Releasing and maintaining hosting specific upstreams

[gusaus]

One of our goals should be to release and maintain code that could be easily spun up on specific hosting environments. Currently we have the following branches associated with our Pantheon development environment:

https://github.com/OpenProducer/newspack-platform
https://live-newspack.pantheonsite.io/

https://github.com/OpenProducer/newspack-platform/tree/radio
https://radio-newspack.pantheonsite.io/

It's been a while since I created one, but I think a Pantheon upstream would be something different.
https://pantheon.io/docs/guides/custom-upstream/create-custom-upstream

Ideally, folks more skilled and knowledgeable could provide input regarding setup and best practices for Pantheon and other hosts like WP Engine.

Then we can document and even create training opportunities around how to set up and manage.

[gusaus]

We're currently in the process of moving sites running on this code https://github.com/OpenProducer/newspack-platform + a few extra plugins and a child themes from Bluehost to WP Engine. Unike Bluehost, there is Git support which we're in the process of setting up for the first client we migrated. Ideally, we could create an upstream similar to Pantheon that we could use for other sites running off the same codebase.

I'm probably not even describing this right - hopefully some WP Engine experts will be able to advise and ideally help.

[gusaus]

Pantheon

Creating a thread to lock down the Pantheon specific dev flow. Will update to reflect what we work out in the comments.

Environments

Newspack

• https://github.com/OpenProducer/newspack-platform
• https://live-newspack.pantheonsite.io/

Newspack Radio

• https://github.com/OpenProducer/newspack-platform/tree/radio
• https://radio-newspack.pantheonsite.io/

Newspack Podcast

• https://github.com/OpenProducer/newspack-platform/tree/podcast
• https://podcast-newspack.pantheonsite.io/

Implementation steps

• Become a Pantheon partner
• Create a custom upstream for each environment

Features/Resources

• Git Workflow - Pantheon provides industry standard version control with Git. Pantheon uses Git to make sure all code is stored, versioned, and deployed both safely and predictably. We also give you the power of feature branching through Multidev.
• Multidev - Multidevs are development environments for teams. A Multidev environment allows a developer to fork the entire stack (code and content), work independently, and then merge the code changes back into the main master site. Each forked branch has its own separate development environment, including database and files. Each branch environment can be independently set to use either SFTP or Git mode for code changes.
• Custom upstreams - Custom Upstreams act as a scaffold for new sites, allowing developers and site owners of any skill level to kickoff projects at warp speed. Instead of repeating the same technical work on each individual site, you can build and maintain a common user interface with unified branding and functionality once, in a single source.
  • Create a Custom Upstream
• Terminology
• Autopilot - Autopilot automatically detects, performs, tests, and deploys updates for WordPress and Drupal.

[gusaus]

WordPress.com

Considering we're also exploring partnership with Newspack and/or Automattic (via https://wordpress.com/for-agencies/), it would be good to use GitHub to update our platforms and sites much in the same way you can do with Pantheon. Seems like https://developer.wordpress.com/docs/developer-tools/github-deployments/ might be a good starting point to explore what's possible.