Basics

Variables

You must omit the $ when assigning a variable, but must use include it when referencing.
So this example:

isLive=${1:-false};
dbName="localDbName";
if [[ isLive == true ]]
then
    dbName="liveDbName"
fi

Should look like this

isLive="${1:-false}";
dbName="localDbName";
if [[ "$isLive" == "true" ]]
then
    dbName="liveDbName"
fi