WordPress Runscript is a free WordPress plugin built by VR51 to make WordPress plugin and theme installation quick and easy. Batch install plugins and themes from predefined lists, deploy plugin and theme zip packages uploaded with WP Runscript or configure your own lists and deployment packages.
Install WP Runscript into WordPress, activate the plugin then visit the settings page to select plugin and theme package groups to install from the default lists. Read below to see how to customize the lists and packages.
WordPress Runscript
WordPress batch plugin and theme installation made easy. WordPress Runscript is aimed at WordPress website builders who want a quick way to install plugin and theme packages.
WP Runscript is hosted on Github. The code is publicly readable. The plugin is easy to use and easy to configure.
Questions Answered in this Post
What is WP Runscript
WordPress Runscript is plugin used by web developers to facilitate bulk installation of WordPress plugins and themes.
Why is WP Runscript Useful?
Consider this…
You have a client who wants a WordPress website. You use Softaculous to quickly install WordPress. For each plugin you install from the WordPress repository you search for the plugin then click install. For each premium plugin you install you download the plugin package then upload it to WordPress. You do the same for the theme. The installation of WordPress, the plugins and a theme takes about 60 minutes for every site you install. Then there is the setting up of WordPress, each plugin and the theme.
Now you can use WP Runscript to install all the plugins and the theme in around 10 minutes.
The plugin and theme lists can be configured and new lists added. This way you can create a base package for each type of website you install.
What plugins does WP Runscript install?
WP Runscript installs plugins from sets of plugin URL lists and deploys plugins stored in zip format within the WP Runscript plugin directory.
The plugin URL lists contain the download URLs of plugins stored on publicly accessible web servers. These plugins can be hosted in the WordPress plugin directory, on Github or anywhere else you might download a plugin from.
The plugin lists are easy to customize. Add URLs to the lists, remove URLs from the lists, delete entire lists or write your own new lists.
Plugin package files in zip format can be added to the WP Runscript plugin directory wordpress-runscript/plugins. WP Runscript automatically detects new packages.
What themes does WP Runscipt Install?
WP Runscript installs themes from sets of theme URL lists and deploys themes stored in zip format within the WP Runscript theme directory.
The theme URL lists contain the download URLs of themes stored on publicly accessible web servers. These themes can be hosted in the WordPress theme directory, on Github or anywhere else you might download a theme from.
The theme lists are easy to customize. Add URLs to the lists, remove URLs from the lists, delete entire lists or write your own new lists.
Theme package files in zip format can be added to the WP Runscript theme directory wordpress-runscript/themes. WP Runscript automatically detects new packages.
How to Use WordPress Runscript
WP Runscript downloads plugins and themes from publicly accessible URLs and deploys plugin and theme zip files stored within the WordPress Runscript plugin directory. The plugin and theme URLs are stored in lists, called plugin packs.
Plugin and Theme URL Packs
The plugin packs — plugin download lists — provided with WP Runscript are:
- Admin Tools
- Base Plugins
- Blog Organization
- Copy Protection
- Developer Tools
- Experimental
- Feature Plugins
- Genesis Theme Plugins
- Media Plugins
- Optimization
- Security and Backup Plugins
- Useful Widgets
- WooCommerce Plugins
Plugin packs can be edited. Just add or remove plugin download URLs to the plugin lists. Theme packs are edited the same way.
New lists can be created. Just add a text file to wordpress-runscript-master/lists/plugins. The name of the file will be the name of the list displayed in WP Runscript’s settings page. Theme packs are in wordpress-runscript-master/lists/themes.
Plugin and Theme zip file Deployment
WP Runscript can be used to deploy plugins or themes in zip format:
- Add plugin zip files to wordpress-runscript-master/plugins/
- Add theme zip files to wordpress-runscript-master/themes/
The instructions below explain how to add and edit plugin & theme lists and how to add and remove plugin & theme zip files for deployment.
To use WP Runscript as is:
- Download WP Runscript.
- Install WordPress Runscript into a WordPress site as you would any other WordPress plugin by going to Dashboard > Plugins > Upload
- Activate WordPress Ruscript and click ‘Settings’ under the plugin name or go to Dashboard > Settings > WordPress Runscript.
