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Development Guide

This document provides instructions for developers working on the Sample Data Generator plugin.

Prerequisites

  • Node.js (v14 or higher)
  • npm (v6 or higher)

Setup

  1. Install dependencies:
npm install

Grunt Tasks

Minify Assets

Minify CSS and JavaScript files:

grunt minify

This will create:

  • admin/css/admin.min.css from admin/css/admin.css
  • admin/js/admin.min.js from admin/js/admin.js

The plugin automatically loads minified files if they exist, otherwise falls back to the original files.

Create Release Package

Create a production-ready ZIP file:

grunt release

This will:

  1. Minify all CSS and JS files
  2. Create a clean copy of the plugin in the release/ directory
  3. Exclude development files (node_modules, Gruntfile.js, etc.)
  4. Include only minified CSS/JS files (not the source files)
  5. Create a ZIP file: release/sample-data-generator-{version}.zip

The ZIP file is ready for distribution and WordPress.org submission.

Default Task

Running grunt without arguments runs the minify task:

grunt

File Structure

sample-data-generator/
├── admin/
│   ├── css/
│   │   ├── admin.css          # Source CSS
│   │   └── admin.min.css      # Minified CSS (generated)
│   └── js/
│       ├── admin.js           # Source JavaScript
│       └── admin.min.js       # Minified JS (generated)
├── includes/                  # PHP classes
├── release/                   # Release packages (generated)
├── .gitignore                 # Git ignore rules
├── Gruntfile.js              # Grunt configuration
├── package.json              # NPM dependencies
└── sample-data-generator.php # Main plugin file

Development Workflow

  1. Make changes to source files:

    • Edit admin/css/admin.css for styles
    • Edit admin/js/admin.js for scripts
    • Edit PHP files in includes/

  2. Test your changes:

    • The plugin loads source files during development
    • Minified files are only loaded if they exist

  3. Before committing:

    • Run grunt minify to generate minified files
    • Test with minified files

  4. Creating a release:

    • Update version in package.json
    • Update version in sample-data-generator.php
    • Run grunt release
    • Upload the ZIP from release/ directory

Best Practices

  • Don't commit minified files to version control (they're gitignored)
  • Always test with both source and minified files
  • Keep source files clean and well-formatted
  • Update version numbers in both package.json and the main plugin file before release

Troubleshooting

Grunt command not found

Install Grunt CLI globally:

npm install -g grunt-cli

Minified files not loading

Clear the minified files and regenerate:

rm admin/css/*.min.css admin/js/*.min.js
grunt minify

Release ZIP is too large

Check the exclusion patterns in Gruntfile.js under the copy:release task.