VersionPress 4.0 Beta Adds User-Editable Location for Plugin Definitions

VersionPress 4.0 beta is available for testing. It includes a number of improvements, most notably, the ability to load plugin definitions from a user-defined location within the wp-content directory.

Plugin definitions are files used to understand data, actions, shortcodes, and other things plugins do in order to automatically provide version control for them.

According to Borek Bernard, co-founder of VersionPress:

If you create a folder WP_CONTENT_DIR/.versionpress/plugins/woocommerce and put definition files like schema.yml or actions.yml there, VersionPress will use and actually prefer it over the bundled definitions if they exist.

User Defined Location of Plugin Definition File

Support for WooCommerce and Jetpack are included in 4.0 Beta 1. VersionPress will automatically detect the definition file as long as each plugin has a .versionpress folder in it.

With the release of 4.0 Beta, Bernard says a repository containing plugin definitions is next on the list and is encouraging plugin authors to contribute to the project.

“The final step is to have an online repository of the definitions,” Bernard said. “It will be open to anyone to contribute, not just plugin authors, and used by VersionPress transparently.”

For insight on how to create definitions, developers can look at WordPress core and WooCommerce for real-world examples.

Other major changes include full support for WordPress 4.7 and 4.8, adoption of GitHub projects to help manage the development process, and a number of bugs fixed.

Developers and users can download 4.0 Beta from GitHub. Users are encouraged to test the plugin in a staging environment as it’s not ready to be used on live sites. If you encounter an error, you can report it by creating a new Issue request on the project’s GitHub page.