How to set up a basic wordpress website?

getgizmo
TRIAL

a year ago

I do see there is a template for Wordpress + Mysql, but does this mean that Railway it will create a github repo for me? Will I be able to view it on Github? Im guessing I wont be able to so now im looking into the manual method where it uses my own github repo

Would these be the steps?

  1. Create github repo

  2. Push wordpress to the repo

  3. Make a new railway project, mysql provisional

  4. Get mysql info and update my wordpress' wp-config.php to have that new mysql info

  5. Make a staging branch

  6. Make a new Railway project that deploys from my github repo, and choose my wordpress repo

Im assuming this is wrong…..

0 Replies

getgizmo
TRIAL

a year ago

N/A


getgizmo
TRIAL

a year ago

Ok wow, just being curious, I did use the wordpress template and it created the site super fast and I can see how it generates the variables, so now I understand more about the templates…..but I am confused as where this project was even deployed? What repo? Do I have access to it? Does it have CI/CD so I can push updates and make branches eg. staging? this is where I feel anxious as I have to do it manually in order to know all of this stuff but seems 10x harder


a year ago

The template uses a docker image instead of a repo, this is great for getting a basic wordpress site up and running, but it provides no real access to the file structure of wordpress and anything you mentioned in your second message.

So, the steps you gave in your first message are extremely close to the correct steps, let me expand on some and get you the optimal flow.

  1. Create github repo

  2. Push wordpress to the repo

  3. Use environment variables in wp-config.php for database configurations

  4. Use environment variables for any other sensitive information

  5. Make a new Railway project

    5.a. Name the project

  6. In the same project, deploy MySQL

  7. Also in the same project, add a blank service

    7.a. Name the service

    7.b. Generate a domain for it

  8. Add your database variables to the blank service

    8.a. Use variable references the same as the template uses

  9. Add any other variables you need

  10. Attach your GitHub repo

    10.a. Staging or main can be switched at any time

I'd like to mention that it is super unlikely that Railway is going to know what to do with the default Wordpress install.

And something else to keep in mind, when Wordpress is running on Railway it should be treated as a static site, meaning you do all your changes locally only and push them to github, since the filesystem is empherial anything you change on Wordpress when it's hosted will not persist between deployments.


a year ago

Just wanted to drop in and add my two cents as someone running wordpress on railway, i have persistent data for my site and don't do anything locally then push to the repo


a year ago

please tell me where I'm wrong grid


a year ago

You can add a volume mapped to /var/www/html on the wordpress service


a year ago

1223292836879929600


a year ago

what if they want to pull the changes made to their wordpress site back down locally?


a year ago

like theme stuff and site media? you can just use a wordpress backup plugin


a year ago

i think the built in import/export tool in wordpress might cover that too, but i'd have to double check that one


a year ago

here's what is in my github repo for it as well

1223293198303236400


a year ago

gotcha, would my approach also work?


a year ago

yeah your steps are definitely correct, just the addition of adding the volume to the wordpress service on railway so the data persists


a year ago

if by "push wordpress to repo" do you mean the entire wordpress.zip file contents?


a year ago

because dockerfile in the repo would prob be easier, then just pull the docker image


a year ago

right but that then makes it so they they have to use round-about ways to get data back off of the service


a year ago

wordpress install + dockerfile


a year ago

hmm, i guess it depends on what they'll be wanting to do with the service data


a year ago

for mine, i just take regular backups using the built-in export tool


getgizmo
TRIAL

a year ago

wow, thanks for the reply. Ok, about the empherial/persistent comment, is this about where for example…I should not install a wordpress plugin via Wordpress dashboard, but via git push?


a year ago

in my scenario, yes you would install plugins in your local wordpress project then push to github and then railway would deploy those changes.

in grid's scenario you use a volume and you can install plugins live on the deployment, but then getting your local project in sync with what's on railway is a chore in my opinion.


getgizmo
TRIAL

a year ago

Im going to try your steps now @Brody thank you


a year ago

that's the difference then, i don't do a local environment, I throw the site into "under construction" mode and make changes to prod then bring it back live


a year ago

for my usecase this works, relatively low traffic site for my landscaping company


a year ago

brody's way is definitely the way to go if you have a local environment


getgizmo
TRIAL

a year ago

"I'd like to mention that it is super unlikely that Railway is going to know what to do with the default Wordpress install."

