In a continuous integration environment how do you implement the database entries for plugins and themes

I’m setting up a wordpress continuous integration environment – git->composer->bitbucket-AWS codepipeline, etc.

I have yet to figure out how I automate, for the development team, the setup of the WordPress meta data stored in the database. Theme customization, plugin setup/configuration, how to handle licensed plugins such as Offload Media Pro – where I can’t share a license key with the development teams (some are contracted) but they need the plugin working to test. Does anyone have a good resource on how to solve these issues?

1. A lot of people use WP CLI to script the setup using Bash scripting. Here are some articles that discuss this.

2. Another approach is to hardcode PHP scripts with embedded SQL to do the setup.

3. A third approach is something I have been working on recently; a set of PHP objects to make setup and configuration easier for automated testing. The objects do not have nearly the breadth of functionality that WP CLI has, but if you prefer scripting in PHP over scripting in BASH you can always send pull requests for things you need to add.

Hope this helps.