Is there a way to setup a Wordpress site that uses another site's database but cannot write to specific tables (like wp_posts)?
Basically I'm trying to set up a testing site that I could use to test new WP versions, themes, (some plugins?), etc. Ideally this site would display the content of the live site (staying current so that constantly duplicating the database wasn't necessary). But I wouldn't want someone to be able to edit that dev site and have the change reflect on the live site.
I recognize that this means certain database tables would need to be editable while others were not.
One obvious workaround is to limit WP user permissions, and I think in my case I will either just do that or go the old-fashioned route with two separate db's. But I am curious whether this is possible or if there is some solution out there that does basically this.