Have you ever tried to install a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party in WordPress Playground, only to discover it couldn’t connect to an external APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways.? That “gotcha” moment happened because networking was disabled by default. A recent update changes this, giving WordPress network access by default, making your Playground instance behave much more like a typical WordPress environment.
Why was networking disabled by default?
Previously, networking was turned off by default as a performance optimization. While this helped the environment load quickly, it often created a frustrating experience for users when they expected their plugins and themes to connect to the outside world.
Now you can jump straight into a new Playground and install your favorite plugins from the directory, or preview plugins that are requesting data from external APIs, without extra configuration.
Keeping the first load fast
A fresh WordPress site makes about five separate requests to api.wordpress.org on the first visit to the admin dashboard (/wp-admin) to check for updates. In a browser-based environment like Playground, these sequential requests could make the dashboard feel slow to load.
To solve this, Playground implemented a pre-fetching mechanism and now initiates these update checks in the background, parallel to the environment’s booting up. By the time the user navigates to /wp-admin. The necessary data is ready, and the dashboard loads quickly.
How to manage network access
While networking is on by default for a more intuitive experience, you still have complete control. You can disable it at any time in a few different ways.
- URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org Parameters: For quick access, you can use the
?networking=noquery parameter to the URL. - Blueprints: When using Blueprints, you can specify your preference with
{"features": { "networking": false }}. - Settings UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing.: You can easily toggle network access on and off using the checkbox in the Playground settings.
For more technical details, see the pull requests:
Share Your Feedback
This change makes Playground more intuitive and closer to a regular WordPress experience. Please share your feedback with us on the Making WordPress Slack or report any issues you find on GitHub.
Props to @zieladam for review.