Whether you're working on custom themes or custom plugins, a good development workflow is critical. I would like to walk you through some great ideas to streamline and simplify the process as much as possible. We will look at starting a brand new project and go from dev environment through to production as well as an existing site being brought to local dev, up to staging and back again. All the tools, tips, and tricks you need to ensure each and every project runs as smooth as silk.

1. WordPress Workflow
presentation
#WCSyd 2016
Robert Wilde

2. dev to staging to live
Development to Staging to Production
First, big thanks to everyone who attended WordCamp Sydney 2016 and all
the awesome people who organised it. This event was my second this year
and my second time speaking, truly is the best event to attend.
It’s important to remember that everything I talked about on the day and
outline here is my way of doing things, not the way of doing things. There is
no right way, only your way. I want to give you some ideas, and you season
them however you need to make it work for you.
In the post I will go over the same key points, I covered in my talk on the day.
I will go over;
What the WordPress workflow includes.
Why you should be using a workflow, even if you are not a developer.
Some tools I use to make setting up and managing the workflow.
In future posts, I will go into more detail regarding some of my methods and
tools.
What is the WordPress workflow?
it is made of three environments:
Development
also called local, which runs on your computer/laptop and only accessible by
you.
Staging
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3. WordPress Workflow - #WCSyd 2016
this runs on an available to the public using a unique URL, preventing any
issues with premature Google crawling and duplicate content. You can also
restrict access via password if necessary.
Production
Also referred to as live, this is the final version.
The second factor is the direction of the flow from environment to
environment. Initially, it should flow between each environment in one
direction. This is during a new site or project.
As you can see I added the definitive NO between DEV and live. At some
point you will need to push from DEV to live but always ensure it has gone
through the staging process first. I have a second application like, winSCp to
upload from DEV to live to ensure there is no accidental overwrite.
There are times when you will need more two-way action, primarily when
you are working on refactoring a live site. This is also the configuration to use
when testing plugins or completing updates. You can sync live to stage, run
updates and tests, then complete on the live site.
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Why do you need this?
These steps will a level of difficulty and add time to your process but for
several good reasons.
Create and isolated sandbox to work on where you can safely make
changes without affecting end users.
Allow you to make real-time comparisons between your job and the live
site.
Test during business hours without affecting traffic or site services.
An important note or perhaps rule.
NEVER, EVER WORK ON A LIVE SITE!
DON’T UPDATE PLUGINS!
DON’T UPDATE THEMES!
DON’T MODIFY CODE!
WordPress Workflow - WCSYD 2016

