[wp-hackers] absolute URLs in plug-ins and custom types

[Luis Siquot]

+1 Shasta Willson, I am in your shoes



2012/7/6 Shasta Willson <shastaw at gmail.com>:
> On Fri, Jul 6, 2012 at 7:29 AM, Bryan Petty <bpetty at bluehost.com> wrote:
>>
>> I wish it wasn't a "problem", but I have to call it one when I'm
>> constantly "fixing" it with every blog that needs moved, or started out
>> on a development server without hijacking the official, final hostname.
>
> I have to agree with Bryan. I consider the move to deployment (and
> maintenance of a matching testing server) one of the weakest areas of
> WordPress. I've participated in threads on the forum discussing best
> practices and seen mods say "there just isn't a best practice."  (e.g.
> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/proper-procedure-for-moving-dev-site-to-live-site?replies=6)
>
> And lest you think this is just whining from folks who should know
> better, awareness of the problem is a lot less universal than you'd
> hope.  I recently helped a lawyer friend who had spent a lot of money
> for a new site.  A month after deployment her front page slider images
> disappeared and the designer wanted $200/hr to investigate. Yup...they
> forgot to change the URLS to their public-facing deployment server, so
> they worked until they deactivated her testing site.  While that dev
> needs a good shaking for not even checking their work when it broke,
> the fact remains that it's an avoidable problem and it makes WordPress
> look not quite prime time.
>
> I should probably offer the disclaimer that I'm old-school.  I ran a
> web shop in 1996, then went on to be a Java Dev (after getting a
> degree) before returning to web a few years ago.  I'm still learning
> about WordPress, but the very notion of absolute URLs strikes me as
> "yer doin' it wrong". Obviously I'm still learning about WordPress and
> there's a lot about the web that's changed, but so far I'm not seeing
> any compelling positive arguments -- a reason it's better this way.
>
> Placing URLs into a site that we KNOW will break with deployment seems
> like a remnant of a time when the software was for blogging.  Build
> your theme, deploy, start creating content.  To have a structure that
> requires a database search and replace (and note Bill's earlier
> comments: even that doesn't work in all cases and you really need a
> tool) is a hack.  It seems to me that Wordpress should store
> attachments with a format that will update automatically, however
> given the huge number of plug-ins that already hard-code the URL maybe
> it would be better to address it with a built in deployment tool?
> Perhaps when you change the Wordpress Address or Site Address it
> should update automatically? (Network is a whole additional headache.)
>  Or simply offer a built-in tool for "update URL in database" so it's
> done right?
>
> - Shasta
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