Contributors on the WordPress Meta team are responsible for WordPress.org and its associated sites, i.e. wordcamp.org, apps.wordpress.org, etc. The team works on supporting and improving these sites along with the build tools that are used by the other contributor groups. Folks often complain about how the sites work, but did you know that much of the code is open source and open for contribution?
Up until recently, there was no easy way to set up a local development environment for contributing to WordPress Meta. This created a hindrance for new contributors looking to get involved, according to team member Ian Dunn.
Setting up local development environments to contribute to the Meta sites can be an obstacle for those without access to the private subversion repositories or a sandbox, especially at a meetup or WordCamp contributor day, where time is limited.
That’s why Dunn created WordPress Meta Environment, a vagrant configuration based on Varying Vagrant Vagrants. It allows you to quickly set up a development environment that is already provisioned with everything you need to contribute a patch to any of the supported meta sites. The setup includes all the open source code and sample data, similar to what you would find on the production site.
Currently, the WordPress Meta Environment supports the following sites, with more planned in the future:
Setup is very similar to the instructions for Getting Started with VVV, except you’ll clone the WordPress Meta Environment repository instead. Once the setup is finished, you can visit http://wp-meta.dev for a list of supported sites and server tools.
The configuration will continue to evolve and add support for other official WordPress sites. Dunn received some helpful feedback after attending WordCamp Seattle’s contributor day. As a result, the project’s road map includes a number of priorities for future refinements that will make it a better turnkey local development environment.
The WordPress Meta team works together to create goals/priorities and to provide feedback on efforts toward meta site improvements. If you’re thinking about submitting a patch or have already created one, it’s a good idea to check in with the WordPress Meta team on the P2 blog or in IRC in #wordpress-meta. For more information on contributing, check out the Getting Started section of the Meta Handbook before heading over to Meta trac.