What is your WordPress development environment?
What tools do you use when building a WordPress site?
- text editors – plain text editor(s) and/or IDE(s) and any plugins?
- version control – do you use it, and if yes what system (Git etc)?
- browsers – what browser(s) do you mainly use for development and using which plugins and extensions?
- file transfer – FTP client?
- local server – LAMP or other stack/system?
- graphics – GIMP, Photoshop, etc?
- operating system – Linux, Mac, Windows or something else?
- anything else – what else is in your development toolkit?
Mark Wilkinson 1258 on Thursday 13 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Text Editor => Coda 2
Version Control => Git, using Github for larger projects and collaboration
Browsers => Mainly Safari and also Chrome. Testing in IE on a Windows Laptop – no real plugins used
FTP => use the client in Coda 2 if I need FTP
Local Server => MAMP synced with Dropbox
Graphics => Fireworks at the moment although this is no longer going to be released and supported in the future so need to get better with Illustrator
OS => Mac OS X
Anything Else => DeployHQ for deploying Github repositories to a staging and production servers. Github for Mac to manage Git commits
milesg 1304 on Thursday 13 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
PHP / HTML – Sublime Text 3
Version Control – errr.. Dropbox (I know, I know)
Browsers – Chrome about 90% of the time (love Chrome DevTools), with Firefox and some IE testing as required. I also use Saucelabs who offer pretty cheap hosted testing on a large range of browsers and devices (iOS, Android, etc.)
FTP – FileZilla
Local server – AMPPS
Graphics – Mainly Fireworks with some Illustrator and Photoshop
OS – OSX 10.9
Not really a framework per se, but I use Skeleton (http://www.getskeleton.com), a lightweight responsive grid / CSS reset. Also jQuery, but that’s almost a given these days.
I recently (on Jan 3rd) changed from being a veteran (started with Win3.1) Windows user to a Macbook Pro. So far, the transition has been really easy. Because most of the stuff I use (Sublime, Chrome, Fireworks, etc) is available for both platforms, it was more straightforward than I’d dared to hope.
What prompted me to make the leap? Windows 8 and the fact that there some of the new stuff hits the Mac first (Macaw, Sketch, etc).
I used to use WAMP on my Windows machines, but MAMP seemed inferior when I cracked open OSX for the first time, so looking around I found AMPPS, which seems really great – you can one click install WordPress locally, it’s free and (gasp) supported.
Terminal Pixel 1306 on Thursday 13 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I run what I think is a pretty modern setup:
Text editor = SublimeText3
Version control = git, usually just on the theme / custom plugins
Browser = Chrome + LiveReload + Vrome for keyboard shortcuts
FTP = Try to stay away from it, wp deploy flow for deployment
Local server = Lamp stack, liked vagrant but virtual machine seemed too slow to me
Graphics = Gimp, but have photoshop just to cut photoshop files
OS = Arch Linux
Anything Else = Heavy use of grunt, sass/compass, bower and livereload, planning on getting requirejs in there somewhere as well in the near future
milesg 1309 on Thursday 13 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
LiveReload is great, must have delayed the onset of RSI in my finger by at least 3 years already.
Ian Anderson Gray 1329 on Thursday 13 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Brilliant question. I’m currently trying to improve my work flow.
Up until recently I’ve been very frustrated by my way of working, but was finding it difficult to move forwards. I was still using Dreamweaver and FTPing up to either a live or dev version of the WP site on our virtual server. No version control either. However, we’re all learning aren’t we?!
So, here is where I am currently:
text editors – Sublime Text 3
version control – Git. Currently using the GitHub GUI for Windows, but pushing to BitBucket. Once I’ve got my head round that I’ll try and have a go with command line Git.
browsers – Chrome. I use Firebug lite, Web Developer, MeasureIt, ColorPicker, WhatFont
file transfer – I want to get away from FTP, but reluctantly using FileZilla
local server – Still pushing via FTP to dev site on server. I really want to move to a local server, but need some help with this
graphics – We have a Adobe Creative Cloud subscription (it pains me to give money to Adobe)- so I use Photoshop
operating system – I run Windows 8 64 bit (with Start8). My virtual server uses CENTOS and has PHP 5.4 with MYSQL.
I develop all my WordPress websites using the Roots starter theme- http://roots.io/
I am using their Grunt script which automatically minifies javascript and compiles LESS into one css file.
