Local Development
Suggestions and solutions for working locally on your Pantheon Drupal or WordPress site.
Discuss in our Forum Discuss in SlackPantheon Localdev
Pantheon is working on a better way to develop locally. Before you continue reading this page check out Localdev, currently in active development.
While Pantheon provides several options for on-server development, local development has a number of advantages, especially if continuous Internet access is a concern.
Agency WebOps Training
Dev/Test/Live, Multidev, local development, and more! Learn how Pantheon's WebOps training can accelerate your workflow.
Pantheon cannot troubleshoot or support local development solutions; however, we can provide some suggestions and known working solutions. For large teams/sites, we recommend using Multidev instead of local development.
If you encounter any issues, visit the Lando GitHub repository.
Before You Begin
Be sure you have:
- A local stack capable of running Drupal or WordPress. Lando integrates with the Pantheon platform. Tools such as MAMP, WAMP, and XAMPP all work.
- Pantheon uses a particular architecture to maximize performance and availability, but it's possible to run the same code on a variety of different configurations. As long as the solution supports a minimum of PHP 5.3 and MySQL, you should be fine.
- Ensure that your local stack's PHP version matches the PHP version set for the target site on Pantheon.
- Git client for tracking code changes
- SFTP client, such as FileZilla, for transferring files OR rsync
- Terminus
- Drush (optional)
To save time, clear the target site environment's cache. This can be done from the Pantheon Dashboard, from the application itself, or by running the following Terminus command:
terminus env:clear-cache <site>.<env>
There are three parts to any dynamic website:
Code (The application, modules or plugins, and themes)
Database (content)
Files (user uploaded or application generated)
You will need to transfer each one from Pantheon to your local environment.
Get the Code
The first step is to get a git clone
of your code from Pantheon to your local computer.
Go to Your Site Dashboard, and log in to Pantheon and load the Dashboard for the site you want to work on.
At the top of the development panel, look for the
git clone
command and copy and paste it in your terminal. It will look something like this:On your local environment, go to where you want the code to reside. Git will create a directory as part of the clone, so you don't need to create one. Run the command you copied in step 2:
git clone ssh://codeserver.dev.xxx@codeserver.dev.xxx.drush.in:2222/~/repository.git my-site
If everything worked correctly, you will see Git fetching the data:
Cloning into 'anita-wordpress'... The authenticity of host '[codeserver.dev.....drush.in]:2222 ([173.255.119.72]:2222)' can't be established. RSA key fingerprint is SHA256:yPEkh1Amd9WFBSP5syXD5rhUByTjaKBxQnlb5CahZZE. Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes Warning: Permanently added '[codeserver.dev.....drush.in]:2222,[173.255.119.72]:2222' (RSA) to the list of known hosts. remote: Counting objects: 20503, done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (8184/8184), done. remote: Total 20503 (delta 12802), reused 19671 (delta 11982) Receiving objects: 100% (20503/20503), 46.65 MiB | 15.16 MiB/s, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (12802/12802), done.
If you run into permission problems, check your SSH key setup. If the clone starts but can't complete, check your network to see if you have a current version of Git.
Get the Database
Via Dashboard
From within the Site Dashboard:
Create an on-demand backup by selecting Database / Files > Export > Export Database.
Download the scheduled or on-demand backup by selecting Backups > Backup Log > Database download link.
Import the database into your local environment using a MySQL client:
gunzip < database.sql.gz | mysql -uUSER -pPASSWORD DATABASENAME
Note
Replace
database.sql.gz
with the name of the database archive downloaded from Pantheon.
Via Terminus
Create and get the database with Terminus commands:
terminus backup:create <site>.<env> --element=db terminus backup:get <site>.<env> --element=db
Import the archive into your local MySQL database using the following command:
gunzip < database.sql.gz | mysql -uUSER -pPASSWORD DATABASENAME
Get the Files
For an overview of ways to transfer files, see SFTP and rsync on Pantheon.
Via Terminus
Run the following Terminus commands:
terminus backup:create <site>.<env> --element=files
terminus backup:get <site>.<env> --element=files
This will create and get a backup of the site's files.