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Now I demonstrated a key point to this rule during my session. I asked all the
experienced DEV’s in the room to raise there hand if they totally agree with
this, there where quite a few hands up. I then asked “Please keep your hand
raised if you have broken this rule, more than once?”. Fair to say almost no
hands went down.
There are always exceptions to the rule. The point here is to make sure you
are aware of the risks. Most people don’t know how bad fire is until they get
burnt.
Some things to know when setting up your
WordPress workflow.
Both your DEV or local environment and your staging environment should be
configured the same as the live or production environment or what
is refereed to as the stack.
There are two main stacks used for WordPress.
LAMP – Linux, Apache, PHP, MySQL
LEMP – Linux, NGINX, PHP, MySQL
If you don’t know what your live site is running on you can speak with your
hosting support to get more info. For the local DEV environment there are
several tools to make this setup easy.
Quick install tools – WAMP, MAMP, XAMPP and Desktop Server
Advanced tools – Vagrant (VVV or Chassis) , Docker, Linux VM &
EasyEngine.
WAMP, MAMP, XAMPP and Desktop Server. I haven’t used these tools for a
while but have heard good things about Desktop Server as it has some tools
specifically directed for WordPress setup.
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If you want something closer to the real thing with more tools and power,
there are some tools that provide you with a Virtual environment. These
include tools like Vagrant, specifically VVV or Chassis witch is actually
developed and maintained by a fellow speaker Bronson Quick
(@bronsonquick) and available on GitHub. Docker is another tool that is
gaining massive traction and is OS agnostic or you go middle ground and use
a vanilla Linux virtual environment like Ubuntu server LTS with
an absolutely awesome CMD tool like easy engine. Witch is what I use. basic
intro to EasyEngine.
If you are new to this stuff, please don not let the idea of command line scare
you. these more advanced environments gives a lot more control and power
with tools like WP-CLI. If you don’t know WP-CLI put it on your list of things
to read about. Lost count the number of times it has saved my bacon and
made things simple as it gives you access to DB import/export, plugin install,
activate, deactivate and update, completing WP install/configuration and way
more. A little bit of time learning how to use it will save a massive amount of
time down the track.
More ideas for your WordPress work ow staging
environment.
I believe it is important, if not vital, to use a dedicated WordPress hosting
provider for your Live hosting as they will generally provide you with a
staging environment that is isolated. Isolated is important for when you are
testing and installing plugins, moving from live to staging and back again. If
by chance something happens that causes a major problem it will not effect
the live site. Providers like WPengine, Pantheon or Conetix are great, these
are the ones I have looked at and played with.
What to look for when setting up a staging environment:
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WordPress dedicated hosts may provide service as inclusion to hosting.
AWS EC2 micro instance is a cost effective option.
Create a dedicated custom domain for staging.
I personally do some things outside the box with Laravel PHP witch is why I
still have instances on Amazon AWS, they not hard to manage and very cost
effective. I also play with Microsoft Azure virtual machines as well, they great
for staging.
I have a created a dedicated domain for my staging. Keeps things easy for me
to manage and I have issues with Google crawling this to early.
If you are running your own staging servers try and match the config or stack
as close as possible as well as the location. You don’t want the hosting
running in one country and the staging in another as it will produce some
interesting results when testing and doing demos with your client.
Finally I would try and avoid running your staging on the same Virtual
Private Servers. Although it is rare you don’t want change something and
crash the server or you may need to reboot the server for some reason. That
is not something you want to do to your production environment during the
day. Might make some unhappy people.
Tools to help you move your data around.
Migrate DB Pro – https://deliciousbrains.com/
My number one favorite tool is Migrate DB Pro witch is fantastic for easily
migrating and moving the database from location to location. It takes care of
completing the URL renaming process making the DB migration seamless.
Another great bonus is it will do a complete a backup before you sync so you
can roll back if needed.
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The developer version also has some extra tools for migrating the uploads
directory and keeping it in sync. Once you have it in place it will only sync the
changed files saving a tonne of time.
Brad Touesnard and the team at Deliecous Brians, awesome name, have been
working on a new tool called mergbot. This will allow you to actually sync the
database without overwriting so you merge your changes with the live site.
Hopefully will be playing with sometime real soon.
WPCore – https://wpcore.com/
WP-core. This allows you to create a collections of plugins and then install
them all at once as well create a collection from an existing site and install
that collection on the other site. Basic intro to WPCore
UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin –
https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/
Generally speaking the three most important things that come to mind when
working with a WordPress site are Backup, Backup and Backup.
Tool I like for that is Updraft PLUS, even for general operation it is a great
backup tool, offers fantastic revision capabilities. Allowing you to keep the
last x number of backups. Another great feature is its ability to separate files
and database. On a live site the database is what changes frequently so
backing that up daily and then backing up your plugins, themes and media
weekly will save you a lot of space.
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You can then set the plugins/uploads/themes to backup weekly or even
monthly. Everything can be backed up off-site to AWS S3, Dropbox, Google
Drive, Rackspace, FTP, SFTP, email. That is important, even you make regular
backups local so they are quick and easy to restore, always have at least a
monthly off-site or downloaded just in-case, one-day you cant get to the
server.
ManageWP – https://managewp.com/
will post a walk through video soon
If you work with a lot of sites you should look at a management tool as these
have awesome features including a clone feature, like ManageWP. It also has
some great tools for backup, site clone and migration, site up-time, plugin,
theme and core updates plus a few more. When managing several WP sites,
being able to access and manage the wp-admin from one place is priceless.
So that’s my take on the WordPress workflow. There are a tonne of other
areas to look at, like continuous deployment using git and online services
like SemaphoreCI or task runner tools like flightplan. Working my way
into these items slowly but surely. I run a GitLab server in my office witch
allows for builds and continuous deployment with git so will be testing that
soon.
Really hope you get something from all this and if you have any questions,
you know what to do. Keep on Developing!
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WordPress Workflow - WCSYD 2016