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Divi Development Environment Setup

Learn how to get a local development environment up and running.

Note: This tutorial series is intended for advanced users. At least a basic understanding of coding in PHP and JavaScript is required.

Before you can create Divi Extensions you need to ensure that you have the proper environment setup on your local system. The requirements are:

  • A fully functional installation of WordPress
  • The latest LTS version of NodeJS
  • The latest version of Yarn (optional, but preferred)
  • The latest version of gettext (needed to process translations when creating releases)
  • The latest version of Divi

There are several different options you can use to get a local development environment up and running. A few examples are:

In this tutorial we’ll be using Docker with the official docker image for Divi Development.

Install Docker

The most complicated part of installing docker is figuring out which version you need to install. Use the following tables to locate the correct version for your operating system and then download and run the installer for that version.

Mac

OS Version Installer Detailed Instructions Complete Documentation
OS X 10.11+ Docker for Mac Instructions Documentation
OS X 10.8-10.10 Docker Toolbox Instructions Documentation

Windows

OS Version Installer Detailed Instructions Complete Documentation
10 Pro+ Docker for Windows Instructions Documentation
10 Home Docker Toolbox Instructions Documentation

Linux

OS Version Detailed Instructions
Ubuntu 16.04+ Instructions
Fedora 25+ Instructions

Using Linux? Follow the instructions linked in the table as there is no Docker installer for Linux.

Start Docker Containers

The Divi Development Environment consists of two docker containers, one for the database and one for everything else. Starting/Stopping multiple containers for a single environment can be tedious. Luckily, we won’t have to worry about that because we’re going to use the docker-compose command.

Docker Compose is a tool for defining and running multi-container Docker applications.

Go ahead and create a new directory for your development workspace. The directory should be located somewhere below one of the following paths (depending on your OS):

Default Shared Directories

Mac: /Users, /Volumes, /private, & /tmp

Windows: C:\Users

Linux: /home

Now, create a file named docker-compose.yml inside your workspace directory as shown below:

Using Windows? You need to replace ${PWD} in the compose file with the full path to the directory where the compose file is located.

Run WordPress Container Setup Script

Open a terminal window in your workspace directory and run the following commands:

docker-compose up -d
docker-compose exec -u 1000 wordpress divi-dev setup

This could take a few minutes (or more) depending on your internet connection speed. When it’s done you should see the following:

Creating network "divi-dev_default" with the default driver
Creating divi-dev_wordpress_1 ... done
Creating divi-dev_mariadb_1   ... done
Downloading WordPress 4.9.5 (en_US)...
md5 hash verified: f009061b9d24854bfdc999c7fbeb7579
Success: WordPress downloaded.
Initializing database...  ████████████████████| 100%
Success: Generated 'wp-config.php' file.
Success: WordPress installed successfully.
Success: Rewrite rules flushed.
Success: Rewrite structure set.

Setup Complete! Here's how you can access WordPress:

URL:       http://local.divi-dev.site
Username:  divi-dev
Password:  password

Final Step: Access WordPress Dashboard And Install Divi

Divi isn’t included in the container. The final step is to install it via the WordPress Dashboard.

Commands Quick Reference

You can use the following commands to manage your containers. Be sure to run them from inside your workspace directory:

Enter Container (get command prompt inside container)
docker-compose exec -u 1000 wordpress /bin/bash

Exit Container (return to your system’s command prompt)
exit

Stop Running Containers
docker-compose stop

Start Stopped Containers

docker-compose start

Remove Containers (WordPress database will be deleted!)
docker-compose down

Start New Containers
docker-compose up -d
docker-compose exec -u 1000 wordpress divi-dev setup

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