Move the resulting backup to the proper directory on your local file system:
- Drupal:
sites/default/files
- WordPress:
wp-content/uploads
Via SFTP CLI
SFTP is slower, but easier for some to use:
Get your SFTP login credentials by clicking Connection Info. You will see your connection credentials and a link to connect directly with your preferred client.
From the terminal, navigate to the proper directory on your local file system:
- Drupal:
sites/default
- WordPress:
wp-content/uploads
- Drupal:
Paste the CLI command copied from your Dashboard.
Run
get -r *
to transfer the files down to your local environment.
Submit Changes to Pantheon
Send the Code
Test your changes, then commit locally and push to Pantheon:
git commit -am "enter a summary of the changes"
Next, push the changes:
git push origin master
Send the Database
Create an archive using the MySQL utility mysqldump:
mysqldump -uUSERNAME -pPASSWORD DATABASENAME | gzip > database.sql.gz
Upload and import the file by going to your Pantheon Dashboard and selecting Database / Files > Import.
Send the Files
Upload files to Drupal Via Drush
Drush and rsync is by far the easiest way to send files for Drupal sites:
drush -r . rsync --temp-dir=../tmp/ @self:sites/default/files/ @pantheon.SITENAME.ENV:%files
Upload Files to WordPress or Drupal Via SFTP
Send files using SFTP:
From the terminal, navigate to the proper directory on your local file system:
- Drupal:
sites/default/files
- WordPress:
wp-content/uploads
- Drupal:
Paste the CLI command copied from your Dashboard
Navigate to the correct remote directory by running
cd files
Run
put -r ./*
to transfer the files up
You can also transfer a single file or a single directory at a time instead of transferring every file, every time.
Local Configuration Files
You'll need to configure database credentials matching your local database to develop locally. You don't want to manually change these details in your primary configuration file (e.g. settings.php
or wp-config.php
) because you could easily commit that change to version control and trigger a connection error on Dev when pushing to Pantheon.
Instead, we recommend using a local configuration file (e.g. settings.local.php
or wp-config-local.php
) that is excluded from version control and included by settings.php
or wp-config.php
when found. Since the local configuration file is ignored by git, it won't be found on Pantheon but it will be applied when you run the site locally.
Pantheon's upstreams will detect and include wp-config-local.php
(WordPress) and settings.local.php
(Drupal 8) for local environment configurations.
This file is ignored by the .gitignore
file in WordPress and Drupal 8 so that local configurations do not get pushed to Pantheon. Simply create the file on your local computer, and manage configurations accordingly.
WordPress wp-config-local.php
Pantheon sites that install WordPress 5.5 include a wp-config-local-sample.php
file. Older sites can copy wp-config-local-sample.php file on GitHub to the same directory as the site's wp-config.php
, or create one in that location as shown here.
The following can be used as a starting point for wp-config-local.php
. Replace the database values with the values from your local environment, and the key/salt values with your unique phrase (generated from WordPress.org).
Full text of wp-config-local-sample.php
<?php
/**
* This is a sample config for local development. wp-config.php will
* load this file if you're not in a Pantheon environment. Simply edit/copy
* as needed and rename to wp-config-local.php.
*
* Be sure to replace YOUR LOCAL DOMAIN below too.
*/
define( 'DB_NAME', 'database_name' );
define( 'DB_USER', 'database_username' );
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'database_password' );
define( 'DB_HOST', 'database_host' );
define( 'DB_CHARSET', 'utf8' );
define( 'DB_COLLATE', '' );
define( 'AUTH_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'SECURE_AUTH_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'LOGGED_IN_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'NONCE_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'AUTH_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'SECURE_AUTH_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'LOGGED_IN_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'NONCE_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', true );
define( 'WP_HOME', '<YOUR LOCAL DOMAIN>' );
define( 'WP_SITEURL', '<YOUR LOCAL DOMAIN>' );
define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', false );
Drupal 7
Drupal 7 users will need to create a local settings file (e.g.
settings.local.php
) and include it within theirsettings.php
file:setting.php/** * Include a local settings file if it exists. D7 only */ $local_settings = dirname(__FILE__) . '/settings.local.php'; if (file_exists($local_settings)) { include $local_settings; }
You will also need to exclude the local configuration file from git, by adding the following to
.gitignore
:.gitignoresites/*/settings.local.php