Brandon Payton 6:30 pm on September 27, 2024  

Running Multiple Playgrounds with WordPress Playground

We’re delighted to announce several new Playground management features for the WordPress Playground website.

We’ve added a Playground Manager for listing and selecting your Playgrounds. Settings can be edited for each Playground, and Temporary Playgrounds (in-memory instances that disappear after the current page load) can now be saved to persistent storage so they are not lost. It’s even possible to run multiple Temporary instances simultaneously and switch between them using the Playground Manager.

A screenshot of the updated WordPress Playground website

Creating Playgrounds

By default, loading playground.wordpress.net creates a new Temporary Playground. To add another, you can then click the “Add Playground” button, configure the settings, and submit.

A screenshot of the Add Playground dialog


Note that this is your main opportunity to select the WordPress version. Most Playground settings can be edited after creation, but currently, a Playground’s WordPress version cannot be edited.

There are often situations where you need to save a temporary Playground instance. Previously, you would have to export the instance as a Zip file and manually import the Zip into a persistent Playground. Now, you can save directly to persistent storage with the click of a button, saving to either browser storage or a local directory on your device. (Local directory support is currently limited to Chrome-based browsers.)

A screen shot of the menu used to save a Temporary site to persistent storage.


Once a Playground is saved, it will appear in the Playground Manager list each time you open WordPress Playground.

Working with existing Playgrounds

Once a Playground is selected in the Playground Manager, you can edit its settings, export to Zip, import from Zip, and even Delete it.

To edit settings, click “Edit Playground Settings” toward the end of the Playground info view. All other options are available as part of the Playground info menu area. Both are highlighted in the screenshot below.

A screenshot highlighting ways to access operations on a site.


Most importantly, to begin using WordPress within the Playground, click “Homepage” to view the front end or “WP Admin” to open the admin Dashboard.

What’s next

Now that you can work with multiple Playgrounds at once, the Playground team plans to develop tools to migrate data between them. This will not only improve WordPress Playground but also hopefully contribute to the Data Liberation work within WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/.

What do you think?

Give these new features a try, and share your thoughts in the comments. If you encounter any issues or would like to offer additional feedback, please open an issue on GitHub. Thank you!

Bero 10:46 am on August 5, 2024  

Introducing Offline Mode and PWA Support for WordPress Playground

We’re excited to share that WordPress Playground now supports offline mode and can be installed as a Progressive Web App (PWA). These features allow you to explore and experiment with WordPress without needing an active internet connection, making it easier to develop and test your ideas on the go.

Offline mode

When you first visit Playground.WordPress.net, your browser automatically caches all the necessary files to use Playground. From that point on, you can access Playground.WordPress.net, even while flying or in areas without internet access, ensuring you can continue working on your projects without interruptions.

PWA support

For an enhanced experience, you can also install Playground on your device as a Progressive Web App (PWA).

This allows you to launch the Playground directly from your home screen—just like a native app—and makes accessing your WordPress projects or environment quicker and more convenient. For detailed instructions on installing PWAs, refer to this MDN guide.

Current limitations

While offline, there are a few limitations to keep in mind:

  • You won’t be able to switch between the PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. and WordPress versions, as this would require downloading additional files.
  • Offline mode works in most web browsers, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work in Firefox at this time.
  • When you install Playground as a PWA, it uses the current URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org to install the app. This means that every time you open the Playground app, it will start with the settings from that URL. You can adjust the settings within the app after it starts, but note that the settings will be restarted the next time you open it.

Share your feedback

Please share your feedback with us on the Making WordPress Slack or report any issues you find on GitHub.