WordPress base project

Project template to build modern WordPress sites, based on Studio 24 standards. Inspired by Bedrock.

Issues

Cannot load ACF Pro via Composer without exposing auth token in git repo.

See https://roots.io/guides/acf-pro-as-a-composer-dependency-with-encrypted-license-key/

Directory structure

├── composer.json
├── config
├── vendor
└── web
    ├── content
    │   ├── mu-plugins
    │   ├── plugins
    │   ├── themes
    │   └── uploads
    ├── wp-config.php
    ├── index.php
    └── wordpress

Requirements

• PHP 7.1+
• Composer

Installation

Create project

To create a new project based on this WordPress base project run the following, replacing "project" with the name of the directory you wish to create the new WordPress project in.

composer create-project studio24/wordpress-base project

TODO add to Packagist to make the above work

Apache

Copy the following to your Apache <Directory> configuration.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /
    RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Secure your upload folder by disabling PHP from running within this folder:

<Directory /path/to/web/content/uploads>
    RemoveType application/x-httpd-php .php .phtml
</Directory>

Managing WordPress via Composer

Software versions

Composer supports software updates via semantic versioning which classifies software updates into major, minor or patch versions. For example WordPress 5.0 is a major release, 5.2.0 is a minor release and 5.2.3 is a patch release.

Running composer install installs the current version of WordPress and plugins, according to what is stored in the composer.lock file. This ensures all team members are working on the same software versions.

When you run composer update it attempts to update to the latest version, according to the version constraint you have defined in your composer.json file.

We normally use the following version constraint when loading packages:

• ^5.3 marks the minimum version as 5.3 but accepts any update below 6.0
• This is equivalent to >5.3.0 <6.0.0

Adding a plugin via Composer

WordPress plugins are loaded via WordPress Packagist.

Add the required plugin to your Composer file prefixed by wpackagist-plugin/, you can find out the exact package name at WordPress Packagist.

E.g. to load ACF 5 with a minimum version of 5.8:

"wpackagist-plugin/advanced-custom-fields": "^5.8"

Adding a local plugin to your codebase

You can also just add a plugin or theme directly to your codebase, for example if you want to develop a plugin just for this website.

Simply create your plugin folder in web/content/plugins as normal. Next you need to allow these files to be added to version control

!web/content/plugins/your-plugin-name

Please note it's recommended to load any third-party plugins via Composer as noted above.

Must-use plugins

If you develop any plugins the site must have in order to operate, it is recommended you add these to the mu-plugins folder. Must-use plugins are automatically enabled and cannot be disabled.

The Base WordPress project includes mu-plugins/s24-wordpress-base.php, to help set a number of secure defaults in a WordPress install.

Please note the caveats section on the Must-use plugins documentation to see if this is a suitable solution for you.

Adding PHP packages

If you need to load a PHP package you can do so as normal via Composer. Just find the package on Packagist and add to your composer.json file.

Upgrading WordPress and WordPress plugins

Using the above version constraint (e.g. ^5.3) to update a minor or patch version run composer update

To upgrade WordPress or a plugin to a new major version, you'll need to update your version constraint in your composer.json file. E.g. to upgrade to WordPress 6.0:

"johnpbloch/wordpress" : "^6.0",

References

• Composer in WordPress

Contributions

Please do contribute! Issues and pull requests are welcome.

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.