VersionPress – WordPress Meets Version Control

With the increasing popularity of version control, most developers are now accustomed to its capabilities. We have tried to extend the use of version control beyond the management of source code — like managing database dumps and designs. Therefore, it is not a surprise that the last few years have seen the application of version control to WordPress too.

Earlier this year, I published a post on Revisr, a Git plugin for WordPress. Revisr enabled you to initialize a Git repository within your WordPress source code, and also include database dumps in your backups.

Revisr is a great tool, but it’s not fit for everyone. You need to have the basic understanding of Git to be able to use the plugin seamlessly. Also, I believe that it would be difficult for beginners to handle remotes to move their backups to the cloud.

This article focuses on VersionPress, another plugin that we've previously touched on that tries to apply version control to a WordPress project. Although VersionPress uses Git, there is no mention of Git, as long as you have installed the requirements. It tracks every action that you perform on the WordPress admin panel, enabling you to undo every change, or roll back to the state of that change. One thing that struck me the most was the simplicity of the plugin — there are no unnecessary settings to divide your attention.

In my examples, I'll be using the 1.0-RC3 version of the plugin. Download the plugin, install and activate it. After activation, a new item appears on the left panel. Clicking it takes you to the second step of activation, where the plugin needs to perform a few actions before tracking changes in your WordPress site.

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by Shaumik Daityari via SitePoint