Interface preference should be synced between production and staging sites

[mrfoxtalbot]

Quick summary

If I create a staging site for a classic interface site, the newly created staging site has the default interface option, not the classic one:

Conversely, if I push a Default interface staging site into production replacing a Classic interface one, the production site will stay Classic.

In other words, the preference is not syncing at all.

Steps to reproduce

1. Set a site to "Classic Interface"
2. Create a staging site

What you expected to happen

The staging site should also be "Classic"

What actually happened

The staging site was set to default

Impact

All

Available workarounds?

Yes, easy to implement

Platform (Simple and/or Atomic)

Atomic

Logs or notes

No response

[BogdanUngureanu]

Looks like the issue is not reproducing anymore (although yesterday it was). @mrfoxtalbot feel free to re-open the issue if you're still reproducing it.

[mrfoxtalbot]

I re-tested this just not and the issue is still there, @BogdanUngureanu.

1. Set a site to Classic Interface
2. Spin a staging site
3. Notice how the staging site is set to Default

Can we check how the interface preference is stored and confirm if this setting is synchronized? During pre-launch, this was set via an option named wpcom_classic_early_release. Are we still using this in production @allilevine? Thanks!

[mrfoxtalbot]

Here are two more screenshots to illustrate the issue:

Productions site (Classic):

Staging site (Default):

[BogdanUngureanu]

Currently I'm focusing on T-Rex Readymade templates and I believe some spare time to look at the Production-Staging site sync issue again next week. If nobody takes the issue in the meantime, I'll give it another spin (weird that I wasn't able to reproduce it 🤔 ).

[mrfoxtalbot]

Thank you @BogdanUngureanu. Maybe @Automattic/explorers could a look? 🙏

[allilevine]

There's definitely something weird going on here. I just created a Staging Site and in Calypso, it's set to Default view, but in wp-admin, it's set to Classic view.

@mrfoxtalbot I see this is in Unassigned on the Untangling board, which is the best place for it to get picked up!

[mrfoxtalbot]

I see @BogdanUngureanu is on it already.

Thank you both!

[BogdanUngureanu]

I've opened D154352-code which should fix these two problems:

• When the staging site is created, we now import the Admin interface preference from the production site
• On Sync, the Admin interface will also be synched (for both types of sync - Prod to Staging and vice-versa)

Since I'm not super familiar with this area of the code, any feedback on the diff is more than welcomed. :)

[mrfoxtalbot]

Thank you, @BogdanUngureanu. Will you PR fit this problem too?:

• Activated Jetpack modules not preserved when creating a Staging site #91861

[BogdanUngureanu]

@mrfoxtalbot no, we just sync the Admin interface option, but I assume the fix would be similar (I haven't checked how the module settings are saved).

Sorry for the long response time, I got involved with other tasks and missed your messages.

[BogdanUngureanu]

The fix has landed on production with D154352-code