{"id":9180,"date":"2022-05-31T13:17:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T11:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zeni.cz\/?p=9180"},"modified":"2024-07-10T10:55:09","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T08:55:09","slug":"wp-cli-manage-wordpress-websites-better-and-faster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeni.cz\/en\/blog-o-wordpress-woocommerce\/wordpress-development\/wp-cli-manage-wordpress-websites-better-and-faster\/","title":{"rendered":"WP-CLI \u2013 Manage WordPress Websites Better and Faster"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WP-CLI allows you to manage websites using simple commands without needing to navigate trough many pages in WordPress administration. Whether you are a developer or administrator, WP-CLI can save you a lot of time and even get inaccessible website back to life.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

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What Is WP-CLI? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

WP-CLI is command line interface<\/a> for WordPress. That means that it defines commands, that you can execute on your server, that you can use to performs common actions. Tasks like managing posts, users, plugins, themes<\/strong> and website options<\/strong> can be achieved in<\/strong> the command<\/strong> line. We will have a look at some practical use cases<\/strong> in this article.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

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How Can You Use WP-CLI? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

WP-CLI is not included<\/strong> in WordPress<\/strong> installation by default<\/strong>. Luckily a lot of WordPress hosting providers have already adopted this tool and made it accessible to its users. You can find out if this feature is included in details<\/strong> of your hosting plan<\/strong> or you can contact<\/strong> your hosting provider<\/strong>. WP-CLI is also included in<\/strong> Trellis<\/a> that we use to manage servers for our clients at Zeni<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you find out that you do not have access to WP-CLI<\/strong> on your server,  assuming you have SSH access to your server<\/strong> or you want play with WP-CLI locally <\/strong>on you computer, you can get it working using just few commands<\/strong>. On the OS X<\/strong> and Linux<\/strong> this can get you to fully working WP-CLI in no time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

