy backup if user data corruption.