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Project Template - WordPress

Table of Contents

Overview

This is our project template for WordPress sites. It is configured for use with Docker Compose for local development and CircleCI for remote deployments. It uses Composer to manage project dependencies, including the WordPress core, third-party plugins (like Advanced Custom Fields Pro and WP Migrate DB Pro) and other PHP dependencies we might need. It also includes a number of helpful make targets to perform common tasks and make local development simpler and more efficient.

Local Development

We use Docker with Docker Compose for local development. Docker Compose allows us to run a multi-container Docker application simply using a Compose file and configuring our services.

In our case, we have three unique services. They are described briefly below.

Service Description
database A simple MySQL server. It requires minimal configuration. It uses two volumes on the host machine: one to initially populate the database when the container is first created and another to persist subsequent database updates to the host.
node A Node server which, once built and running, contains all our theme files. On start up, it runs npm run watch to watch for changes to our front-end assets
web A web server based on a PHP/Apache base image. This is where all our application files will reside, including WordPress core, plugins, and theme files. It uses a number of volumes to sync changes between the container and the host, but the most important is the uploads volume, which persists media library files (and other files added to the WordPress uploads directory) to the .storage/uploads on the host. It also has Composer, Node and WP-CLI installed, allowing us to update our website configuration and application dependencies quickly and easily.

Getting Started

Before running the project, you must have Docker Desktop installed on your machine. Once it is installed, just follow the two steps below to get the application running locally.

  1. Clone the project into your local directory (~/Code).

    $ git clone [email protected]:wlion/pt-wordpress-composer.git

  2. From within the project directory, run the following to generate the environment (.env) file and build and run our Docker services.

    $ make dev

Accessing the Site

Once the Docker services are running, you will be able to visit the site in your browser at the following URLs:

Note: If you attempt to visit the site too early, you may see a "Connection refused" and "Error establishing a database connection" message. This usally means you just need to wait a bit longer for the database service to be ready. Once the database is ready, you will see the following line in the logs in your terminal. Once you see it, you should be good to go.

pt-wordpress_database | Version: '5.7.30'  socket: '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock'  port: 3306  MySQL Community Server (GPL)

Connecting to the Database

To connect to the database inside the database container, first ensure the database service is running. Once you have done so, you may add the following database credentials in Sequel Pro and connect to the running database.

Field Value Note
Host 127.0.0.1
Username root
Password root Must match DB_ROOT_PASSWORD
Database wordpress Must match DB_NAME
Port 4036 Must match DB_EXTERNAL_PORT

Interacting with Docker and Containers

We have a number of make targets (defined in the Makefile) that allow us to interact with Docker and our containers more easily. Most of the targets are simply aliases for more verbose docker-compose commands, but others are particular to our preferred workflow. All targets are listed and described briefly below.

High-Level make Targets

Target Description
dev Runs env up
refresh Runs down clean-host up
rebuild Runs clean build up
rebuild-all Runs clean build-no-cache up
clean Runs clean-docker clean-host

Low-Level make Targets

Target Description
env Generates the .env file.
build Builds the Docker images for the Dockerfiles used by Docker Compose.
build-no-cache Builds the Docker images for the Dockerfiles used by Docker Compose but prevents Docker from using the layer cache.
up Builds the Docker images, creates the Docker containers and runs Docker the services.
up-d Builds the Docker images, creates the Docker containers and runs Docker the services in detached (daemon) mode.
start Starts the stopped Docker services.
restart Retarts the running Docker services.
stop Stops the running Docker services.
kill Immediately stops the running Docker services.
down Stops and removes the Docker services.
clean-docker Stops and removes the Docker services, as well as all volumes, images and orphan containers.
clean-host Removes all Docker-generated files and directories from the host machine.
ssh-web Starts and interactive shell within the web container.
ssh-database Starts and interactive shell within the database container.
export-database Exports the database (as a gzipped sql dump file) from the database container to the DB_DUMP_DIR.
import-database Imports the the gzipped sql dump file from the DB_DUMP_DIR to the database in the database container.
composer-update Updates all Composer packages and generates a new composer.lock file.
npm-update Updates all NPM packages to their latest versions, updates the package.json file and generates a new package-lock.json file.
permissions-uploads Updates permissions for the WordPress uploads (app/uploads) directory within the web container.

Things to Remember

Below are a few additional items to keep in mind when running your projects in Docker locally:

  1. Only one project can be running at a time.

    This is because we use the same external ports for each project. If you try to start a project while another is already running, you will receive an error message that another container is already using the same port. If you would like to run multiple projects at the same time, you would need to change the external web and database ports to do so.

  2. The database is only populated from the SQL dump file during the initial build.

    After the initial build, the database container will use the data from the data volume locate at .storage/data. To repopulate the database from the SQL dump file, you could either run make import-database while the container is running, or delete the .storage/data directory and then run make restart.

  3. Be cautious when running make refresh, make build, make rebuild or make clean.

    All these commands will remove the .storage directory on your host machine, which means you would lose any changes you have made to the database or uploads. So be careful and make sure you know what you are doing when using these commands.

Front-end Scripts

These are the scripts to build and watch for changes to our front-end assets, like SCSS, JS and image files in the app/themes/wlion/assets directory. To run these scripts, you will first need to change directories to the wlion theme directory (app/themes/wlion).

Note: You likely won't need to run these manually, because our node Docker container runs npm start as its startup command. But just in case, they are all documented below.

