Ollie Theme Academy

Local Development Setup

Configuring debug settings in wp-config.php

Want to optimize your local development environment for building block themes? This video covers the must-have wp-config.php settings that’ll make your full site editing development experience much smoother.

We’ll walk through three crucial debugging configurations that every block theme developer should know about. First up is PHP debugging with WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG – these help catch errors while you’re working on your block theme files.

Then there’s SCRIPT_DEBUG, which is especially helpful now with the block editor’s React-based architecture. You’ll see much more detailed information in the console when working with the site editor.

Finally, we’ll explore WP_DEVELOPMENT_MODE set to ‘theme’ – this newer setting is specifically designed for block theme development! It ensures WordPress doesn’t cache your theme.json files, so you always see fresh changes when working in the site editor.

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