Here is our setup:

Production web server, using production CMS database
Staging/test web server using Staging CMS database
Development machines using development CMS database

We often do a database restore from the production database,
overwriting the staging and test databases. However, there are some
current changes in progress on both the staging and test databases
that prevent us from bringing the production database back. We are
currently experiencing some problems on the production site that don't
exist in our development environments. In order to test using current
data, I simply changed my development machine, using the DCA, to use
the production database.

The problem with this scenario is that all links appear like they do
in production, since the production server maps host headers to
channel names, and the development machines do not. While normal links
are easy enough to change the URL, we have a scenario where a button
click event modifies the page contents and reloads. This is causing me
problems when trying to debug the page.

What I want to know is how exactly the SCA works. If I made changes in
the SCA on my development machine, will that affect the production
server in any way? Or is the SCA machine-specific, despite using a
common database?

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]