WordPress Hack to Debug Themes on a Live Site

by damonp on April 9, 2007

in PHP,Snippets

How can a WordPress them be debugged privately without showing the wizard behind the curtain to everyone else? This simple hack will use the specified theme only for one remote IP… yours. This can be used when creating a new theme by configuring WordPress to present the original theme and specifying your new theme in development in place of THEME_NAME below. Also replace YOUR_IP_ADDR with your local IP address. THEME_NAME must be an existing theme directory in wp-content/themes/.

To debug an existing theme, copy your theme directory to a new directory under /themes/ (maybe THEME_NAME-dev). Leave WordPress configured to serve the original theme at THEME_NAME and configure the hack to serve THEME_NAME-dev to your IP address.

Edit wordpress/wp-includes/theme.php as below:

Before

function get_template() {
    return apply_filters('template', get_option('template'));
}

After

function get_template() {
if($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] == 'YOUR_IP_ADDR')   {
    return 'THEME_NAME';
}
    return apply_filters('template', get_option('template'));
}

Depending on how the template links to it’s stylesheet, the get_stylesheet() function (in the same file) may need a similar hack:

Before

function get_stylesheet() {
    return apply_filters('stylesheet', get_option('stylesheet'));
}

After

function get_stylesheet() {
if($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] == 'YOUR_IP_ADDR')   {
    return 'THEME_NAME';
}
    return apply_filters('stylesheet', get_option('stylesheet'));
}

This will not work with a private IP address like 192.168.x.x or 10.10.x.x. The IP must be the external address of your router or firewall. To find your external IP address use this link:
http://emailurl.com/myip

Also remember that if you change local IP addresses, you need to update the IP address configured in the snippet above. Most DSL/cable connections use a dynamic IP address that changes every few hours or daily.

Once the theme is good to go, merge the changes into the live template and comment out the code to disable the hack.

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Damon Parker is a freelance sysadmin and web developer in Texas. He specializes in server setup, server security and high performance server configurations. Need help setting up a web server or getting a server back online after a crash or hack? Email Damon

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

bloggertools October 14, 2009 at 6:32 am

ha thanks very useful hack if you want to customize the theme before you go live

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