Applications and their environments

The WPVIP Platform supports WordPress single site, WordPress multisite, and Node.js applications.

At a minimum, every application has a production environment. Applications typically also have non-production—or “child”—environments (e.g. preprod and develop). Non-production environments should be used for testing and developing code for new features, and bug fixes, as well as testing version upgrades for software and plugins.

All web containers for environments run in read-only mode. WPVIP supplies each application with a GitHub repository to deploy code to its environments, and provides tooling (i.e. VIP Dashboard and VIP-CLI) for managing environment settings.

Software management for environments

Versions of software—like WordPress, PHP, and Node.js—that are running on an environment can be managed in the VIP Dashboard or with VIP-CLI. Only versions of software that are eligible for security updates will be available to choose from.

As updated versions of software are released, WPVIP will ensure that they are available for your team to select and begin upgrade testing as soon as possible. WPVIP will also automatically deploy any security patches for current software versions or other protections as they become available to mitigate critical vulnerabilities.

Code moves up; content moves down

WPVIP’s infrastructure is built to support a “Code moves up; content moves down” development workflow for WordPress and Node.js applications.

Code moves upward (develop → production).

All new code should initially be deployed to non-production environments where development teams can perform tests and make adjustments as-needed. Developers should confirm that the code is error-free and working as expected before the code is moved upward and deployed to the production environment.

Content (database and media files) moves downward (production → develop).

Every WordPress environment has its own unique database instance. The database of the production environment is the authoritative source of content, storing the most current content changes. WPVIP’s tooling only allows databases to be synced from production downward to non-production environments. Moving content in one direction protects the production database from overwrites and data loss.

Similarly, media files associated with an environment are stored in the VIP File System. The VIP File System has a built-in feature to automatically share the media files associated with a production environment with its non-production environments after a data sync. This simplifies the process to make a non-production environment nearly identical to production.