WordPress Plugin Deploy Action

Deploy WordPress plugins to the WordPress.org plugin repository with automated SVN management, asset handling, and optional Slack notifications.

Features

• Automated SVN repository management
• Support for .distignore file exclusions
• Automatic asset deployment (banners, icons, screenshots)
• Proper MIME type setting for assets
• Tag management and versioning
• Optional zip file generation
• Dry-run mode for testing
• Slack notifications for successful deployments
• Automatic version detection from tags or package.json

Quick Start

name: Deploy to WordPress.org

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - "*"

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: sultann/wordpress-plugin-deploy@v1
        with:
          username: ${{ secrets.SVN_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.SVN_PASSWORD }}

Requirements

Add the following secrets to your repository's settings under Settings > Secrets and Variables > Actions:

• SVN_USERNAME - Your WordPress.org username
• SVN_PASSWORD - Your WordPress.org password
• SLACK_WEBHOOK - (Optional) Slack webhook URL for deployment notifications

Configuration

Inputs

Input	Description	Required	Default
username	WordPress.org SVN username	Yes	-
password	WordPress.org SVN password	Yes	-
slug	Plugin slug on WordPress.org	No	Repository name
version	Release version	No	Tag name or package.json
generate_zip	Generate zip file of plugin	No	false
dry_run	Preview deployment without committing	No	false
slack_webhook	Slack webhook URL for notifications	No	-
slack_message	Custom Slack message	No	Auto-generated

Outputs

Output	Description
version	Version number used for deployment
zip_path	Path to generated ZIP file (if generate_zip: true)

Common Use Cases

Basic Deployment

Deploy when a tag is pushed:

name: Deploy to WordPress.org

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - "*"

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: sultann/wordpress-plugin-deploy@v1
        with:
          username: ${{ secrets.SVN_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.SVN_PASSWORD }}

With Custom Slug

If your GitHub repo name differs from WordPress.org slug:

- uses: sultann/wordpress-plugin-deploy@v1
  with:
    username: ${{ secrets.SVN_USERNAME }}
    password: ${{ secrets.SVN_PASSWORD }}
    slug: 'my-custom-slug'

Generate Release Zip

Generate a zip file for distribution:

- name: Deploy to WordPress.org
  id: deploy
  uses: sultann/wordpress-plugin-deploy@v1
  with:
    username: ${{ secrets.SVN_USERNAME }}
    password: ${{ secrets.SVN_PASSWORD }}
    generate_zip: true

- name: Upload Release Artifact
  uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
  with:
    name: plugin-zip
    path: ${{ steps.deploy.outputs.zip_path }}

With Slack Notifications

Get notified in Slack when deployment succeeds:

- uses: sultann/wordpress-plugin-deploy@v1
  with:
    username: ${{ secrets.SVN_USERNAME }}
    password: ${{ secrets.SVN_PASSWORD }}
    slack_webhook: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK }}

Testing with Dry Run

Preview what would be deployed without committing:

- uses: sultann/wordpress-plugin-deploy@v1
  with:
    username: ${{ secrets.SVN_USERNAME }}
    password: ${{ secrets.SVN_PASSWORD }}
    dry_run: true

Excluding Files from Release

If there are files or directories to be excluded from release, such as tests or editor config files, they can be specified in a .distignore file.

Sample .distignore file:

/.git
/.github
/node_modules

.distignore
.gitignore
composer.json
composer.lock
package.json
package-lock.json

Assets Directory

Create a directory named .wordpress-org in the root of your repository. This directory will contain all the assets (banners, icons, screenshots) that you want to deploy to WordPress.org. The action will automatically copy all files from this directory to the assets directory of the WordPress.org plugin repository.

Recommended structure:

.wordpress-org/
├── banner-772x250.png
├── banner-1544x500.png
├── icon-128x128.png
├── icon-256x256.png
├── screenshot-1.png
└── screenshot-2.png

How It Works

The action follows these steps:

1. Checks out the WordPress.org SVN repository
2. Copies files from your repository to SVN trunk
3. Applies exclusions from .distignore file
4. Copies assets from .wordpress-org directory (if exists)
5. Sets proper MIME types for asset images
6. Creates or updates the version tag
7. Commits changes to WordPress.org SVN
8. Optionally generates a zip file
9. Sends Slack notification (if configured)

Testing Locally

To preview what files would be deployed locally:

cd wp-content
svn checkout --depth immediates https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/my-plugin-slug/ my-plugin-slug-svn
svn update --set-depth infinity my-plugin-slug-svn/trunk
rsync -av --exclude-from=my-plugin-slug/.distignore --delete --delete-excluded my-plugin-slug/ my-plugin-slug-svn/trunk/

License

The scripts and documentation in this project are released under the MIT License