What is Git? Why Is Git Important for your WordPress website?
Git is an ultimate necessity for developers so let’s go ahead to find it out.
Git was created in 2005 and now millions of people are using it. There are many version control systems (version control systems are categories of software tools that help a software team manage changes to source code over time. Version control software keeps track of every modification to the code in a special kind of database) but Git is the most well-known system. It is used for tracking changes in computer files and coordinating work on those files among multiple people.
Git doesn’t only focus on the storage and version history of the file tree but also on the file content itself.
The object format of Git’s repository files uses a combination of delta encoding compression and explicitly stores directory contents and version metadata objects.
The top priority of Git is the integrity of managed source code. It secures the content of the file, the relationships of the files and directories, versions, tags and commits. And these are secured a cryptographically secure hashing algorithm called SHA1.
Now let’s understand why you need Git.
Git not only helps you manage the code of your site but also tracks changes and enables multiple developers to work on the same files at the same time and acts as an extra backup of the files of your site in the process.
It uploads the changes to each file and records when files were changed, who made the changes and it gives you the ability to undo them.
It doesn’t matter if you are using Git for a small business or for a big one.
Let’s imagine that you have a WP projects and many developers. Thus you open some repository and create many tasks there. You assign the tasks to John. He must do it in 2 hours but he has some problem and need help so you can assign it to another developer too. However, as he did some changes and Git keeps you informed what kind of changes there were. What does it mean? It means that 2 developers work on the same task, therefore, you can see who and when that change as done by.
Consequently, you maintain the workflow and change history. With the complete history of your WordPress project, you will be able to go back to previous versions and conduct root analysis of bugs, which can be crucial when you have to fix possible issues on your website.
If those improvements are not ok for you can revert the changes. How?
Git gives you an opportunity to roll back the changes. Possibly you may think that you need that part but in some days you understand that you don’t need it any longer. So you can roll back the changes which you want.
Git helps you to collaborate with other team members easily. It means that each member of the development team can work on any file at the same time. It will allow you to merge all the changes into a common version. Thus leaving no question of where the latest version of a file or a project is.
Git helps you to ensure a Safe Backup. Your team members have a complete version of the WordPress project on their disk-including the project’s complete history. If your server breaks down you can improve it by recovering from your teammates’ local repositories
Git has some tools which are very useful for your WordPress website.
GUI’s are using to have a user-friendly interface and also you can use it to make the learning process and managing the code easier for you.
Git hosts are the place where your Git repositories are but you can push the changes on your localhost too.
It has a WP Pusher which allows the user to link WordPress site to a WP plugin or theme hosted in a GitHub repository.
Gitlum assist you to automatically version any changes to plugin and themes directly from the WordPress admin dashboard
WP GitHub Sync is a tool which keeps a runni8ng history of edited to your content in a GitHub repository
Version Press is a tool which tracks every change you make to your site automatically
Reviser is similar to Version Press but it tracks changes when you commit changes to the Git repository manually.
In conclusion, as Git is the most known version control system it can help you manage your WordPress site.
Git focuses on the file content itself.
It is the integrity of managed source code and it secures the content of the file, the relationships of the files and directories, versions, tags and commits
Git is very safe as your server breaks down you can improve it by recovering from your teammates’ local repositories. If you did some changes you can undo them and save the change history.
Your developers can connect easily as they can see the whole tasks.
You can assign the same task more than one developer and you will save money and time.
What is Git? Why Is Git Important for your WordPress website? was originally published on WPlifecare