Multiple Environments, Git, WP-CLI & WP-CFM

1. AGILE WORKFLOWS
MULTIPLE ENVIRONMENTS, GIT, WP-CLI, & WP-CFM
@rachwhitton
WordCamp San Antonio 2017

2. @rachwhitton
I write the docs for Pantheon
rachwhitton
rachelwhitton
More about me:
‣ Support background
‣ Self-taught
‣ Remote from ATX
2
Hello, I’m Rachel

3. @rachwhitton 3
Building a new feature.. before
‣ Cowboy Coding
• Working directly on production
‣ Local Development
• Bring production down to your machine

4. @rachwhitton 4
Deploying a new feature.. before
‣ FTP local to production
‣ Copy the DB / Reapply settings

5. @rachwhitton 5
Why doesn’t this work??
‣ Shit. I broke the site.
‣ But, it worked on my machine..
‣ Yes, I did accidentally overwrite your latest work. I’m so sorry.
‣ We lost content because I copied the DB from my local.
‣ No, the page isn’t supposed to look like that.

6. @rachwhitton 6
YES! There IS a better way…
‣ Dev environments that mirror prod environments
‣ Efficient code and configuration management
‣ Continuous integration

7. MULTIPLE
ENVIRONMENTS

8. @rachwhitton 8
Many Development Environments
Local Development Environment
‣ Exactly what it sounds like.
Cloud Development Environment
‣ Also, exactly what it sounds like.

9. @rachwhitton 9
Workflow Overview

10. GIT & WP-CFM

11. @rachwhitton 1
Tracking Code Changes

12. @rachwhitton 12
What does it track?
Git is used to keep track of code between production and development
environments
‣ What is code?
• Core
• Plugins
• Themes
‣ What’s not code?
• Posts and page content
• wp-content/uploads directory
• Configurations / Settings

13. @rachwhitton 13
What’s the point?

14. @rachwhitton 14
Intro to WP-CFM
WP-CFM is designed to standardize the process of moving configuration
between different environments of the same site.

15. @rachwhitton 15
What is “configuration”?
Any items configurable in the WordPress Dashboard that is not
content:
‣ Theme settings
‣ Plugin settings
‣ Widget placement
‣ Menus
‣ & lots more!

16. @rachwhitton 16
Version Controlled Configuration
When configuration is in code..
‣ See what has changed, by who
‣ Quickly revert configuration changes
‣ Configure once, and migrate across environments with Git
‣ Less need to copy the database

17. @rachwhitton 17
Terminology of WP-CFM
Bundle
‣ A group of settings to track. Could be a single setting, or all the
site’s available settings.
Push
‣ Export configuration changes from the database to code.
Pull
‣ Import configuration changes from code into the database.

18. @rachwhitton 18
What does it track?
wp_options is the only table able to be tracked by default. This
table is populated by the following:
‣ Default settings at /wp-admin/options-general.php
‣ Theme options pages, including customizer options in the row
theme_mods_yourthemename
‣ Settings and options for plugins

19. @rachwhitton 19
Developer Hooks
The wpcfm_configuration_items hook lets you register
custom configuration items to track in a bundle:

20. @rachwhitton 20
Tips and Tricks
WordPress Codex for Option
Reference
View settings on your site
example.com/wp-admin/options.php
Create as many bundles as
makes sense for you.

21. Continuous Integration

22. ― Josh Koenig
https://pantheon.io/blog/continuous-integration-delivery-and-deployment-behind-hype
In the context of websites, Continuous
Integration means frequently combining all
pending code changes with the latest
content from the “real world” of the
production environment.

23. @rachwhitton 23
Continuous Buzzwords..
Continuous Integration
Continuous Deployment
Continuous Delivery

24. @rachwhitton
WordPress Command Line Interface

25. @rachwhitton
WP-CLI + WP-CFM
Site
< /> Code
Configuration
$ wp config pull <bundle_name>
$ wp config push <bundle_name>
$ wp config diff <bundle_name>
$ wp config bundles
$ wp config show-bundles <bundle_name>

26. @rachwhitton
Repeatable, Deployable, Testable Configurations
Before: Site config manually repeated
on each deploy
After: Site config can be applied by machine and
tested within CI/CD workflow

27. @rachwhitton
Examples and Resources
‣ Andrew Taylor: Automating WordPress Updates with Visual
Regression
‣ Build Tools Guide
‣ Example WordPress Composer repository on GitHub

28. QUESTIONS?

29. @rachwhitton
I write the docs for Pantheon
rachwhitton
rachelwhitton
More about me:
‣ Support background
‣ Self-taught
‣ Remote from ATX
2
Hello, I’m Rachel

30. THANK YOU!