curl -O https:\/\/raw.githubusercontent.com\/wp-cli\/builds\/gh-pages\/phar\/wp-cli.phar\nchmod +x wp-cli.phar\nsudo mv wp-cli.phar \/usr\/local\/bin\/wp<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
If you use Windows<\/strong>, or you are interested in different installing methods<\/strong> you can have a look at WordPress Documentation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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Speed up Time Consuming Tasks With WP-CLI <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
There are many administrative tasks<\/strong> in WordPress<\/strong>, that require you to perform multiple repetitive actions<\/strong> to get you to your goal. That might include a lot of page loads <\/strong>and clicks<\/strong> and take you couple of minutes<\/strong> in some case maybe hours. Thanks to WP-CLI<\/strong>, you can perform these tasks lot of easier<\/strong>. Especially bulk actions<\/strong> like for example managing multiple plugins or media can be speed up with WP-CLI<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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Install Multiple Plugins at Once <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Are you just starting with the fresh site and you want to install multiple plugins<\/strong> that you regularly use or you just received request to install few new plugins? Using WP-CLI<\/strong> this will only take you to write single command<\/strong>. Following command installs 2 plugins and activates them thanks to activate <\/code>flag:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
wp plugin install bbpress classic-editor --activate<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This command also allows for passing zip archives<\/strong> with the plugins, for example here below. Local paths<\/strong> are supported too:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
wp plugin install https:\/\/example.com\/plugin.zip<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Using wp plugin<\/code> command can achieve much more<\/strong>, for example updating all the plugins<\/strong> on your website. I highly recommend to have a detailed look at the documentation<\/strong> of wp plugin command<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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Bulk Import Media <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
You can easily import multiple media<\/strong> using simple command<\/strong>. Here we are going to import <\/strong>all JPG filesin<\/strong> the user<\/strong> pictures folder<\/strong>. This will copy<\/strong> the files from<\/strong> the original<\/strong> folder and automatically register them as attachments<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
wp media import ~\/Pictures\/**\\\/*.jpg<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
 If you are interested in more media oriented commands<\/strong> you can have a look to command wp media<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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Managing Users <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
wp user <\/code> command helps with all of tasks related to managing users<\/strong>. Here is an example for creating user<\/strong> daniel<\/code> with mail address daniel@zeni.cz<\/code> and role administrator. I have used this exact command countless times when there was new project<\/strong> that i have worked on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
wp user create daniel daniel@zeni.cz --role=administrator<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Managing user passwords, roles, capabilities<\/strong> and more<\/strong> is very convenient thanks to WP-CLI. If you are interested in user management, here you can find more <\/a>about command wp user<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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WP-CLI and Dealing With Technical Issues <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
WP-CLI<\/strong> is great servant when you are trying to deal with technical issues<\/strong> as we are going to see in next few lines. <\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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Debugging Theme and Plugin Issues <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Imagine you have just activated faulty plugin, which causes WordPress administration to be inaccessible<\/strong>. WP-CLI can rescue you<\/strong> in this situation using single command<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
wp plugin deactivate faulty-plugin<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Similarly you can activate different theme<\/strong> using WP-CLI if you believe that current theme is causing trouble. Following example activates chosen theme<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
wp theme activate different-theme<\/code><\/pre>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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Manipulating Options <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Do you need to change values of some options<\/strong>? This can be useful when you want to debug an issue<\/strong> or when changing some options is not directly possible in the administration. In this example we are going to change current admin email<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
wp option update admin_email admin@zeni.cz<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
You can find more about managing options<\/strong> in the documentation of wp option command.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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Managing Database <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
WP-CLI is also great for managing database<\/strong>. You can easily create backup<\/strong> of current database and save it to current user directory<\/strong> using following command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
wp db export ~\/backup.sql<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This is extremely useful<\/strong> when you want to create export of the database<\/strong> for use on staging or local development environment or to create a backup<\/strong> before performing some risky action<\/strong> like updating database structure because of some plugin. If anything goes wrong<\/strong>, we can easilygo back<\/strong> using this command<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
wp db import ~\/backup.sql<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
If you are planning to experiment we highly recommend to not to do it on<\/strong> your customer facing production environment<\/strong>. That is what staging server can be used<\/strong> for. You can learn what staging<\/strong> environment is <\/strong>in our article Seven reasons to use staging environment for your project on WordPress<\/a>. If you are interested in creating staging environment<\/strong>, you can learn about this in our article  How to create staging environment?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another useful feature is ability to quickly enter <\/strong>your database command line interface to execute SQL <\/strong>using following command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
wp db cli<\/code><\/pre>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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Replace All the Occurrences of a Value <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Imagine site moved to different URL<\/strong>, or you want to use<\/strong> your production database on<\/strong> the staging <\/strong>server. After <\/strong>you import database<\/strong> to new server you are quickly going to find out that some of the links are not working<\/strong> and that media files are not visible<\/strong>. That is because unfortunately WordPress uses absolute URLs in many cases. To fix<\/strong> this issue WP-CLI <\/strong>have very useful command<\/strong> known as wp search-replace. With this command you can replace<\/strong> all the old URLs<\/strong> with new ones <\/strong>very simple:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
wp search-replace https:\/\/old-website.old https:\/\/new-website.new --dry-run<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The dry-run<\/code> flag on the end is very useful here because it runs <\/strong>the entire search\/replace operation<\/strong> with showing the report, but no changes are saved into the database. It is definitely a good idea to run this command in dry run mode first and after reviewing the report running it without dry run mode.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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Generate Dummy Content With WP-CLI <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
This one is very useful for developers<\/strong>, who need some mocked content<\/strong> on the site for development purposes. For example, you can generate tens of posts, users, terms<\/strong> and comments <\/strong>using just few commands<\/strong>. Here are few examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
wp user generate --role=subscriber --count=50\nwp post generate --count=200 --post_type=post\nwp post generate --count=20 --post_type=page\nwp term generate category --count=10\nwp comment generate --count=10 --post_id=123<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This will give you<\/strong> a site with 50 new users, 200 posts, 20 pages, 10 categories and our selected post already have 10 comments on it. This simulates active sit<\/strong>e, that have been around for some time and we did not need to do anything manually. We can start working on developing <\/strong>WordPress theme or plugin more easily<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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There Is a Lot More to Achieve <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We have introduced many use cases<\/strong> of the WP-CLI<\/strong> in this article, but that is far from all that is possible using this tool. To became familiar with all the possibilities, there is no better source than<\/strong> WordPress documentation<\/a>. I hope that WP-CLI will help you to become better developer or administrator.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WP-CLI allows you to manage websites using simple commands without needing to navigate trough many pages in WordPress admininstration. Whether you are a developer or administrator, WP-CLI can save you a lot of time and even get inaccessible website back to life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":7464,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[312],"tags":[178,52,211],"class_list":["post-9180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wordpress-development","tag-navody-a-tipy-3-en","tag-zeni-en","tag-zeni-team-3","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Bruno Dirb\u00e1k","author_link":"https:\/\/zeni.cz\/en\/blog-o-wordpress-woocommerce\/author\/brunhylda\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/zeni.cz\/app\/uploads\/2022\/05\/EN-300x200.png","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["WordPress Development<\/a>"],"unlinked":["WordPress Development<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["N\u00e1vody a tipy<\/a>","zeni<\/a>","zeni team<\/a>"],"unlinked":["N\u00e1vody a tipy<\/span>","zeni<\/span>","zeni team<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 31.5.2022","modified":"Updated on 10.7.2024"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 31.5.2022 13:17","modified":"Updated on 10.7.2024 10:55"},"featured_img_caption":"WP-CLI \u2013 Manage WordPress Websites Better and Faster","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeni.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeni.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeni.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeni.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeni.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9180"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/zeni.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12401,"href":"https:\/\/zeni.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9180\/revisions\/12401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeni.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeni.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeni.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeni.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}