WordPress development Vancouver

Starting development on a new website requires us careful and thorough planning. We decide how to approach the “under construction” phase of the project. We probably need to protect the site under development from potential visitors. This is where a development environment can come in handy. This type of environment gives us a place to do all the design and programming work on your new site. Without anyone accidentally seeing it. Then, we can launch it live when it’s completely ready. In this article, we’ll take a look at two different types of WordPress development in Vancouver environments and also show you how we start with both options.

Local vs remote WordPress development In Vancouver environment

There are two main types of development environments that we might use when building a WordPress website. Keep in mind that regardless of whether you choose to use a local or remote environment, both will require all the software WordPress needs to function properly including, for example, database applications and code libraries. 

Developing locally means that all your WordPress plugins and theme files will be saved on your computer, along with the core WordPress files. You will be able to view your development work in a browser, just as if you were accessing a website on the Internet. However, the files will be called from your computer, rather than from your site’s hosting server. 

A remote WordPress development in Vancouver environment is essentially the same thing, but all files will be stored and retrieved from a remote location. This means you will need to set up or purchase storage. Unlike regular website hosting, however, this remote location will only be accessible to you or your development team. 

One of the main benefits of using local development for WordPress is that you don’t need to be connected to the internet to be able to work on your website while remote development requires a connection but it’s the best choice if you want to access your work from any computer. 

Advantages of a remote WordPress development In Vancouver environment

As already mentioned, a remote WordPress development in Vancouver environment allows you to access your projects from anywhere, all you need is an internet connection and your login information.

Additionally, you may be able to implement version control features, depending on the remote environment application you decide to use. This means that you are less likely to run into problems when developing with a team. 

How to set up a remote development environment

Setting up a remote development environment can be a little more complicated than creating a local environment. but it is by no means out of reach. 

Step 1: Choose and configure a remote development application

There are several remote development tools that you can use. What you need is virtual storage to store all your site’s files and applications, as well as the software needed to make it work. This is where you can work through each of your development stages, without bringing the site into a live production state until you’re ready.

To do this, you can use a product such as DigitalOcean or Visual Studio : 

These tools differ in what they offer, but ultimately they perform the same task. With Visual Studio Code, for example, you will have a sophisticated code editor that can become a development environment through the integration of remote extensions. 

You can also use Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) for remote development: 

After selecting the virtual environment or cloud-based solution, you need to make sure it is configured to support WordPress development. 

Step 2: Install any necessary tools and plugins

Regardless of the remote development environment you choose, there is a specific stack of applications that you will need to set up WordPress, including: 

• Linux  . The operating system (OS) needed to run WordPress. We’ll get into the specs later when we talk about local development environments, but if the following three are present, they can also work with other operating systems such as Mac and Windows. 
• Apache . With a live website, the web server layer is where browser requests are met and returned to website users. This is also the case in a development environment. The only difference is that your server is not pointing to an active domain. 
• MySQL  . MySQL is the most popular and free database solution and is essential for the WordPress development environment.
• PHP  . All other elements in the stack need a ‘voice’, and this is where PHP comes in. Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) is the language required for WordPress to function. 

These applications are called ” LAMP stacks ” and can be added to remote development environments in various ways. If you are using DigitalOcean, for example, you will work with Droplets to create the LAMP stack for WordPress: 

If you’re using Amazon EC2, the WordPress development setup is a little more cumbersome, but it can be done in about five minutes .

Regardless of which environment you choose, you will need the LAMP stack to start WordPress development. Fortunately, many remote development options include LAMP as an easy installation option, saving you time and hassle.

Step 3: Log into your environment

The most common way to access your development environment is via Secure Shell (SSH). Here’s how to connect to your server from any computer. And take advantage of the “remote” aspect of this approach to WordPress development. 

The specifics of how you connect will depend on the product you choose. 

Advantages of a local development environment

One of the biggest benefits of using a local development environment is that you don’t need to be connected to the Internet to access it. You can work on your site from anywhere and you won’t be hampered by connectivity issues.

Local development also allows you to work in a safer environment. As you will be able to keep your projects under control until you are ready to go live.