Deploying WordPress sites using Shifter and the Netlify CLI

Shifter is a static site generator and hosting platform for WordPress. Creating a static WordPress site and deploying that to the Shifter CDN comes as an integrated option but it’s not the only one!

Netlify offers tools for developers to build, deploy, and manage sites from the command line interface or with continuous deployment options like Git.

Using Shifter and Netlify together, launch your static sites and leverage the great features that Netlify offers with existing WordPress projects.

If you’re working on or interested in WordPress, static sites, generators, going serverless, or all in on JAMStack this should be right up your alley.

Getting Started

In this demo, we’ll cover how to deploy your Shifter project to Netlify using their CLI.

Basic experience using Terminal or your preferred CLI tool is fine and you’ll need at least a Shifter Personal plan for the ability to download artifacts.

The official Getting Started CLI Guide for Netlify can be found here.

Install Netlify CLI

We recommend installing the CLI globally.

npm install netlify-cli -g

Making it globally available is a great way to make their deployment a project options available anywhere and will come in handy later when we download our static WordPress project.

Check the CLI is working

netlify

Commands seem straightforward. Using the CLI you have access to features such as Deploy, Update, Open, etc.

Another great feature with their CLI is environment flags. Those are not covered in this demo but we recommend reading more about those if you’re interested in setting up separate sites for staging or development.

Download Shifter Artifact

Please note, we’re assuming you have at least one Artifact available for download.

If you do not have an an Artifact to download and are unsure how to create one, check out our Artifact guide.

From the Shifter Dashboard navigate to your project and the Deploy tab and display the available Artifacts for download.

Select the one you’d like to deploy to Netlify and it will begin the archive download.

Once complete, open the unzip or unpack the archive and navigate to this new folder using Terminal or your preferred CLI tool.

Deploying to Netlify

From the command line interface and using the Netlify CLI tool use the Netlify Deploy command.

netlify deploy

If this your first time using the Netlify CLI you’ll need to authorize the CLI.

A new browser tab will open and you’ll have to grant the necessary permissions before going any further.

After you have confirmed the CLI you’ll see a few project related questions.

? No site id specified, create a new site

This is a new project so we’ll say, yes.

? Path to deploy? (current dir)

Since we are running the CLI commands from within the folder we’d like to deploy we can leave this blank and hit return.

Your project files should begin to upload and deploy to your created Netlify project. After this is complete the CLI will return your new project URL and a URL to access the latest build.

That’s it! