WordPress: automatically update configured WordPress URL to DDEV_PRIMARY_URL

[hirasso]

I used to have all my WordPress projects running on Laravel Herd but am slowly migrating them to ddev. But Herd is still blocking my default ports (80, 443). So anytime I start one of my ddev projects, it get's a random port assigned:

• https://example.com.ddev.site:30001
• https://example.com.ddev.site:30009
• https://example.com.ddev.site:33015
• ...

To make it simpler to work with this mechanism, I've developed this little script that keeps my WordPress URL synced to whatever the current flavor of DDEV_PRIMARY_URL is:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Sync the WordPress URL to the DDEV_PRIMARY_URL
#
# Usage:
#
# 1. Put this script into .ddev/commands/web/sync-wordpress-url
# 2. Run it manually: `ddev sync-wordpress-url`
# 3. Or run it automatically in a hook. In .ddev/config.yaml:
#    hooks:
#      post-start:
#        - exec-host: "ddev sync-wordpress-url"

# Skip if WordPress isn't installed
if ! wp core is-installed 2>/dev/null; then
    exit 0
fi

# Get the DDEV URL from the environment
DDEV_URL="${DDEV_PRIMARY_URL}"
# Get the WordPress from a custom wp option "_ddev_primary_url"
STORED_URL=$(wp option get _ddev_primary_url 2>/dev/null)

# Fallback to DDEV_PRIMARY_URL if custom option not yet set
if [ -z "$STORED_URL" ]; then
    STORED_URL="$DDEV_URL"
fi

# Skip if URL is unchanged
if [ "$STORED_URL" = "$DDEV_URL" ]; then
    echo "Primary URL unchanged ($DDEV_URL), skipping database update"
    exit 0
fi

echo "Primary URL changed, updating database..."
echo
echo "  → old: $STORED_URL"
echo "  → new: $DDEV_URL"
echo

# Simple string replacement
wp search-replace \
    "${STORED_URL}" \
    "${DDEV_URL}" \
    --skip-columns=guid \
    --report-changed-only \
    --quiet

# Store the new URL in our custom tracking option
wp option update _ddev_primary_url "$DDEV_URL" --quiet
wp option set-autoload _ddev_primary_url no --quiet

I'm running the script automatically each time ddev starts. In .ddev/config.yaml:

hooks:
  post-start:
    - exec-host: "ddev sync-wordpress-url"

Now my WordPress URLs are now automatically in sync with whatever DDEV is currently using, weeeeh :)

I'm wondering if this would be something worth adding to the default ddev integration for WordPress?

[nickchomey]

I don't know if this is desired for ddev (I suspect not), but you might consider using https://github.com/Automattic/go-search-replace instead of the wp cli search-replace command. It handles serialized arrays and more. And is faster. You'd have to export/dump and re-importthe db though

[rfay]

Glad to know about go-search-replace, but it does sound much more awkward to use.

[nickchomey]

FWIW, we discussed it in #6932

[rfay]

I like the concept @hirasso, we're always interested in how to improve the WP integration.

I suspect this is a little too intrusive for actions that DDEV likes to take. We'd be happy to change the configured URL, but it would be pretty intrusive to do the wp search-replace.

Note that your life will be a bit easier by specifying the alternate port explicitly with something like ddev config global --router-http-port=8080 --router-https-port=8443 to give you predictable and recognizable ports. Alternately, if possible, you can stop herd when using DDEV and vice versa.

[hirasso]

Thank you @rfay for your thoughts. Right, maybe a search-replace is a little too intrusive for some. Anyhow – having it here for future reference still doesn't hurt I guess :)