What does this mean?


a year ago

Railway would not be able to deploy the default wordpress install, you will need to find a wordpress install that comes with a Dockerfile. Grid, do you have one on hand?


a year ago

only one that pulls the wordpress docker image, but it can probably be tweaked easily:
```dockerfile
FROM wordpress:latest

COPY ./custom-php.ini /usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/

COPY --from=wordpress:latest /usr/src/wordpress/ /var/www/html/

COPY ./wp-config.php /var/www/html/
COPY ./.htaccess /var/www/html/

ARG MYSQLPASSWORD
ARG MYSQLHOST
ARG MYSQLPORT
ARG MYSQLDATABASE
ARG MYSQLUSER

ARG WPREDISHOST
ARG WPREDISPORT
ARG WPREDISUSER
ARG WPREDISPASSWORD

ARG PORT

ENV WORDPRESSDBHOST=$MYSQLHOST:$MYSQLPORT
ENV WORDPRESSDBNAME=$MYSQLDATABASE
ENV WORDPRESSDBUSER=$MYSQLUSER
ENV WORDPRESSDBPASSWORD=$MYSQLPASSWORD
ENV WORDPRESSTABLEPREFIX="RW_"

ENV WPREDISHOST=$WPREDISHOST
ENV WPREDISPORT=$WPREDISPORT
ENV WPREDISPASSWORD=${WPREDISUSER},$WPREDISPASSWORD

ENV PORT=$PORT

RUN echo "ServerName 0.0.0.0" >> /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

RUN echo "DirectoryIndex index.php index.html" >> /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

CMD ["apache2-foreground"]```


a year ago

you don't need any of those ARG or ENV lines btw


a year ago

huh, i'll remove them and see what happens then


a year ago

well you'd need to properly setup your service variables, but they aren't needed in the dockerfile


a year ago

you aren't using any environment variables during build so you don't need to reference anything


a year ago

yeah i've got them all setup in railway on the service as well so it should be fine then


a year ago

you are re-mapping variables there, you'd need to now do that in the service variables instead


a year ago

going trial by fire on this one, captain <:peepoCool:526260885929328640>


getgizmo
TRIAL

a year ago

sorry, I am slow and not used to PaaS, im only familiar with VPS and I tried vercel before which worked but I cant do wordpress there. I dont understand this docker part being part of my setup. I understand how its used for the templates, like I mentioned in my post and how it can spin up a site quickly, but in my manual way, how do I work this docker file into my steps?


a year ago

Unfortunately you would need to learn a bit about Dockerfiles to deploy wordpress to railway in the way i described


getgizmo
TRIAL

a year ago

I shall do that, but which step in 1-10 involves the docker file?


a year ago

step 2

Your repo would need to have a Dockerfile at the root of the repo


getgizmo
TRIAL

a year ago

thank you!


a year ago

i'm willing to do a proof of concept on brody's method as well, just gotta finish up some work things


a year ago

that way if you run into any issues trying this out yourself, i can be of some assistance


a year ago

thanks grid, i understand it at a high level but i havent deployed wordpress to railway myself


a year ago

bonus points if you do it with frankenphp


a year ago

i'll definitely take a stab at it


a year ago

the redis config definitely is not liking the env change lol


a year ago

use keydb 🙂


a year ago

i'm using your dragonfly template right now actually lmao, is keydb better?


a year ago

<:PepeLaugh:580592928703905792>

1223307558773723100


a year ago

dragonlyfly is better, it uses more base resources 🙂


a year ago

so in the dockerfile it had
```dockerfile
ARG WPREDISUSER
ARG WPREDISPASSWORD

ENV WPREDISPASSWORD=${WPREDISUSER},$WPREDISPASSWORD```


a year ago

on the service variables it was originally set as
WP_REDIS_PASSWORD=${{Dragonfly.DRAGONFLY_PASSWORD}} WP_REDIS_USER=${{Dragonfly.DRAGONFLY_USER}}


a year ago

wouldnt you want this then?

