Tell us what you are trying to do?
Sanitise a site for giving access to support people
Is there any documentation that you are following?
https://toolset.com/privacy-policy-and-gdpr-compliance/how-to-remove-personal-information-from-your-database-for-support/
Hi there,
Do you have any recommendations for anonymising Woocommerce sites for support purposes? This advice only works for standard users, not for personal information stored in WC orders or any other place where plugins store data.
https://toolset.com/privacy-policy-and-gdpr-compliance/how-to-remove-personal-information-from-your-database-for-support/
Thanks.
This advice only works for standard users, not for personal information stored in WC orders or any other place where plugins store data.
Yes, this information really only covers the very basics because the number of places you can find personal data is limited only by the size of your database. As far as 3rd-party plugins and their private data storage processes, our support team is not really the best source of information. Those plugins' support teams would be able to give you more direct information about how to obfuscate any private data they may store in the postmeta table, in their own proprietary data tables, in the post data itself, etc.
Depending on the problem you want to share with support, it might be easier to approach it from a different angle. Instead of sanitizing existing data, create a small clean test site where you can reproduce the issue starting from scratch with dummy data. Export unsensitive things like your WooCommerce products, export your Toolset structures using Toolset Import/Export or the Module Manager if needed, then export any necessary post data from other non-sensitive post types using the standard WordPress Export tool. Import Toolset structures, then WC products, then other non-sensitive post types into your test site, then reproduce the problem scenario.
What is the problem you'd like to share? With a bit more information I may be able to offer more appropriate advice.
Understood. In the past I have made staging copies and spent hours cleaning them. There's no specific need with Toolset right now, but I've had to turn down assistance from other plugin developers because i couldn't give them access. And yours is the most evolved approach to the issues I have seen, so I was hoping there might be something new that I didn't know about
But I think we are all in the same boat, and I'd like to make 2 suggestions. Firstly you add to the policy I linked to saying that... because sooner or later someone is going to use it and think they have cleaned their site. Which in many cases is not going to be true. And secondly, can you exert any pressure with WordPress to get them to build a way for plugins to register any data that would need to be anonymised for staging/support purposes.
Many thanks.
Firstly you add to the policy I linked to saying that... because sooner or later someone is going to use it and think they have cleaned their site. Which in many cases is not going to be true.
I can ask our documentation team to clarify that this SQL script is limited in its scope and should be considered a starting point for cleaning a site. Thanks for the suggestion!
And secondly, can you exert any pressure with WordPress to get them to build a way for plugins to register any data that would need to be anonymised for staging/support purposes.
We don't really have any significant influence on WordPress development and priorities. I suggest you submit ideas for improving WordPress core at wordpress.org
My issue is resolved now. Thank you!
