Getting ready to release a WordPress plugin? Here’s a handy checklist you can follow.
1. Update the readme for the release
- Include all changes in the changelog
- List order is typically: major enhancement, minor enhancement, bug fix
- Use active voice, present tense.
- “Shows an admin notice when Redis is unavailable”
- Update version numbers as appropriate
- readme.txt
- Plugin header in the main plugin file.
- Compile README.md from readme.txt (which is needed for WordPress.org)
- Run
grunt readme. - Run
grunt i18n.
- Run
2. Tag a new version on Github
- Use the releases feature to create a new Release, with a Git tag of the appropriate version number (e.g. “v0.5.0”).
- Double-check tag name / version number.
- Copy and paste the changelog into the Release body.
3. Tag a new version on WordPress.org
- Sync the codebase with WordPress.org plugin Subversion trunk
- SVN and git in the same directory.
- Pull in git changes.
- Review diff.
- Double check dates.
- Commit changes to trunk.
- Create a new Subversion tag from trunk.
svn cp trunk tags/0.5.0- Commit the tag.
4. Publish blog post / execute promotion strategy as necessary.