Add VIP production site content for local development

Local development and testing can be more effective if the local environment is running with a copy of a production environment’s database and media files.

SQL database files

Retrieve a SQL database backup file from a VIP Platform environment that includes custom tables and is suitable for use in a local development environment:

• Download a full or partial database backup file from the Database Backups panel in the VIP Dashboard.
• Export a full database backup file with the VIP-CLI command vip export sql.
• Full database backup files shipped to an AWS S3 bucket with Database Backup Shipping.

Users who are running a VIP Local Development Environment can sync their production database with the vip dev-env sync command, or import a SQL database file with vip dev-env import sql.

For other local development applications, refer to that application’s documentation for instructions on importing a database file.

Media files

Multiple methods are available to make media files associated with a VIP Platform environment and stored in the VIP File System available to a local environment:

• Media files can be downloaded from the Media Backups panel in the VIP Dashboard and imported to a local environment.
• Local development applications can mirror a production site’s media library by using a stage file proxy plugin. This approach enables media files newly added to production to be available to the local environment on-the-fly and to avoid needing access to extremely large and time-consuming media export files.

Users who are running a VIP Local Development Environment can upload, import, or proxy media files to their running local environment.