Installation Guide

Prerequisites

WP-Node requires access to a WordPress-compatible MySQL database. The easiest way to set this up is with Docker.

If you don’t already have a WordPress database running, you can use the following command to spin up both MariaDB and WordPress containers:

docker network create wpnet && \
docker run -d --name wpdb --network wpnet -p 33306:3306 \
  -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=example \
  -e MYSQL_DATABASE=wordpress \
  -e MYSQL_USER=wp \
  -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=wp \
  mariadb && \
docker run -d --name wp --network wpnet -p 8080:80 \
  -e WORDPRESS_DB_HOST=wpdb:3306 \
  -e WORDPRESS_DB_USER=wp \
  -e WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD=wp \
  -e WORDPRESS_DB_NAME=wordpress \
  wordpress

Visit http://localhost:8080 in your browser to complete the WordPress setup.

💡 For this tutorial, use wp as your WordPress admin username.

Helpful Tips

View WordPress logs:

docker logs -f wp

Clean up all Docker containers and network:

docker rm -f wp wpdb && docker network rm wpnet

Alternative Database Setup

You can use the WP-Node CLI to install a WordPress database without installing WordPress. For detailed instructions, see Install CLI.

Initialize WP-Node Project

To get started, create a new folder for your project. This folder will serve as the root directory for your WP-Node application.

mkdir wp-node
cd wp-node

Then, run the command to initialize the project and follow the prompts:

npx @rnaga/wp-node-cli -- init

✔ Enter your database hostname: · localhost
✔ Enter your database port: · 33306
✔ Enter your database username: · wp
✔ Enter your database password: · **
✔ Enter your database name: · wordpress
✔ Is it a multi-site? · No
✔ Enter your static assets path: · public

Project Structure

After initialization, your project will look like this:

./
├── _wp
│   ├── config
│   │   ├── index.d.ts
│   │   └── wp.json
│   └── settings.ts
├── .env
├── index.ts
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
└── tsconfig.json

Key files

• _wp/config/wp.json: Holds configuration for WP-Node such as public path and multisite info. This file is imported by settings.ts.
• _wp/settings.ts: Initializes the WP-Node Context, including config, database access and hooks.
• index.ts: The main entry point for your WP-Node app. A basic sample is provided.
• .env: Stores sensitive environment variables, including your database credentials and other configuration values required at runtime.

Run the App

Once the config is initialized, run the app using:

mvn use 22
npx ts-node ./index.ts

If everything is working correctly, you’ll see SQL output like:

select * from `wp_posts` as `posts_5` where `posts_5`.`ID` = 1
[
  {
    ID: 1,
    post_author: 1,
    post_title: 'Hello world!',
    ...
  }
]

Use Cli (Alternative)

WP-Node CLI provides a convenient way to interact with WordPress data without writing any code.

To query a post (e.g. ID = 1), run:

npx @rnaga/wp-node-cli -- post get 1 -Z table -F ID,post_title,post_type

┌────────────┬────────────────┐
│ (index)    │ Values         │
├────────────┼────────────────┤
│ ID         │ 1              │
│ post_title │ 'Hello world!' │
│ post_type  │ 'post'         │
└────────────┴────────────────┘