WP Environments

This plugin allows you to set up different environments for your WordPress site. It is useful for when you have a development site and a production site, and you want to be able to easily distinguish between environments.

Installation

Composer (recommended)

The plugin isn't published on Packagist, so add it as a VCS repository in your site's composer.json:

"repositories": [
    { "type": "vcs", "url": "https://github.com/gosuperrad/wp-environments" }
]

Then require it:

composer require superrad/wp-environments:^1.0

The plugin pulls in composer/installers, so it lands in your plugins directory automatically — web/app/plugins/wp-environments/ on Bedrock, wp-content/plugins/wp-environments/ otherwise — and resolves the latest v1.x tag. Use dev-main instead of ^1.0 to track the main branch. (This repo is public, so no auth is needed; a private clone would need a GitHub token in auth.json or SSH.)

Manual

1. Download wp-environments.zip from the latest release.
2. In the WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin and upload the zip (or unzip it into wp-content/plugins/).
3. Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu.

Configure

Set the environment type in wp-config.php:

define( 'WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE', 'local' ); // local | development | staging | production

Usage

The plugin will add a colored bar to the top of the admin bar. The color of the bar will depend on the environment type.

The default colors are:

1. Local:

   • Color: Green
   • Rationale: Local is usually the starting point for most developers, and green is often associated with safety and a starting point. It signifies that changes here don't affect anyone else.

2. Development:

   • Color: Blue
   • Rationale: Blue is calming and denotes that while it's beyond the local environment, it's a place for testing and iteration without major consequences.

3. Staging:

   • Color: Purple
   • Rationale: Purple sets staging visibly apart from the other environments. Staging is typically a pre-production environment that mirrors production as closely as possible — the last line of defense before going live — so it gets its own unmistakable color.

4. Production:

   • Color: Red
   • Rationale: Red typically denotes danger or a need for caution. In the context of web development or software, it indicates that any changes or issues here have real-world consequences for users.