Byline WordPress Project

A WordPress-based project for the Byline website.

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• WordPress 6.0+
• PHP 7.4+
• MySQL 5.7+
• Web server (Apache/Nginx)

Local Development Setup

1. Clone the repository
2. Configure your local web server to point to the project directory
3. Create a local database
4. Copy wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php and update database settings
5. Run WordPress installation

☁️ Cloudways Deployment

Initial Deployment

1. Create Application on Cloudways

   • Log into your Cloudways account
   • Create a new application
   • Choose "Custom PHP" as the application type
   • Select your preferred server and PHP version

2. Deploy from GitHub

   • In your Cloudways application, go to "Deployment via Git"
   • Connect your GitHub account
   • Select the "Byline" repository
   • Set the branch to main or master
   • Click "Deploy"

3. Configure WordPress

   • Update wp-config.php with Cloudways database credentials
   • Set up your domain in Cloudways
   • Complete WordPress installation

Database Configuration

Update your wp-config.php with Cloudways database settings:

define('DB_NAME', 'your_cloudways_db_name');
define('DB_USER', 'your_cloudways_db_user');
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'your_cloudways_db_password');
define('DB_HOST', 'your_cloudways_db_host');

Environment Variables

For production, consider using environment variables for sensitive data:

define('DB_NAME', $_SERVER['DB_NAME']);
define('DB_USER', $_SERVER['DB_USER']);
define('DB_PASSWORD', $_SERVER['DB_PASSWORD']);
define('DB_HOST', $_SERVER['DB_HOST']);

📁 Project Structure

byline-wp/
├── wp-admin/          # WordPress admin files
├── wp-content/        # Themes, plugins, uploads
│   ├── plugins/       # Custom plugins
│   ├── themes/        # Custom themes
│   └── uploads/       # Media uploads (gitignored)
├── wp-includes/       # WordPress core files
├── .gitignore         # Git ignore rules
├── README.md          # This file
└── wp-config.php      # WordPress configuration (gitignored)

🔧 Development Workflow

Making Changes

1. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature
2. Make your changes
3. Test locally
4. Commit changes: git commit -m "Add feature description"
5. Push to GitHub: git push origin feature/your-feature
6. Create a pull request

Deployment

• Push to main branch to trigger automatic deployment
• Cloudways will automatically pull the latest changes

🛠️ Customization

Themes

• Place custom themes in wp-content/themes/
• Follow WordPress theme development standards

Plugins

• Place custom plugins in wp-content/plugins/
• Follow WordPress plugin development standards

🔒 Security Notes

• wp-config.php is excluded from version control for security
• Uploads directory is excluded to prevent large files in repository
• Consider using environment variables for sensitive configuration

📞 Support

For deployment issues, refer to:

• Cloudways Documentation
• WordPress Codex

📝 License

This project follows WordPress licensing terms.