This is not for everyone- it did my head in the first time I played with it, but I simply love it now. It gives you a wonderfully clean WordPress theme with what I like to think are the best best practices. I won’t go on about for now.
I want to improve my knowledge of Git but more importantly I want to be able have a local environment. One tool that I’d love to set up is Vagrant. This allows you to quickly set up a virtual machine on your computer (it doesn’t matter whether you are a Linux, Windows or Mac user). It uses VirtualBox and you can access the virtual server’s files on your local machines- they used shared folders. That way I can use SublimeText on my Windows machine to edit the files, but I can view the site running on my local virtual machine. The only problem is that I haven’t worked out how to do this yet.
I’m looking forwards to the Bedrock WP stack at Roots which will have Vagrant as part of it.
@wpmark 1347 on Thursday 13 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
RT @wpunitedkingdom: What is your WordPress development environment? http://t.co/Wykr5XeIdY
@alexkwatson 1354 on Thursday 13 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
What is your WordPress development environment? Interesting discussion: http://t.co/MOFpSLdsuT
treb0r 1400 on Thursday 13 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
OS: Ubuntu
Text Editor: Sublime text 2
Browsers: Firefox and Chromium
Local Server: Virtualbox running Debian
Framework: Roots + Bedrock. I really love both of these, I think those roots guys are amazing.
Version Control: Git
FIle Transfer: Only ever SSH/SCP
Graphics: Gimp (Trying to stay away from Adobe).
Also, my business partner and I are trying to do only ‘in browser’ design with Bootstrap. No more trying to make pixel perfect versions of pretty website mockups drawn in Photoshop or Illustrator! Using Grunt as part of roots also.
treb0r 1406 on Thursday 13 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
…and I forgot to mention Pods. (http://pods.io). If you’ve not tried it recently, do. It’s amazing what you can achieve with it, it’s released under the GPL, and the project is sponsored by Automattic too.
javorszky 1454 on Thursday 13 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
What tools do use when building a WordPress site?
text editors – Sublime Text 3 with the usuals: git sidebar, git gutter, sass, jshint, sftp
version control – git with github for OS stuff and bitbucket for in-house dev
browsers – chrome, firefox, opera, safari, IE8-9-10-11 on Virtual machines through virtualbox
file transfer – wbond’s SFTP plugin for ST3, Transmit 4 by Panic or http://www.deployhq.com
local server – MAMP
graphics – Photoshop, Sketch
operating system – Mac osx 10.9
anything else – lots of grunt.js and command line, wp themes are based off of Foundation 4 by Zurb, sass
graham 1525 on Thursday 13 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Happy to share my working environment:
text editors – Homesite 4.5 – yes an antique now but it’s great and I love that you can program your own macros and shortcuts. Occasionally use Notepad++
version control – Currently string and paperclips, but flirting with GIT and Bitbucket
browsers – Chrome for Inspect Element, Firefox (+developer toolbar), IE, Safari on iPad, Chrome on Android
file transfer – FileZilla
local server – XAMPP. I have tried using Instant WP but I found it’s very resource hungry.
graphics – Photoshop
operating system – Windows 7
anything else – WAVE and other accessibility and developer add-ons for Firefox, screen readers – NVDA + JAWS, Voiceover on Safari on iPad, Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice recognition software, colour contrast analyzer. I also use Responsinator to help with responsive sites. When building WP sites I have a starter theme that’s pretty accessible ready that I hack about.
herb 1646 on Thursday 13 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
My WordPress development environment is currently:
http://herbmiller.me/about/my-wordpress-development-environment/
Having read all the comments so far I added a new page: what’s not in my development environment
http://herbmiller.me/about/my-wordpress-development-environment/whats-development-environment/
and I’ve updated my page on WordPress plugins I use:
http://herbmiller.me/about/my-wordpress-development-environment/wordpress-plugins/
stephen 1709 on Thursday 13 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Open source for the win :)
OS: Ubuntu
Text Editor: Eclipse IDE / gedit
Version control: Git.
