Running a local docker instance for Wordpress theme development

I wanted to update the Leaf theme (the one I’m currently using) and I haven’t had wordpress on my computer in a long time.

Instead of going through the whole set up again, I decided to use docker for this.

I wanted to keep the setup to a minimal and also make it portable for future use, below are the steps you’ll need to get it running.

1. Install Docker (I’m on mac, so I just have the docker app).
2. Make a directory that you can call something like wordpress-docker, this is where the docker-compose.yml file will live.
3. Add the following to the docker-compose.yml file:
   

version: '3.1'

services:

  wordpress:
    image: wordpress
    restart: always
    ports:
      - 8080:80
    environment:
      WORDPRESS_DB_HOST: db
      WORDPRESS_DB_USER: wordpress
      WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD: password
      WORDPRESS_DB_NAME: wordpress
    volumes:
      - wordpress:/var/www/html
      - ../leaf:/var/www/html/wp-content/themes/leaf # --- this assumes we have leaf one dir up


  db:
    image: mysql:5.7
    restart: always
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE: wordpress
      MYSQL_USER: wordpress
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: password
      MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD: '1'
    volumes:
      - db:/var/lib/mysql

volumes:
  wordpress:
  db:

4. Start up the docker instances by running docker-compose up (from within wordpress-docker)

5. Go to localhost:8080, you should see the wordpress instance.

6. After the setup is complete, go to localhost:8080/wp-admin/themes.php and you should see the theme for development too.