WordPress is the world‘s most popular content management system, powering over 40% of all websites. GitHub is the leading platform for version control and collaboration among developers. While they serve different purposes, integrating WordPress with GitHub unlocks powerful benefits for WordPress developers.
By hosting WordPress theme and plugin code on GitHub, you can take advantage of robust version control, making it easy to track changes and revert to earlier versions if needed. GitHub‘s collaboration tools also allow multiple developers to work on the same codebase without conflicts.
But the benefits don‘t stop there. You can use GitHub Actions to automate WordPress deployments. Or generate a static HTML version of your WordPress site and host it for free with GitHub Pages. In this guide, we‘ll show you how to do all of this and more. Let‘s get started!
How to Set Up a WordPress Development Environment
The first step to start developing WordPress locally on your computer. Why develop locally? It gives you a safe, private space to work on code changes without affecting a live website.
While you can set this up manually, the easiest method is to use a tool like Local by Flywheel. Local enables you to spin up new WordPress sites with just a few clicks. Here‘s how:
- Download and install Local on your computer
- Open the app and click the button to add a new site
- Enter a name for your local site and set the environment (preferred: Preferred)
- Choose your WordPress username and password
- Click to initialize the site and wait for Local to complete the setup process
Once Local finishes, you‘ll have a fully functional WordPress site running on your computer. You can log into the WordPress dashboard by clicking the "WP Admin" button in Local.
Setting Up a GitHub Repository for WordPress
With your local development environment ready, the next step is to connect it to GitHub. We‘ll start by installing Git on your computer if you don‘t have it already.
Windows installation:
- Go to the Git website downloads page
- Download the Windows installer and run it
- Go through the installer, keeping all default options
macOS installation:
- Install Homebrew if you don‘t have it (instructions here)
- Open Terminal and run: brew install git
After installing Git, open GitHub.com and create a new repository to store your WordPress theme or plugin code. Give it a descriptive name and choose to initialize it with a README file.
Next, open the GitHub Desktop client, sign in, and clone the new repository to your computer. Choose a location that makes sense, such as inside your Local by Flywheel site folder.
With your local Git repository ready, move your WordPress theme or plugin folder into it. Then open the GitHub Desktop client to commit your code and push it to GitHub.
Congratulations, your WordPress code is now version controlled on GitHub! You can make changes locally, write descriptive commit messages, and push the changes to keep the remote repository synced.
Benefits of Integrating WordPress With GitHub
So what exactly do you gain by connecting WordPress development with GitHub? Here are a few key advantages:
Better version control. With your WordPress code on GitHub, you get a complete history of every change along with who made it and when. If something breaks, you can quickly see what changed and revert back. No more losing work or wrestling with unwieldy shared folders!
Streamlined collaboration. Need multiple developers to contribute to a theme or plugin? GitHub makes it easy for everyone to work on the same codebase asynchronously. Developers can fork the main repository, make changes on a branch, and open a pull request for review before merging.
Free static hosting. GitHub offers free static website hosting through its GitHub Pages service. You can use a plugin like Simply Static to convert a WordPress site to HTML and deploy it to GitHub Pages for a fast, free, secure hosting solution.
Automated deployments. Don‘t want to manually move code changes from GitHub to your live WordPress site? Plugins like WP Pusher can automatically deploy GitHub commits, streamlining the whole process.
We‘ll look at some of these benefits in more detail later. But hopefully you can already see how GitHub can provide a real productivity boost to WordPress development.
Managing WordPress Theme & Plugin Code on GitHub
The GitHub Desktop client provides an intuitive visual interface for Git-based version control. Here‘s a quick overview of the key features and workflows for WordPress theme and plugin development.
Once you have a local repository linked to a remote GitHub repo, you‘ll see all the code files on the left side of the app. As you make changes in your preferred code editor, GitHub Desktop will detect and highlight them.
Before you‘re ready to push your local changes up to GitHub, it‘s important to write a descriptive commit message explaining what you changed and why. This context makes it much easier to understand the progression of the codebase over time.
Once you‘ve written the commit message, click the "Commit to main" button to commit the changes locally. Then click the "Push origin" button to sync your local changes to the remote GitHub repository.
If you‘re collaborating with other developers on a project, they can pull down your changes from the remote repository to their local environment. They can also make their own commits and push them up to keep everyone in sync.
This distributed workflow helps multiple developers contribute to the same WordPress theme or plugin codebase without stepping on each other‘s toes. It‘s a huge improvement over emailing code files back and forth!
Simplify Deployments With WP Pusher
Using GitHub to manage your WordPress code is extremely useful. But what about when it‘s time to deploy changes to a live production site?