Browsers: Chromium / Firefox
Local Server: LAMP
Version Control: Git
FIle Transfer: Filezilla – but I deploy with git :)
Graphics: Gimp
Other: I use grunt for development, and I use grunt templates for creating base themes/plug-ins. And I needn’t mention Query Monitor…
Davinian 1758 on Thursday 13 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Good question and good suggestions. I use:
text editors – Espresso and Sublime
version control – Git and change log/notes saved in Evernote
browsers – Firefox, Chrome, Safari (Virtualbox with IE 8, 9, 10)
file transfer – Transmit and Espresso
local server – MAMP Pro synced with DropBox (host files hacked in VMs to access Macs localhost) Run a number of networks to avoid duplicating themes and plugins.
graphics – Always Photoshop
operating system – Mac, Windows in VMs, playing with Linux
I also use Lastpass and Xmarks to keep bookmarks/passwords synced between browsers. Sequel Pro to access/backup remote db, and a local P2 WordPress site for a day book/log.
Adam M. 1910 on Thursday 13 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
text editors – Aptana Studio
version control – Git
browsers – FireFox with FireBug and SQLite Manager
file transfer – FileZilla, but generally git clone
local server – XAMPP
graphics – Paint.NET, IrfanView, InkScape
operating system – Windows
anything else – a decent internet connection and StackOverflow!
Tony Scott 2112 on Sunday 16 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Many thanks for the great contributions – anyone else?
Here’s my core setup:
Mike Little 1241 on Monday 17 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Text editor- Epsilon Programmer’s Editor (http://lugaru.com)
Version Control – Subversion and Git(Hub)
Browsers – Chrome (98%), Firefox, Opera, Safari, Dolphin, IE (if I have to)
Local Servers – Ubuntu LAMP on VMWare Fusion, Ubuntu LEMP (nginx instead of Apache) on Vagrant/VBox (VVV)
File Transfer – Rsync, SCP, Filezilla
Graphics – GIMP
Remote Servers – Ubuntu LAMP (using Epsilon via ssh), Ubuntu LEMP (using Epsilon via SSH)
OS: Mavericks (OS X 10.9.1), Ubuntu (10.4/12.4), Windows 7 (when I have to)
IDE – Trying to get into PHPStorm
Others tools – BASH and all the Linux command line tools, WP-CLI (just starting to use)
References – WP source code, Google.
rhys 1521 on Wednesday 19 February 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
text editors – Submlime Text 2
version control – Git via SourceTree connected to Bitbucket
browsers – Chrome with Ayima’s Header Checker, Colour Picker & FireShot.
file transfer – FileZilla
local server – Ampps
graphics – Fireworks
operating system – Windows 7
anything else – Tea/Beer (dependant on the time of day)
TCBarrett 2248 on Friday 28 March 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Until recently, this would have been representative of my most commonly used environment:
text editors – vim
version control – SVN and GIT
browsers – firefox + chrome developer tools, firebug,
file transfer – anything over ssh (ssh, scp, rsync)
local server – N/A – Ubuntu VPS
graphics – MS Paint
operating system – Linux, Mac and Windows
anything else – bunch of bash scripts and WP plugins
But I’m exploring new things now :)
John 1657 on Tuesday 8 April 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Well, a bit late to the party but my development environment includes…
Text Editor – Sublime Text 2 (with Monokai Bright colour scheme and Emmet, CSSTidy, HTMLTidy, PHPTidy & WordPress extensions to name a few)
Version Control – Git (GitHub)
Browsers – Chrome (with WhatFont?, CSSViewer, ColorPicker, Resolution Test & Dimensions), Firefox, BrowserStack and Modern.IE Virtual Boxes.
File Transfer – Transmit
Local server – MAMP
Graphics – Adobe Fireworks CS6
OS – OS X Mavericks on 11″ MacBook Air
Anything Else – CodeKit (Sass/Compass & Live Reload) & Navicat Essentials for MySQL and a device library including iPads (iPad 2 & Mini), iPhones (3G, 4 & 5), Galaxy SIII & some Nokia Windows phone.
Dev Fuel – Pic n Mix , Pringles and JD & Coke
Paul Oaten 1808 on Tuesday 8 April 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Text editor- Sublime Text 2
Version Control – Git + BitBucket, Tower
Browsers – Chrome, Firefox, Safari, IE
Local Servers – MAMP, Desktopserver (ServerPress)
File Transfer – Forklift
Graphics – Pixelmator, Photoshop
OS: Mavericks (OS X 10.9.1)
Others tool – WP-CLI, Dandelion Deploy
Twinings Everyday Tea (strong)