WordPress Development Workflow: Everything You Need to Know

Streamlining Your WordPress Development Workflow for Efficient Website Building

Introduction

WordPress, the world’s leading Content Management System (CMS), empowers countless web developers with its versatility and user-friendly interface. To optimize your WordPress development workflow and enhance project delivery efficiency, there’s an array of tools, services, and methodologies available. In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into these resources, offering insights into improving website development.

I. Local or Remote Development

When embarking on WordPress theme development, establishing an appropriate development environment is paramount. You have the option to choose between a local development environment and a remote one, each with its distinct advantages and methods.

1. Local Development Environment

A local environment entails setting up a web server on your personal computer for development purposes. This approach offers numerous benefits:

• Themes and Plugins Testing: In a local environment, you can experiment with various themes and plugin combinations without jeopardizing your live site’s stability due to compatibility issues.
• Safe Updates: Updates to WordPress core and components can be tested locally to identify any potential issues before applying them to your live site.
• Offline Work: Without an internet connection, you can work on your WordPress site comfortably, ensuring productivity even in areas with limited Wi-Fi access.
• Enhanced Performance: Local sites typically run faster, unburdened by the constraints of an online connection, contributing to an improved WordPress development workflow.
• Cost-Efficiency: Setting up a local environment can be accomplished using free software, eliminating the need for a paid staging area.

Popular Local Development Services Include:

• Local by Flywheel: A user-friendly tool for installing and deploying websites from local to remote.
• MAMP: Ideal for Mac users, it allows you to create a localhost environment on OS X, with a premium version available for added features.
• XAMPP: A free and open-source localhost PHP development environment compatible with Windows, OS X, and Linux.
• DesktopServer: Quick and easy setup, perfect for beginners, but requires an upgrade for multisite setups.
• WampServer: A popular Windows web development environment featuring Apache2, PHP, and MySQL.

While these five services are prominent, other local solutions exist to cater to your project’s specific needs.

2. Remote Development Environment

The remote environment revolves around hosting providers, where you work directly on a live website. Any changes made are immediately published, simplifying maintenance. Hosting companies today offer various advanced technologies, including synchronization across multiple servers and CLI technology. Specific WordPress-focused hosting services are also available, optimized for hosting WordPress CMS.

II. Choosing a Starter Theme

Selecting the right theme is a critical decision when building a WordPress site. With a plethora of themes available, it’s essential to differentiate between frameworks and starter themes.

1. WordPress Starter Themes

A WordPress starter theme is a bare-bones theme with minimal design, often including basic templates used in WordPress themes. These themes provide essential template files, basic CSS styles, and necessary functionalities to create a WordPress theme, allowing you to start with a solid foundation.

Notable Starter Themes:

• Underscores: A popular minimalist starter theme with ultra-minimal CSS, making it an excellent choice for those who prefer to write their own stylesheets.
• Sage: Offers more features and supports a “modern WordPress development workflow” with Gulp/Bower integration for SASS compilation.
• Genesis: A premium framework designed for child themes, known for its robust developer community and abundance of plugins.
• Bones: A beginner-friendly starter theme with well-documented CSS, suitable for developers with basic CSS/HTML knowledge.

The choice of starter theme depends on your specific requirements and familiarity with development tools and techniques.

III. Best Plugins for Development

WordPress plugins for developers play a crucial role in streamlining the development workflow. Here are ten essential plugins rated highly by developers:

1. Theme Check: Ensures your theme adheres to WordPress coding standards, helping you maintain code quality. 2. Debug Bar: Provides a centralized location for debugging, displaying critical information like query counts, execution time, and memory usage. 3. Query Monitor: Facilitates debugging of database queries, API requests, and AJAX calls, aiding in the optimization of theme functionality. 4. Monster Widget: Consolidates core WordPress widgets into one, simplifying widget testing and styling within your theme. 5. Developer: Checks and configures your development environment settings, ensuring optimal performance. 6. What The File: Allows you to identify and navigate template files used to render specific pages on the frontend. 7. Version Control: Offers a safety net for tracking changes to your WordPress site, enabling easy rollbacks and efficient collaboration.

IV. Version Control: No More Cowboy Coding

Version control is a crucial aspect of an efficient WordPress development workflow, safeguarding your project from unexpected changes and facilitating collaboration. Whether you’re working solo or with a team, version control enhances control and efficiency.

Best Practices and Tools for WordPress Version Control:

• Git: A widely-used version control system, Git allows for collaborative development and can be integrated with hosting platforms like GitHub, Bitbucket, or Gitlab.
• VersionPress: An open-source project that combines the power of Git with WordPress, tracking changes in a human-readable format.
• WP Rollback: Enables easy rollback to previous versions of themes or plugins downloaded from the WordPress repository.

V. Final Thoughts

In this comprehensive guide, we’ve explored various methods, tools, and best practices to significantly enhance your WordPress development workflow. While the specific tools may vary, core methodologies such as version control and regular backups remain constant. Share your preferred development tools and methods with us, and let’s continue to evolve the world of WordPress development together.

Remember, an efficient WordPress development workflow can boost productivity, improve code quality, and lead to more successful website projects. Share your experiences and insights with the community to foster collaboration and growth in the field of WordPress development.