While you can manually copy the updated code files to your live server, a WordPress plugin called WP Pusher makes the process much simpler. It lets you deploy themes and plugins directly from a GitHub repository with just a few clicks.
Here‘s how to set it up:
- Install the free WP Pusher plugin on your live WordPress site
- Go to WP Pusher > GitHub in the WordPress dashboard and click the "Obtain a GitHub token" button
- Authorize WP Pusher to access your GitHub account
- Copy the provided token and paste it back on the WP Pusher > GitHub page
- Go to WP Pusher > Install Theme or Install Plugin depending on what you want to deploy
- Enter the repository URL, branch (main/master), and check the box for automatic updates on new pushes to GitHub
- Click "Install Theme/Plugin" and WP Pusher will pull the code directly from your GitHub repository
Now whenever you push an update to your theme or plugin repository on GitHub, WP Pusher can automatically update the files on your live WordPress site as well. No more manual FTP uploads!
The free version of WP Pusher works with public GitHub repositories. If you need to use a private repository, there are premium plans starting at $69/year for a single site.
While having a live staging site to test updates before pushing to production is ideal, WP Pusher provides a quick way to deploy code changes managed on GitHub. It can be a real timesaver for smaller WordPress projects.
Host a Static WordPress Site for Free With GitHub Pages
Did you know you can host static websites for free on GitHub? It‘s part of a service called GitHub Pages and it‘s a great option for simple WordPress sites that don‘t need a ton of dynamic functionality.
The key is converting your WordPress site into static HTML files. Basically, this process generates a standalone version of your pages and posts as they would appear in a web browser, minus the WordPress backend.
There are a few different WordPress plugins that can handle the HTML export process, but one of the best is Simply Static. It‘s flexible, easy to use, and has a one-time $99 payment for lifetime updates and support.
Here‘s how the process works:
- Set up a new GitHub repository for your static site and clone it locally
- Install Simply Static on the WordPress site you want to convert
- Go to Simply Static > Settings and enter your GitHub Pages URL
- For Delivery Method, choose "Local Directory" and set the path to your local GitHub repository folder
- Go to Simply Static > Generate and click "Generate Static Files"
- The plugin will export your WordPress site as static HTML files in your local GitHub repository folder
- Commit and push the changes with the GitHub Desktop client to deploy your site to GitHub Pages
That‘s it! Your WordPress site is now available as a static site hosted for free through GitHub Pages. The export process retains your WordPress theme styles, so the site looks the same as before.
Simply Static also handles redirects so internal links still work. And there are options to password protect pages, exclude certain sections from the export, and lots more.
Any time you update content in WordPress, just run the Simply Static export again and push the changes to update your GitHub Pages site. For small, infrequently updated sites, this can provide an easy, low-maintenance hosting solution.
The main drawback is that static HTML sites won‘t have WordPress plugins or dynamic elements like forms and shopping carts. But for basic blogs or portfolios with a few pages, going static can greatly simplify the hosting and maintenance required.
Other Useful WordPress GitHub Plugins
We‘ve covered a couple key WordPress plugins for GitHub integration in this guide, but there are a few other tools worth mentioning:
VersionPress is an ambitious plugin that aims to bring full version control to the entire WordPress site, including the database. It‘s a two-way sync, so you can undo changes made in the WordPress dashboard or push updates from Git back to the live site. While still in beta, it‘s a promising option for developers who want Git-level version control of everything in WordPress.
WP Snapshots is a simpler plugin that lets you create restore points for rolling back changes within the WordPress admin area. You can label snapshots and quickly revert if something breaks. While not Git-based, it can provide an extra level of security during WordPress development.
GitHub Updater enables installing and updating WordPress themes and plugins directly from GitHub repositories. Pair it with a service like Hookdeck to automatically trigger updates whenever you push changes to GitHub. An alternative to WP Pusher if you prefer a more lightweight solution.
Conclusion: Transform Your WordPress Development With GitHub
If you build WordPress websites, adopting GitHub can seriously level up your development workflow. Between version control, collaboration tools, automated deployment options, and even free static hosting, it‘s a key toolkit for WordPress developers.
While there‘s undoubtedly a learning curve to Git and GitHub, tools like the GitHub Desktop client and WP Pusher aim to streamline the experience. Take the time to experiment with pulling your WordPress themes and plugins into version control. The benefits are well worth the initial setup!
Hopefully this in-depth guide provided a thorough overview of why GitHub is so valuable for WordPress development, along with step-by-step instructions on implementing it. Start managing your WordPress code on GitHub and enjoy easier collaboration, worry-free experimentation, and a more efficient overall development workflow.