I have been working on wordpress from years now and gone are the days when I used build wordpress websites locally on a xamp servers and then migrate them to staging or production.
Now I just create a lightSail Trial instance and start my WordPress development then and there, the good thing about it is I have root access to use WordPress CLI as well as its more straightforward to scale, migrate to production or to share a staging link with the client.
So here are 5 Plugins I always use in my development workflow, and I think you should give them a try.
1: File Manager
File Manager plugin allows you to edit, delete, upload, download, zip, copy and paste files and folders directly from the WordPress backend. You don’t have to bother with FTP to manage and move your files from location to location. I usually
Use this plugin to upload plugins or themes manually, or modify the folder structure and creating zip, and I don’t use this to edit or modify my files, I use another plugin for that.
2: Theme Editor
Theme editor allows you to edit theme files, create folders, upload files and remove any files and folders in themes plugins. You can easily customise your themes and plugins directly using this. This plugin is somewhat similar to the WP file manager plugin. Still, the critical difference is Theme editor triumphs in editing files by providing syntax highlighter, query selector. In contrast, WP File Manager is great for managing files and folders throughout your WordPress directory.
3: Query Monitor
Query Monitor is the developer tools panel for WordPress. It enables debugging of database queries, PHP errors, hooks and actions, block editor blocks, enqueued scripts and stylesheets, HTTP API calls, and more.
It includes some advanced features such as debugging of Ajax calls, REST API calls, and user capability checks. It consists of the ability to narrow down much of its output by plugin or theme, allowing you to determine poorly performing plugins, themes, or functions quickly.
4: Classic Editor
Let’s get this clear, not all of us like Gutenberg block editor, it is excellent, but it should not be forced down our throat. Here comes Classic Editor for our rescue, Classic Editor is an official plugin maintained by the WordPress team that restores the previous (“classic”) WordPress editor and the “Edit Post” screen. It makes it possible to use plugins that extend that screen, add old-style meta boxes, or otherwise depend on the previous editor.
5: Duplicate Menu
Have you ever worked on a website where there are 100s of the menu element, and you have neatly created a mega menu to fit all those menu elements? When you ask the client for feedback, he wants to see a few more variations in the menu structure, now creating a menu with 100s of menu elements again will be painful.
Duplicate Menu will allow you to create a second (or third, or fourth, etc.) copy of an existing Menu to do with what you will. It generates the clone on a programmatic level and recreates all necessary relationships to ensure the structure is retained as well.
So that’s it guys, here are my five must use plugins while working on a WordPress website, also these are mostly for the development environment, you can remove it on your production site.
