How to organize the process of developing sites on Wordpress?

Question

Web development

Interested in the development, creation of new themes and sites on Wordpress. At the moment, I work as follows:
1. I create and bring to mind the site on the local machine.
2. I transfer the site to hosting.
3. At the request of the customer, change something: I open the desired file via FTP, edit it in the editor, save it, upload it back. At the same time, I quite often forget what, how and where I changed, it takes a lot of time to remember. Plus, editing every little thing and instantly uploading the modified file takes a lot of time.
Question on the case, how to speed up the process at times? git? or are there other options? (I work alone at the moment).
I would be grateful if you could describe your algorithms when developing websites.
Thank you.

Answer 1

I am not engaged now in similar development (clients, ftp, etc.). We are running a big project, working in a team, using git. Everyone has a local repository on their computer + git + server (live, dev) + gitosis (similar to habrahabr.ru/post/75990/, if not identical, because I set it up for the first time).
Of course, super convenient for development, but not very convenient for hotfixes. Here, perhaps, there is no one end of the stick ... If more or less large number of fixes are typed (which will entail a lot of changed files) - it is advisable to use git. If it's 1-2-5 minor edits, it's easier on ftp, and then just merge the whole theme/plugin into the locale and continue development.
It is worth noting that in order to organize a git repository on the server, you will need root (otherwise I can’t imagine installing git itself + I’m not exactly sure how it will be possible to configure access to the repository just for you), and not every customer, in my opinion, is ready to take at least vps, only to make it more convenient for you to save files.
Of course, if you do everything on your server, it will be better to use git...
But then again, if you find the end of the stick :)
I will be happy to share my experience in more detail, if necessary.
PS Recently, my wife had to quickly deploy the site (business card, for work) - I didn’t use git, I ruled through SFTP in Sublime, although I placed it on my server (where there is both git and gitosis).

Answer 2

A familiar situation, painfully familiar.
In this case, I would not fence with complicated schemes - there are more chances to get confused and complicate (slow down) the process, and speed here is not our strong point anyway. Especially if the client project on shared hosting and git does not even smell. I manage the same as @i_dozi , "for myself" I use private repos on bitbucket.org.
Regarding mega-urgent small fixes "in a live way" - I try to collect a small pack and do it in bulk, but sometimes I still have to make an urgent single fix, right on a live server (I used to make such edits from a tablet while sitting in a minibus), after that I always copy to LAN and update everywhere, including repo. I do it as early as possible so that it doesn't get lost. If suddenly a situation arises when I sit and can’t remember where the latest version is (this happened), or I haven’t climbed into the project for a long time, and during this time the client himself could change something - diff to help.