A New Star Is Born: Cookie Cutter WordPress With Installation Templates

Cookie Cutter WordPress

Cookie Cutter WordPress (attr)

Installation Templates have been on our to-do list since we launched iControlWP (Worpit) back in 2012.

Rapid WordPress deployment is how we saw WordPress management going (and still is).

Why has it taken so long to get there? Lots of reasons, the world’s most awesome backup service is just one of them.

Read on to discover what WordPress Installation Templates are, and how you can use them to kit-out your WordPress sites quickly.

What are iControlWP WordPress Installation Templates?

WordPress Installation Templates are basically just how they sound – they’re templates that you design which let you cookie-cutter your WordPress sites.

The long term goal is that by using iControlWP you’ll be able to deploy brand-new WordPress sites exactly how you want within a few seconds, with the absolute minimum amount of effort.

How is this possible?

With services like WP Roller you can already create installation bundles that help you do this, but with iControlWP we want to let you make these kinds of bundles and deploy them from a central management system – iControlWP.

And that’s the principle behind iControlWP WordPress Installation Templates – organised collections of WordPress Plugins, Themes and Settings that you can quickly deploy to any WordPress site.

How do WordPress Installation Templates work?

Very simply we’ve provided an interface that lets you to search WordPress.org (as you would when you’re going to install a plugin or theme) and then click to add that to your installation template.

iControlWP will store that plugin/theme into your template. Then, when you deploy a template, iControlWP will take each plugin and theme listed within it and install it on the given site.

To get more info on Installation Templates within the iControlWP User Interface, check out the FAQ section here.

A few limitations with version 1.0 of Installation Templates

As with anything new, there are some limitations. These are temporary, and as follows:

  • Only WordPress.org plugins are supported at the moment. We will add support for themes in a future release, but for now we think you the most important is there for you to use – WordPress Plugins.
  • There is only 1 template available per-account.  In the future, we will effectively offer unlimited templates that you can select, modify, and install etc. by name.  For now, there’s only one.
  • There are currently no “sub options” – for example, you cannot yet specify to install a plugin and then activate it.  This, again, will come as the system evolves and based on your feedback.

iControlWP is what you make it!

As with any product or service you use, you can only shape the development of it by using your voice. So, either below, or in our help centre, please tell us what else you need from installation templates.

It’s early days, and we have lots of ideas on how we’d like to see these used, but of course we need your feedback.  Let us know what you think of the implementation so far, and what you’d like to see.

Join the discussion 10 Comments

  • WPRoller is currently my WordPress installation method of choice, so I’ll be very interested to see whether Installation Templates can make a convert of me! (I actually discovered the new icon a couple of days before the blog post was published.)

    Is the Installation Templates function going to be moved across to the Install WordPress tab at some stage?

    View Comment
    • Paul G. says:

      Hey Russell,

      Well, what would be good to know here is what would make you a convert? 🙂
      What is the core piece of functionality that you would need to see in it to make it work for you.

      And yes, that’s part of the longer-term plan, to integrate installation templates directly into the WordPress Installation wizard. 🙂

      Cheers,
      Paul.

      View Comment
  • Craig Grella says:

    has this been implemented yet?

    View Comment
  • Roberto Diaz says:

    Hi Paul

    PS: Your last link reply is not working.

    Installation Templates for plugins and themes are an incredible way to automate the wordpress deployment process. Since the original article is over 1 month old I would like to know what are we capable of doing and what not. Please specify:

    1. Plugin Templates
    a. Ability to add non-wordpress.org plugins
    2. Theme Templates
    a. a. Ability to add non-wordpress.org themes
    3. Multiple Templates
    4. Integrate installation templates directly into the WordPress Installation wizard

    If not yet available, please provide a tentative release date if possible.

    Thanks for this awesome feature! – Keep it up.

    View Comment
    • Paul G. says:

      Hey Roberto,

      Thanks for the tip – I’ve fixed that link.

      Since this initial release, no further developments have been made to the system – only plugin (WordPress.org) installation templates are available.

      That’s set to change though and what we are planning to provide for is (in order) :
      1) Theme Templates (WordPress.org)
      2) WordPress Settings
      3) Multiple and Templates
      4) Integration in WP Installation
      5) Premium Plugins and Themes.

      April is set to have a lot of new features and releases and I can’t give you a tentative date for release. It is a priority though and will be a case of evolutionary development instead of a big bang release. Stayed tuned on the blog and newsletter for releases…

      Thanks for your feedback and comments – appreciate it!
      Paul.

      View Comment
  • Georg Wenhold says:

    Hi,

    Have you made any progress on these yet?

    View Comment
  • Jerry Windham says:

    This dialogue is quite old. Where do I find current documentation on how to setup and use templates?

    View Comment

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