- Select packages to install. Click ‘Confirm Selection’. Click ‘Install Selection’.
To configure the lists of plugins and themes to be downloaded and installed:
- Download WP Runscript
- Unpack the package
- Open the directory wp-content/plugins/wordpress-runscript-master/lists
- Add URL addresses for plugins to be download from a remote repository (such as from wordpress.org or github) into a plugin list at wordpress-runscript/lists/plugins/
- Add URL addresses for themes to be download from a remote repository (such as from wordpress.org or github) into a theme list at wordpress-runscript/lists/themes/
- Now zip up the WordPress Runscript directory that contains the edited plugin list URLs and zip packages
- Install WordPress Runscript into a WordPress site as you would any other WordPress plugin by going to Dashboard > Plugins > Upload
- Activate WordPress Ruscript and click ‘Settings’ under the plugin name or go to Dashboard > Settings > WordPress Runscript.
- Select packages to install. Click ‘Confirm Selection’. Click ‘Install Selection’.
To deploy plugins and themes with the WordPress Runscript package:
- Add local plugin packages to be deployed by WordPress Runscript into WordPress-Runscipt-master/plugins/. Packages must be in zip format.
- Add local theme packages to be deployed by WordPress Runscript into WordPress-Runscipt-master/themes/. Packages must be in zip format.
To see plugin lists provided with WordPress Runscript: https://github.com/VR51/WordPress-Runscript/tree/master/lists
Settings Configuration
The plugin settings are located at WordPress Dashboard > Settings > WordPress Runscript.
After installation of WP Runscript go to the settings page and select the packages to install and deploy. You must confirm the selection before clicking ‘Install’.
Take Note
You must delete the plugin immediately it has completed its task. Do not leave active or installed under any circumstances.
Tip
To always get the most recent stable version of a plugin hosted on wordpress.org, change the version number in the download URL to ‘.latest-stable.zip’, for example
- From: https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/wp-admin-ui-customize.1.5.9.zip
- To: https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/wp-admin-ui-customize.latest-stable.zip
What WordPress Runscript Does NOT Do
Plugins and themes are not activated after installation.
Any existing plugin or theme files in wp-content/plugins or wp-content/themes are not removed.
Where plugin or themes have matching directory names (likely because they are the same plugin or theme as being installed), the new version is written into the existing directory and same named files are overwritten.
WordPress Runscipt will happily refresh an existing plugin install but because it does not remove existing files (only overwrites same named files) WP Runscript is not suited to malware removal application unless existing files are removed manually.
How to Edit Plugin and Theme Lists
- Browse to wp-content/plugins/wordpress-runscript/lists/
- Open either directory plugins or themes
- Open one of the lists for editing or make a new list by creating a new txt file
- Paste the URL of a plugin (or theme) into the list
- Save the list
- When WordPress Runscript next runs it will automatically detect any new list files or URLs added to the lists.
How to Add Plugin and Theme zip Files
- Browse to wp-content/plugins/wordpress-runscript/plugins/ or browse to wp-content/plugins/wordpress-runscript/themes/
- Paste a plugin zip file into wordpress-runscript/plugins or a theme file into wordpress-runscript/themes
- When WordPress Runscript next runs it will automatically detect any new theme or plugin zip packages ready for deployment
Summary
WordPress Runscript is the perfect way to install plugins or themes into newly installed WordPress websites. WP Runscript can be configured quickly and easily, and will batch install plugins or themes ready for activation with the minimum of effort.
We use WP Runscript at VR51 and WP Service Masters when we need to deploy bespoke WordPress solutions such as eCommerce sites or business brochure sites and when we need to install optimization plugins or when we need to overwrite plugins already installed within a WordPress site.
We also find WordPress Runscript works well in test environments we create with VHost Maker, our virtual host site installer Bash script that automates WordPress installation on virtual hosts.
WP Runscript is free to download and use. We are certain you will find it useful in your next development project.
Tell us what you think and let us know what you want to see in WordPress Runscript’s future.