Development

This page covers repository setup and development commands for Alpaca Issue Tracker.

Tooling

• Node.js and npm are used for React, Sass, linting, and asset builds.
• Composer is used for PHP tooling.
• A local WordPress site is needed to activate and test the plugin.

Source Checkout Setup

Install dependencies from the repository root:

composer install
npm ci

Build assets before activating a source checkout in WordPress:

npm run lint
npm run build

Always run npm run lint before npm run build. Fix lint errors and warnings before building assets.

JavaScript and CSS

Source files live under src/.

Common commands:

npm run lint:js
npm run lint:styles
npm run format:js

Built assets are written to dist/.

PHP

Plugin PHP lives in these main areas:

• alpacaissuetracker.php for the plugin bootstrap.
• includes/ for core classes, API endpoint handlers, filters, notifications, and utilities.
• templates/ for PHP-rendered admin screens.

Common commands:

npm run lint:php
npm run format:php

Follow WordPress Coding Standards for PHP changes. Public functions, classes, methods, filters, and actions should include complete PHPDoc.

Translations

User-facing strings should use the alpaca-issue-tracker text domain.

Generate the PHP translation catalog with:

npm run make-pot

This writes to languages/alpaca-issue-tracker.pot.

For JavaScript and JSX strings, use wp.i18n functions. When generating JavaScript translation catalogs, include JSX extensions so React strings are exported:

wp i18n make-json languages --extensions=js,jsx

Keep the languages/ folder limited to the runtime files needed by the plugin.

WordPress Playground

The repository includes Playground commands for a clean browser-based demo or local verification flow.

Common commands:

npm run playground:prepare
npm run playground:start
npm run playground:run-blueprint

The Playground flow builds the installable ZIP, creates a generated Playground bundle, installs the plugin in a fresh Playground site, and seeds demo issue data.

Packaging

Create an installable ZIP with:

npm run zip

The ZIP should include runtime plugin files only. Repo-only files such as docs/, source tooling, and local configuration should stay out of the package.