DTAP-system
Separate environments for development, testing, and production to go live in a controlled, error-free way.

Developing web applications in a professional manner
Besides an application framework such as Laravel, you also need a DTAP street to efficiently build custom web applications. DTAP stands for Development, Testing, Acceptance, and Production. It ensures that new functionalities or code changes always end up in the live environment in several controlled phases. The major advantage is that as a client, you can always test first without directly affecting the live web application when making changes.
Taken together, these elements make up the principle of continuous development – maintaining your web application in a secure, efficient way.
Our standards
What is a DTAP-system?
The DTAP-system is a range of servers and environments where your web application or platform can be viewed. DTAP stands for Development, Testing, Acceptance, and Production:
- Development server: a programmer’s local development environment.
- Testing server: PAQT’s internal testing server.
- Acceptance server: the acceptance server where you, our client, can perform tests.
- Production server: the live environment where your employees, suppliers, and customers use the web application.
Before any changes can be pushed to further environments from the development server, a range of automated checks are completed on security, structure, and the performance of new code. Pushing is a fully automated process, too. The build server – a unique piece of software that ensures a seamless integration between the servers – is used for this purpose.

How does a build server work?
The build server is an essential part of the DTAP-system. It integrates the servers and performs many automated checks on newly added or changed code, resulting in a web application that is of higher quality.
The build server also makes it easy to (automatically) restore old versions if necessary. Furthermore, the build server allows you to see exactly which versions of the software are available and which ones are live – including the server they’re on.
Standard quality checks, more grip on code
After every code change, we perform the following standard checks:
- PSR: the general coding standard for PHP
- Linter: checking SASS/CSS and JavaScript
- Automated functional tests to see whether all essential application functionalities still work
- Server configuration: setting up cron jobs and checking software requirements
- Database migration: configuring the database in an automated, correct way

Our build server: Distelli
At PAQT, we have opted for build server Distelli. For Distelli is a lot more than a build server – it gives us full control over the web application development process. This is what we call DevOps. It allows us to know exactly where and when new versions have been rolled out. Additionally, we can automatically restore old versions if checks fail, and we know when new code has been delivered.
Distelli: at-a-glance benefits
- Connects seamlessly with version control, so it’s always clear which version of the code is live where
- Integration with the chat program Slack – we automatically receive chat messages when a new version has been rolled out
- An elegant, visual web interface that significantly speeds up new releases

Start today
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