Development workflow

An application’s code on the VIP Platform can only be modified using a version-controlled GitHub development workflow. There is no SFTP access to an application’s code or other related assets.

An application is supplied with a GitHub repository within the wpcomvip GitHub organization. Each of the application’s VIP Platform environments tracks a specific branch of its GitHub repository. 

When developing code locally that requires Node.js—such as plugins or themes for a WordPress application—it is recommended that Node.js on the local development is maintained at a Long Term Support (LTS) release version. The resulting artifact from code built locally is then committed to the application’s GitHub repository as static assets. Node.js is not run on VIP WordPress environments.

Build and deploy

Code that is committed to a WordPress environment’s deploy branch should contain all needed assets. On deploy, no additional building is done except for submodule includes. When using composer, for example, code should be committed to a branch only after running composer install. An alternative to this is to set up a continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) method.

For branches already set up with continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) (-built branches), merged changes to a develop branch, for example, will first be built in Travis or CircleCI and then pushed directly from there to the develop-built branch. The built code will then be deployed automatically.

For Node.js environments, there is a build step and certain other requirements. Code changes will only deploy (and replace any existing running code) if that code is successfully built. Review the requirements carefully and test them locally before merging to a production branch.