On a Mac this can be achieved by installing homebrew and running brew install git (my preferred method), installing the Heroku Toolbelt, or downloading it from http://git-scm.com/downloads/.
On Windows you got a copy with RailsInstaller, but alternately you could get a copy from the Heroku Toolbelt, or downloading it from http://git-scm.com/downloads/.
Well out of the scope of this document. I wrote some simple instructions, or you can use GitRef.org, my preferred reference for the tricky stuff.
There are XAMPP downloads for both Mac and Windows, although I’ve never used it on the Mac; I use MAMP instead.
If you’re feeling adventurous, you could try WAMPServer or EasyPHP or something. I don’t have any experience with XAMPP; I just picked it out because quick googling suggested it was currently the most popular. There are lots of alternatives.
Download Wordpress and extract it to the directory where you want to keep this project. Then set up the database: create a new database in XAMPP/MAMP’s phpMyAdmin, and configure wp-config.php to use it. Alternately, you may want to import the database from the live application; if you do so, see step 5 below and remember to change the site URL.
From within the project directory, run:
git clone <project’s git url> .
For example, if you wanted to get the code for dd9.com, you’d run:
git clone [email protected]:DD9/dd9.git .
Don’t forget the period at the end; that clones it directly into your project directory (the same place you installed wordpress) instead of into a subdirectory where it won’t do anything. I recommend running this command after installing Wordpress, because git is better at adding files without overwriting things than your operating system probably is. I think.
Note that if we’re working on a project hosted by a third party (like HRT), you may need to run “svn checkout” instead of “git clone”, but the rest of the process should be more or less the same.
In MAMP you can set any directory you want to be your site root. Set it to your project directory. In XAMPP, as far as I can tell, the siteroot is hardcoded to \xampp\htdocs, so put your files there. XAMPP recommends working in a subdirectory. If this seems lame to you, you might want to try WAMPServer or something to see if it’s better.
And don’t forget to turn on Apache and MySQL via your MAMP/XAMPP control panel.
In MAMP, when you start the server it opens a web browser which takes you to another control panel. XAMPP does the same thing when you click the “Admin...” button. That interface should have a link to your local phpMyAdmin, where you can import the export you generated from the live application, or make an export if you’re trying to move your data in the other direction.
Note that an imported database won't work if you haven't changed the site URL. I recommend using the wp-config.php method, which consists of adding the following to wp-config.php:
define('WP_HOME','http://localhost:8888');
define('WP_SITEURL','http://localhost:8888');
If your MAMP/XAMPP's Apache isn't configured to serve on port 8888, you'll need to change the port above. Note: Port specification not required on XAMPP.
As of now, your application should theoretically be working at http://localhost:8888, or whatever URL MAMP/XAMPP is giving you. There are a bunch of things which could go wrong, however:
- Links in your application may be broken if you’re running in a subdirectory. You can put your WP site in the place of
\xampp\htdocs, and swap the old directory back in place when you need it. Personally, I think this sucks. Have we figured this out yet? - Wordpress, particularly the admin area, may not let you use it if you aren’t visiting from the original domain. Don't forget to change the site URL.
If the project you’re working on uses wpengine, you can use git for deployment, which is awesome. Set it up like this:
Your ssh key (in ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) needs to be sent in a support ticket to wpengine to be associated with our account. Without this all your attempts to connect to wpengine’s git server will fail. Ask Taavo if you aren't sure.
From within your project, run:
git remote add production [email protected]:production/<<project name>>.git
git remote add staging [email protected]:staging/<<project name>>.git
For example, if you’re working on dd9.com, those commands would look like this:
git remote add production [email protected]:production/dd9.git
git remote add staging [email protected]:staging/dd9.git
To deploy to staging, run:
git push staging
And to deploy to production run:
git push production
This will upload the latest code on your computer to wpengine and tell them to deploy it.