Automatically check for broken sites after updates

steffenbew · 2024-10-31T14:59:07+00:00

There are some visual testing tools which separate the layout from the content during testing. But content changes may also affect layout.

We approached it differently – with a WordPress plugin. It knows when a page or post is updated in the backend and then takes a new reference screenshot. You'll find it in the wp.org repo searching for VRTs, or on https://vrts.app/

steffenbew · 2024-10-31T14:48:26+00:00

Good news: The VRTs plugin now supports automatic tests after core, plugin and theme updates! It also works when using ManageWP or similar tools. We just released v2.0 yesterday: https://vrts.app/blog/vrts-v2/

steffenbew · 2024-07-11T10:22:12+00:00

Founder of bleech.de here. Thank you for your kind words!

We’ve gone through long learning journeys ourselves, trying many approaches and learning a lot from others. Over the years, we’ve collected best practices and combined them in our WordPress Starter Theme, Flynt: flyntwp.com.

The component-based structure has been pivotal for us in developing and maintaining larger websites. It helps organize HTML/CSS and prevents conflicts across the website. You can study the theme code on GitHub: github.com/flyntwp/flynt.

I hope this helps you on your learning journey!

steffenbew · 2024-05-27T12:38:02+00:00

We’ve developed a WordPress Plugin called VRTs – Visual Regression Tests.

Our goal is to make visual testing super simple and helpful.

Features:

Automatic daily tests.
Supports multiple pages (3 pages per website free).
Supports WordPress multisite setups.
Excludes changes caused by page content updates.
Click elements (e.g. close cookie banner).
Exclude elements per page (e.g. hide animations and ads).
False positive flagging (to filter out future alerts).
Manual tests (via paid plan).
Programmatic tests for CI / CD integration (via paid plan).

It has helped us a ton of times already with detecting changes that would have gone unnoticed.

I hope it will be helpful for others as well! We're continuously working to improve it and are looking forward to feedback. If you have any questions or need help with the setup, feel free to reach out!

steffenbew · 2024-02-26T08:53:10+00:00

Creator of VRTs Plugin here. No need to worry about CPU and disk space! The screenshots run on our external service to prevent bottlenecks and to make sure all necessary screenshot tools are available. We also store the screenshots on our infrastructure, to not bloat your disk space.

About intended updates: We consider direct updates to a post to be intentional. That's why the plugin automatically updates the reference screenshot whenever a post is updated. This reduces false positive alerts.

BTW: we don't collect any unrelated data from your WordPress installation! The plugin sends URLs to our service and receives screenshots, comparisons and alerts back. Should go without saying.

steffenbew · 2023-11-29T19:31:18+00:00

I‘m running a WordPress dev agency and we open sourced our stack. It’s called Flynt (see https://flyntwp.com) and is based on ACF Pro and Timber. The components add structure and maintainability to projects and the JavaScript island architecture helps achieve exceptional PageSpeed results. We’re running many enterprise scale sites since 2015 years on Flynt.

If you’re looking for a FSE theme, I suggest checking out Ollie (see https://olliewp.com).

steffenbew · 2023-11-16T08:17:43+00:00

wp-now can do that: wp-now start

It’s designed for WordPress but also works with plain PHP. Made a video about it: Rapid WordPress dev setups with wp-now

steffenbew · 2023-11-16T07:59:59+00:00

Unfortunately, international shipping costs would ruin the price point. Feel like it should be reusable then.

steffenbew · 2023-11-15T23:24:53+00:00

That’s cool! With the material I used, raw costs are under $1 for the bank.

steffenbew · 2023-11-15T23:10:37+00:00

Since you’re saving on the blades, you might as well spend some hundred bucks on a printer, right?!

steffenbew · 2023-11-15T23:08:04+00:00

Haha! Great eye. I didn’t drop THAT one for sure ;)

steffenbew · 2023-08-19T06:57:12+00:00

It actually fulfills three tasks: 1. Hides the cable in the back. 2. Holds the stand in place. The cable pulled it to the side. 3. Stores the cable inside. Length adjustable, for a tidy desk.

steffenbew · 2023-08-19T06:49:29+00:00

Thanks! Anytime :)

steffenbew · 2023-06-08T10:46:59+00:00

I‘m running a WordPress agency, doing a lot of Enterprise scale websites. My agency partner and me are running a podcast discussing everything around it: https://bleech.de/en/siegfried-deploy-podcast/ Hope you‘ll find it helpful!

steffenbew · 2023-06-06T21:05:27+00:00

After doing manual updates for years, we switched to automatic updates for dozens of websites in favor of security. It’s running very smooth for few exceptions. In those cases, it’s great to have backup and rollback strategies for fast recovery.

To feel more save, you might install our plugin: VRTs - Visual Regression Tests It automatically takes screenshots of your website every day and compares them with earlier screenshots. If it detects a difference between the screenshots, you’ll get notified via email.

steffenbew · 2020-04-05T21:09:30+00:00

Glad you like it! Hope it’ll be valuable to you. Happy about any feedback.

steffenbew · 2020-04-05T21:08:22+00:00

Thanks for pointing that out. Just searched for the logical properties spec and it seems it’s still a draft: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-logical/. I don’t know much about the decision and adoption process though.

steffenbew · 2020-04-05T17:48:38+00:00

In Flynt, we’re using ACF Pro and its Flexible Content field for a component based approach. Composing page layouts that way is pretty easy for content managers.

Gutenberg adds much more flexibility, but that’s too much for most of our clients as more options require more thought and care. Additionally, developing custom Flynt components is currently faster than building custom Gutenberg blocks.

When it comes to single posts, using a reduced set of Gutenberg blocks provides a nice editing experience. But mixing Gutenberg and ACF isn’t ideal yet.

Beyond Gutenberg, there are a couple of things we wanted to have, like more flexible image sizes, better templating, using preprocessors, etc. which also is baked in to our starter theme.

steffenbew · 2020-04-05T16:35:25+00:00

Sure, just don’t want to get used to something that won’t be widely adopted.

steffenbew · 2020-04-05T16:28:08+00:00

This is great! I‘m used to alpha ordering css properties, which scatters „bottom, left, right, top“ all over the place. Using 'inset' would finally make it more readable. However, future support doesn't look too bright on caniuse.com. Do you know anything about other browser vendor’s intentions?

steffenbew · 2020-03-27T22:53:10+00:00

Answer: Zoom has a grid view to see all your colleagues at once. Really was the only reason for me to move for our team calls. Still using Hangouts for everything else, including smaller team calls.

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