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WordPress Playground web instance

https://playground.wordpress.net/ lets developers run WordPress in a browser without a server. This environment makes testing plugins, themes, and features quick and easy.

Some key features:

  • Browser-based: No local server setup required.
  • Instant Setup: Run WordPress with a single click.
  • Testing Environment: Ideal for testing plugins and themes.

The Query Params API allows you to directly load specific configurations into a Playground instance. This includes setting a particular WordPress version, theme, or plugin. You can also define more complex setups using blueprints (see examples here).

The Playground website includes toolbars that customize your instance and provide quick access to resources and utilities.

Playground Toolbar Snapshot

Customize Playground​

On the toolbar, you'll find:

  • Playground Settings: A panel for configuring your current instance, like PHP and WordPress versions.
  • Playground Dashboard: This panel lets you manage WordPress Playground instances, save and export them, edit files from your WordPress instance, and create new Blueprints.
  • Playground Launch Panel: The Launch Panel shows all the ways to launch a WordPress Playground instance.

Playground Settings​

snapshot of customize Playground window at Playground instance

The Playground Settings Panel includes these Query API options:

  • wp: Defines the WordPress version.
  • php: Specifies the PHP version for the instance.
  • language: Sets the WordPress instance language.
  • multisite: Enables WordPress multisite support.
  • networking: Enables network access to the WordPress Plugin Directory and WordPress APIs.

Playground Manager​

Playground settings panel allow users to save export and edit the WordPress directly

This panel lets you manage Playground instances and provides access to the following panels:

  • Settings: To manage the current Playground's settings
  • File Browser: Built-in IDE for editing files, uploading plugins and themes, and live editing. Playground auto-reloads changes in real time.
  • Blueprint: A Blueprint editor for creating, saving, and running Blueprints in your Playground web instance.
  • Database: Tools for managing the database with Adminer and phpMyAdmin, and downloading as a .sqlite file.
  • Logs: Displays log messages when something goes wrong.

Save Playground Button

Click "Save" to create an instance and list it in the Playground Launch Panel. The Playground Dashboard also offers export and download options through the Additional actions menu:

Additional actions menu​

Additional actions Menu

  • Export Pull Request to GitHub: Export WordPress plugins, themes, and entire wp-content directories as pull requests to any public GitHub repository. Watch a demo of this feature.
  • Download as .zip: Creates a .zip file with the setup of the Playground instance, including any themes or plugins installed. This .zip excludes content and database changes.

Blueprint Editor​

Blueprint editor WordPress Playground

The Blueprint editor provides the ability to manage multiple Blueprints and to validate code.

Launch Playground Panel​

Playground Launch Panel

This panel shows all the ways to launch WordPress Playground: import .zip files, load from GitHub repositories, and preview PRs from WordPress core and Gutenberg.

The Launch Panel also lists more than 40 blueprints from the Blueprint Gallery and your Saved Playgrounds.

caution

The site at https://playground.wordpress.net is there to support the community, but there are no guarantees it will continue to work if the traffic grows significantly.

If you need certain availability, you should host your own WordPress Playground.