What the heck is wp-env?

[mburridge]

I propose an article on local WordPress environments for developers with an emphasis on wp-env, explaining what it is, what the benefits of using it are, and how to use it. The post should include plenty of screenshots of wp-env in action.

Outline

Local WordPress environments
Local WP environment - what and why
A brief survey of:

• MAMP/WAMP/XAMPP
• Local (Flywheel)
• Valet (Laravel)
• DevKinsta (Kinsta)

What is wp-env?
Allows you to spin up a transitory WordPress environment from the command line.
Primarily for development.
Requires Docker.
Requires Node/NPM.

Why use wp-env?
Quick and easy way to spin up a temporary WordPress environment for testing and development.
Doesn't require a monolithic installation.
Zero config.
Provides a testing environment on port 8889

Installation
Via NPM, either globally with -g switch, or in an existing project with a package.json file as a dev dependency
Test with wp-env --version

Usage
wp-env start from project folder, or npm rum wp-env start if installed as a dev dependency
If Docker is not running you'll get an error
Can run in browser with localhost:8888 - login credentials, etc...
Stop the environment with wp-env stop
Can run WP-CLI commands with wp-env run cli [command]
Can customise environment with a .wp-env.json file

Troubleshooting
Detail various troubleshooting steps

References

• https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/packages/packages-env/
• https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/packages/packages-env/#wp-env-json

[bph]

Discussion is now locked. Please add further comments to the issue:

• What the heck is wp-env? #89

[bph]

Published: Quick and easy local WordPress development with wp-env