Developing with WordPress and Git

Developing with WordPress and Git

Rob Miller • @robmilBig Fish Design

1Friday, 23 November 12

An introduction


“Git”? Huh?What’s that?



• A distributed version control system




• Free




• Free

• Open source




• Free

• Open source

• Popular


A crash course in version control


What isversion control?



• Track changes made to source code




• Who did what and when





• When things break, revert to the point when it last worked





• When things break, revert to the point when it last worked

• Like Time Machine for your website’s code (but not database/content…)


Why version control?



• “I just deleted a file by mistake — can we get it back?”




• “I need to know who made this change — can we find out?”





• “That feature just broke the site — can we revert it?”





• “That feature just broke the site — can we revert it?”

• “There’s a bug that didn’t use to exist. When was it introduced?”


Centralisedvs. distributed


Centralisedversion control



• History stored in a central repository running on a server




• Everyone commits to and from this repository




• Everyone commits to and from this repository

• Examples: CVS, Subversion (SVN), Perforce, ClearCase


Distributedversion control



• No central server




• Every team member has a copy of the entire repository and its history




• Every team member has a copy of the entire repository and its history

• Git isn’t the only option — e.g. Mercurial


Advantages of DVCS


Advantages of DVCS

• Redundancy


Advantages of DVCS

• Redundancy

• Offline working


Advantages of DVCS

• Redundancy

• Offline working

• Speed


Git


Git ≠ GitHub


Terminology, part one



•Commit



•Commit

•Branch



•Commit

•Branch

•Tag



•Commit

•Branch

•Tag

•Diff



•Commit

•Branch

•Tag

•Diff

•Commitish


Terminology, part two



• Pulling



• Pulling

• Pushing



• Pulling

• Pushing

• Cloning


What’s in a Git commit?


Branches


Branches

• In Subversion, they’re basically useless


Branches


• In Git, they’re at the heart of almost everything


Branches



• Juggle as many different versions of your code as you like


Branches




• Keep all your features nice and separate


Branches




• Keep all your features nice and separate

• Merge painlessly once you’re done


Special branch


Special branch

• Git doesn’t force you to have any particular branches


Special branch


• But by convention, master is your stable branch


Special branch


• But by convention, master is your stable branch

• Branch from it; merge to it; your releases are taken from it


Branch commands


• git branch foo will create a branch called “foo”.

Branch commands



• git checkout bar will switch to the branch called “bar”

Branch commands



• git checkout bar will switch to the branch called “bar”

• git branch -d foo will delete a branch if you change your mind about it

Branch commands


Merging


• Once you’re done with a branch, you can merge it into another:

$ git checkout master$ git merge --no-ff foo

Merging


When shouldyou branch?


• For individual features




• What does that mean, though?




• What does that mean, though?

• Generally: anything that might be put live independently



Setting up a repository


$ git init


Working with a team


A typical team setup



You



The rest of the team

You




Hub

You




Hub

Staging

You




Hub

Staging

ProductionYou


Hooks


• Scripts that run after certain events — just like actions in WordPress



• Potential uses:



• Potential uses:

• Post a message in an IRC channel when someone pushes



• Potential uses:


• Deploy to the live site when someone pushes on master



• Potential uses:


• Deploy to the live site when someone pushes on master

• Run a syntax checker/strip whitespace/etc. before commits


Git and WordPress


Things to exclude


Things to exclude

• wp-config.php


Things to exclude

• wp-config.php

• wp-uploads/* (or perhaps not…)


Things to exclude

• wp-config.php

• wp-uploads/* (or perhaps not…)

• Anything that might conceivably be different on live vs. development


Image uploads


Image uploads

• Image uploads inevitably happen on live


Image uploads


• Are they content (so should be excluded from Git)?


Image uploads


• Are they content (so should be excluded from Git)?

• Or are they layout/template related (so should be included in Git)?


Potential solutions


Potential solutions

• Ignore them — don’t have them in Git at all


Potential solutions


• Periodically add them into Git from the live server


Potential solutions



• Automate the adding of them e.g. with a WordPress hook


Potential solutions



• Automate the adding of them e.g. with a WordPress hook

• Which solution depends on the nature of your images


Plugin/core upgrades



• If they happen on live, you’ll end up with untracked files/uncommitted changes to your live files



• If they happen on live, you’ll end up with untracked files/uncommitted changes to your live files

• Doing them on live is insane regardless, so it makes double sense to stop doing it


Solutions


Solutions

• Disable upgrades/plugin installs on your live sites, do upgrades locally, then deploy to live


Solutions


• Remove install_plugins, install_themes, update_plugins, update_themes, update_core capabilities from your users on live


Solutions


• Remove install_plugins, install_themes, update_plugins, update_themes, update_core capabilities from your users on live

• define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); in your live wp-config.php


Useful resources

• “Think Like a Git”: http://think-like-a-git.net/

• GitRef: http://gitref.org/

• ProGit: http://git-scm.com/book

• Useful Git tips: http://mislav.uniqpath.com/2010/07/git-tips/

• “So, I’ve tried Git” by Ozh http://planetozh.com/blog/2012/11/so-ive-tried-git-and-its/

• Migrating an SVN repo to Git: http://john.albin.net/git/convert-subversion-to-git


http://think-like-a-git.net

http://think-like-a-git.net

http://gitref.org/

http://gitref.org/

http://git-scm.com/book

http://git-scm.com/book

http://mislav.uniqpath.com/2010/07/git-tips/

http://mislav.uniqpath.com/2010/07/git-tips/

http://planetozh.com/blog/2012/11/so-ive-tried-git-and-its/




http://john.albin.net/git/convert-subversion-to-git




Git GUIs


Git GUIs

• Use the command line first!


Git GUIs


• But on Windows: Tortoise Git


Git GUIs



• On OS X: Tower, GitBox, Gitti


Git GUIs



• On OS X: Tower, GitBox, Gitti

• On Linux: giggle, gitg, QGit


And finally…


And finally…

• Jeff’s leaving! :(


And finally…


• We’re hiring! :)


And finally…


• We’re hiring! :)

• Apply online: http://bit.ly/SZJJ8v

or email: [email protected]


http://bit.ly/SZJJ8v

http://bit.ly/SZJJ8v

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Developing with WordPress and Git

Technology

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