Command Description
npm start Alias for npm run watch
npm run watch Watches for changes and compile assets
npm run build Compiles assets
npm run format Runs Prettier to format all of the projects javascript/scss files (run before committing)

Advanced Custom Fields

We use the Advanced Custom Fields Pro (ACF) plugin to add custom fields to templates, build navigation menus, and manage global options and settings.

Local JSON

Because of the potential for having many developers (both internal and third party) working on a project at any given time and the need to frequently migrate field groups between a number of environments, we use a feature of ACF called Local JSON. This provides us with the most seamless development workflow and circumvents many of the conflicts that arise from the complexities mentioned above.

Adding and Updating ACF Field Groups

When developing, we follow a particular workflow to add or update ACF field groups. The goal is to maintain all field groups in version control in the form of JSON files representing each field group. To avoid any changes that could get lost by editing field groups in production or other environments, we have manually disabled the "Custom Fields" menu item (and other links to the ACF settings pages) in the admin on all environments except the local environment. Please follow the workflow below closely for best results.

  1. Sync all field groups.

    This is a key step to ensure we don't lose any changes that other developers may have made since we last synced. To do this, go to the "Custom Fields" settings in the WordPress admin and click on "Sync available" link at the top of the "Field Groups" page. (It is recommended to sync the field groups just a few at a time to avoid "504 gateway timeout" errors.)

  2. Add or edit a field group in the "Custom Fields" settings.

    Once you have synced all fields, you may begin adding and editing fields and fields groups via the WordPress admin under the "Custom Fields" menu item.

  3. Assign field groups to page templates.

    If you are working on a new field group for a particular page, DO NOT assign the field group to that specific page. This is because ACF will store a post ID as the location. Since post IDs are subject to change from environment to environment and because you will not be able to edit the field group in other environments, it is required to assign field groups to page templates.

  4. Commit your changes.

    Upon saving your field groups in the admin, all changes will be reflected in JSON files in the acf-json directory in the wlion theme. Be sure to commit these changes along with the rest of your work.

  5. Review and resolve conflicts.

    As with other code changes, your updates to the ACF field groups may come into conflict with those of another developer. Be sure to work closely with other developers who have recently worked on the same field groups to make sure you don't remove any fields they've added (or keep any fields they've removed).

  6. Deploy and test.

    Once deployed to other environments, test your updates thoroughly and make sure everything is working as expected. Remember, if you need to make further changes to field groups, you will need to make them in your local environment and re-deploy them. Since we are using ACF Local JSON, field groups in higher environments need not (and should not) be "synced" in the admin. Rather, ACF will load the field groups directly from the JSON files in the acf-json directory.

Updating the ACF Pro Plugin

We have a developer license for ACF Pro, which allows us to use the plugin on as many sites as we want. To do so, we need to make sure the license key is present in .env file as ACF_PRO_KEY, as this is what Composer will use to authenticate the account when updating. You may find the license key in the White Lion passport in Confluence.

Further ACF Reading

You can view the documention for ACF here. In addition, the following links provide more information about ACF Local JSON, as well as context for our workflow:

WP Migrate DB Pro

We use WP Migrate DB Pro to migrate data between environments. Typically, this means pulling data from the production environment to make sure we have a current version of the site data to work with. We should NEVER push data to production using the plugin. Rather, we should only pull from production into other environments (i.e., local, development, staging).

To update the plugin, similar to ACF, we must ensure the lisence keys are available for use by Composer. To do so, make sure the DELICIOUS_BRAINS_COMPOSER_API_USERNAME and DELICIOUS_BRAINS_COMPOSER_API_PASSWORD variables are present and correct in your .env file. You may find the license keys in the White Lion passport in Confluence.

CircleCI

We use CircleCI to build, test and deploy our application to remote environments.

The White Lion CircleCI dashboard may be accessed by logging in with your personal GitHub account. However, only lead/senior developers should make changes to the CircleCI configuration. Additionally, It is recommended for senior/lead developers to enable notifications for White Lion projects, so you can be notified when builds fail.

Branch Deployments

We have branch deployment support built-in to our CircleCI configuration (found in the project at .circleci/config.yml). Currently, the configuration supports three branches: review, development, and staging.

By default, the CircleCI configuration is set to watch for changes to the review branch and build and deploy the site automatically to the review server (web8.wlion.com).

The development and staging branches/environments require some additional configuration, but the default configuration assumes we will be using WP Engine for those environments. This may be changed as needed to meet the project requirements.

Production Deployment

To trigger a deployment to production, rather than simply pushing or merging to the master branch in GitHub, an additional step is required: You must create a new tag/release using the following specific format: 20XX.XX.XX.XX. Each "X" in the template above represents and integer. So, similar to our traditional tagged release workflow, a typical tag might be: 2020.06.24.01. Only tags in this format will trigger the production deployment. (To see how this is working, take a look at the deploy-production in the CircleCI configuration.)

WP-CLI

We use WP-CLI to perform common tasks in WordPress. Here are a few commands that will be helpful for you as you work on your project:

Command Description
wp core update Update the WordPress core to the latest version
wp plugin search "__PLUGIN_NAME__" Search for a plugin by name
wp plugin install "__PLUGIN_NAME__" Install a plugin by name
wp plugin update "__PLUGIN_NAME__" Update plugin by name
wp plugin update --all Update all plugins
wp search-replace "__OLD_STRING__" "__NEW_STRING__" Search and replace a specific string everywhere it appears in the database

There are many other commands that you can find in the documentation for WP-CLI.