Dev Environments and Version Control: Dec 2014 meetup

We talked about Development Environments and Version Control at our Dec 18, 2014 meetup. We talked about ServerPress, Git, and developing locally. Below are the notes.

DesktopServer

Gregg Franklin gave a demo of DesktopServer, a local server package which runs on Mac and Windows. He showed how to create and manage local development sites. He also showed how to deploy local sites to servers. Here’s a video of Gregg’s demo:

Git and developing locally

Brian Richards spoke about Git and developing locally. Here’s his presentation. Below it are notes from the talk.

Advice

• You should develop locally so you can test locally, not on live site.
• You should use Git even if you work solo, because of version control.
• Commit messages should be short but descriptive.
• Commits should be atomic: change one thing at a time.
• Git stores only the changes that have been made; SVN duplicates files.
• Brian doesn’t use WordPress as submodule; has run into issues. Checks in root and everything inside it, except wp-uploads.
• Brian doesn’t store database in Git.
• Always check out changes before you make your commit.

Resources

• Git: version control system
• Dploy.io: deploy from GitHub, Bitbucket or your own repositories to one or many servers in one click
• SourceTree: Git GUI
• Github: Git host
• Beanstalk: Git host
• Bitbucket: Git host
• gitignore.io: Create useful .gitignore files for your project
• WP Migrate DB Pro: Copy your database from one WordPress install to another with one click in your dashboard
• Dictator: a package built on top of wp-cli that allows you to export configuration files straight from the command line
• Git troubleshooting flowchart
• Sequel Pro: a fast, easy-to-use Mac database management application for working with MySQL databases.
• WP-CLI: a set of command-line tools for managing WordPress installations

Announcements

• WordSesh: 24 hours of WordPress talks. Live on Dec 20, 2014, and recorded for later viewing. Brian Richards and WPSessions are participating.
• Topher DeRosia made an exciting announcement about something WordPress-related. Follow or contact him for details.
• Duane Weed is looking to feature more videos about Michigan on DW Video. Contact him for details.