[FIXED] How to upload/update Wordpress themes on Google App Engine without FTP?

Issue

I realised that, according to the Google Cloud documentation, unfortunately running wordpress on google app engines does provide any core FTP services!!

Thus if I want to update any new Wordpress themes/plugins onto my Google App Engine each time I add/remove new code, how am I supposed to update them on Google App Engine if there's no FTP service available?!

Also would the gsutil update function work? Will it behave the same thing as I would do upload/download wordpress themes/plugin as I do use the WP Admin screen.

My only concern for the above approach is that I have my local wordpress that's pointed to this URL localhost thus I might worry that when I upload my local copy, this will overwrite the site url of my google app engine account!! Is that case? I need some confirmation!

Solution

There's no FTP, the way you upload changes to App Engine is through the appcfg.py utility (or using the graphical launcher tool). This will update all the code in your application, including any plugins or themes you may have installed.

However it will not update the database, which usually means that content and settings that you have running will not change. Just the themes and modules.

Finally, App Engine has a neat feature called Versions, which allows you to run multiple copies of your Wordpress code simultaneously (they share the same database) under different URLs. Each version gets a URL like v2.myblog.appspot.com So if you update your code, do it to a seperate version, check that it works, then if you are happy with it, make it the default version. You can read more here:

https://gae-php-tips.appspot.com/2013/06/25/harnessing-the-power-of-versions-on-app-engine/

Answered By - Andrew J

Answer Checked By - David Marino (PHPFixing Volunteer)