This document is a summary of a webinar held by WP Engine on WP-CLI, focusing on its features, productivity tips, and use cases for WordPress developers. The presentation covers topics such as setting up sites quickly, troubleshooting, maintaining multiple sites, and using commands effectively. Participants can ask questions, and slides and resources from the webinar will be made available afterward.

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Improve Your Workflows via SSH Gateway
Jose De La Rosa and Scott Amerman, WP Engine
April 18, 2018
Developers, Be a Bada$$ with WP-CLI

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What You’ll Learn
● What is WP-CLI?
● Top use cases for WP-CLI
● Top WP Engine support issues now self-serve
● Productivity tips for WP-CLI
● How to get started
● Q&A

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Ask questions as we go.
We’ll answer as many questions as we can after
the presentation
Slides and recording will be
made available shortly after
the webinar
Use the “Questions” pane
throughout the webinar

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Level 2 Customer Support, Sr.
WP Engine
Jose De La Rosa
● Plays the trumpet
● Studied biochemistry in college
● Big fan of cold brew coffee
Sr. Product Marketing Manager
WP Engine
Scott Amerman
● Minor villain in movie Spare Parts
● Worked in neuroprosthetics
● Brews hard cider

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Poll: Have you ever used
WP-CLI?

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What is WP-CLI?

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Available tools

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Anatomy of a command
wp plugin install amazon-polly --activate
argument options/flagscommand

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Top Use Cases

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Setup new sites quickly
Maintain multiple sites easily
Troubleshoot WordPress faster
Database admin
Working with WP-CLI packages
Top use cases

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Installing WP-CLI locally allows you to remotely execute commands from your machine. WordPress.org recommends you install this
by downloading the Phar build and adding it to your machine’s path.
You can then create a config file allows you defines aliases such as production, dev, and all.
How to move files between local machine and the Gateway
# copying a single file from local to the Gateway
$ rsync data-dump.csv jrdelarosa2@jrdelarosa2.ssh.wpengine.net:/home/wpe-user/sites/jrdelarosa2/_wpeprivate
# copying an entire directory from local to the Gateway
$ rsync -v customer_exports/
jrdelarosa2@jrdelarosa2.ssh.wpengine.net:/home/wpe-user/sites/jrdelarosa2/_wpeprivate/customer_exports
Ways to increase your productivity before you even make your first command
Before you start

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It’s important to note that WP-CLI has a lot of great built in documentation, via wp help command
# install and activate my favorite plugins on my new install
$ wp plugin install woocommerce jetpack wordpress-seo --activate
*# import a list of users from a CSV, don’t update existing users
$ wp user import-csv users.csv --skip-update
We can even create a config file that defines aliases such as production, dev, and all!
* # use a local config file to install and activate themes on multiple installs
$ wp @all theme install twentythirteen --activate
By using a WP CLI, we can quickly perform common tasks like installing plugins, importing users, and
adding a theme to a group of sites
Setting up sites quickly

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Poll: How many sites are you
managing at any point in
time?

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# check to see which of my active plugins have updates pending
$ wp plugin list --update=available --status=active
* # update all plugins, except WooCommerce and WordPress SEO
$ wp @dev plugin update --all --except=woocommerce,wordpress-seo
# delete the user associated with ID 123 and assign posts to user 567
wp user delete 123 --reassign 567
# delete all comments that have been flagged as spam
wp comment delete `wp comment list --status=spam --format=ids`
Maintaining sites easier
Perform common maintenance tasks around things like plugin updates, user permissions, and
comment moderation

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Use WordPress debug statements to generate and actively
monitor a log file
Luckily WordPress has some built in debug tools that facilitate troubleshooting. The following two statements, when added to your
wp-config.php will generate a useful debug log!
define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
Now, as errors come in they will be added to the debug.log file which can be found in your wp-content directory. You would expect to
see something like:
[13-Apr-2018 18:34:23 UTC] PHP Warning: include(fake.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory
in /nas/content/live/jrdelarosa2/index.php on line 18
[13-Apr-2018 18:34:23 UTC] PHP Warning: include(): Failed opening 'fake.php' for inclusion
(include_path='.:/usr/share/pear/php:/usr/share/php:/usr/share/pear') in
/nas/content/live/jrdelarosa2/index.php on line 18
Troubleshooting sites

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There are times when you are troubleshooting problems, where you might want to deactivate plugins one at a time
# create list of plugins
wp plugin list --status=active --skip-plugins --field=name > /tmp/plugin-list.txt
# loop through the plugin list created. Deactivate each one for 60 seconds before reactivating
while read -r plugin
do
echo "--------------------------------------------------------------"
echo "Deactivating-$plugin"
wp plugin deactivate $plugin --skip-plugins
sleep 60
echo "Reactivating-$plugin"
wp plugin activate $plugin --skip-plugins
done < /tmp/plugin-list.txt
Use Bash to iteratively deactivate plugins to find a conflict
Troubleshooting sites

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*# export a database dump to your local machine
$ DATE=`date +%Y-%m-%d`; wp @prod db export - >
wp_jrdelarosa2_$DATE.sql
*# run WP-CLI search and replace (often useful when adding SSL to a site)
$ wp search-replace “http://jrdelarosa2.wpengine.com”
“https://jrdelarosa2.wpengine.com” --precise --all-tables
--skip-columns=guid
# delete revisions from database
$ wp post delete `wp post list --post_type=revision --format=ids`
A few useful commands that help with database maintenance
Database administration

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# wp-cli-login-command allows you to login to WordPress with secure passwordless magic links
- $ wp package install aaemnnosttv/wp-cli-login-command
- $ wp login create <USER>
# wp-checksum allows you to run checksums on your themes and plugins
- $ wp package install eriktorsner/wp-checksum
- $ wp checksum all
# wp-sec allows you to check your WordPress install for CVE security issues reported at wpvulndb.com
- $ wp package install markri/wp-sec
- $ wp wp-sec check --type=core
- $ wp wp-sec check --type=all
How to work with WP-CLI packages
Packages are a great way to extend the functionality of WP-CLI

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Inquiring minds want to know.
Questions and Answers.
* Slides, recording and resources will be made available within
the next several days

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YAML Config File
Resources.
Getting Started with SSH Gateway
SSH Key Management for Shell Access
SSH Gateway FAQ
Docs on Installing WP-CLI
WP-CLI Package Index
WP-CLI Login Command WP Checksum WP Sec
Demo Video -- WP-CLI in Action

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Next Up.
Register Now:
http://wpeng.in/
pretty
Wednesday, May 2
11:00 a.m. CDT,
12:00 p.m. EDT,
9:00 a.m. PDT,
16:00 UTC/GMT

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How helpful?
How to improve?
Future topics?
Help us get better.
How helpful?
How to improve?
Future topics?

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Thank You.