WP_REDIS_PASSWORD=${{Dragonfly.DRAGONFLY_USER}},${{Dragonfly.DRAGONFLY_PASSWORD}}

a year ago

now i tried it as both WP_REDIS_PASSWORD=${{Dragonfly.DRAGONFLY_USER}},${{Dragonfly.DRAGONFLY_PASSWORD}} and WP_REDIS_PASSWORD=['${{Dragonfly.DRAGONFLY_USER}}','${{Dragonfly.DRAGONFLY_PASSWORD}}'] and neither of those work


a year ago

does it render properly?


a year ago

yeah, checked both and they both looked good


a year ago

and from the redis wordpress plugin docs:


a year ago

1223309236717617200


a year ago

(the only ones necessary in my case are host, password, and port)


a year ago

where you always using dragonfly?


a year ago

not for the first handful of months, just added it in like january


a year ago

did you always use the private network with dragonfly?


a year ago

not originally, used the public networking before but after making the env changes just now public wasn't working either, so i changed it to private


a year ago

have you reloaded the plugin?


a year ago

dragonfly? i have not


a year ago

no the redis plugin


a year ago

oh, no i can't access anything on the site haha


a year ago

but it just pulls from the env vars in wp-config.php


a year ago

1223311475129712600


a year ago

dragonfly doesnt do user name auth, can you try -

WP_REDIS_PASSWORD=${{Dragonfly.DRAGONFLY_PASSWORD}}

a year ago

same error unfortunately


a year ago

it was working with the user name auth when the dockerfile was doing the remapping which is strange


a year ago

i'm going to hook up the file browser and delete the /wp-content/object-cache.php file from the volume and see what happens


a year ago

the filebrowser has shone a light on the issue


a year ago

wp-config.php from the repo isn't the one getting used, for whatever reason


a year ago

wp-config.php on the volume has

1223314250341286000


a year ago

we're in

1223314861853769700


a year ago

very odd


a year ago

guess i can remove wp-config.php from my repo then since it's not doing a damn thing lmao


a year ago

now i can't access wp-admin <:kekw:788259314607325204>


a year ago

😦


a year ago

put it all back, dont listen to me


a year ago

nah this is funny as hell lmao


a year ago

i'm going to figure this out


a year ago

to be fair, i could access wp-admin before i removed wp-config.php from the repo and the dockerfile


a year ago

lets see if it magically works when i bring them back


a year ago

it did not


a year ago

i think i've found something…


a year ago

well this is new

1223318236511207700


a year ago

it's trying to go to install.php for some reason


a year ago

this broken broken now


a year ago

it's like it's not reading the database properly


a year ago

because looking inside the options table, the rewrite for the admin page is there


a year ago

1223320477364256800


a year ago

are you using the correct variable names?


a year ago

yeah, just double checked those


a year ago

i'd also be getting a 500 status on the main page though if it wasn't able to connect


a year ago

mariadb logs are angry a bit


a year ago

1223321211745075200


a year ago

looks completely fine in dbgate though


a year ago

I've heard that before 😉


a year ago

whatever do you mean <:PepeLaugh:580592928703905792>


a year ago

quadruple check them


a year ago

all checks out to me

1223322338578141400
1223322338897039400


a year ago

it does look fine there


a year ago

i'm going to try public networking for mariadb instead and see what happens


a year ago

meh, no luck still


a year ago

very strange <:Hmmge:916388031970308166>


a year ago

what did you break so badly


a year ago

who would have thought deleting wp-config.php that wasn't even getting used from the repo would cause such an issue


a year ago

time to link the filebrowser back up and compare the current wp-config.php to the one that was there before removing wp-config.php from the repo and see if there is some difference


a year ago

okay so it isn't that lol

1223325417679618000


a year ago

hey, at least the frontend works still <:kekw:788259314607325204>


a year ago

lol


a year ago

i've had an epiphany on something, stay tuned


a year ago

it is working now


a year ago

do tell


a year ago

it was the object cache all along


a year ago

what was the fix?


a year ago

wiped volume on dragonfly and redeployed it and purged cloudflare cache


a year ago

lmao that sure is a fix


a year ago

i was talking to my wife and had to stop mid conversation and run off


a year ago

exact words "i will be back in 5 minutes or less, i've had an epiphany on something"


a year ago

it has been 18 minutes instead, but i took a break while deploys were happening to make her coffee so we're all clear


a year ago

<:peepocool:616741504542703646>


a year ago

pog


a year ago

now time to switch mariadb back to private networking lol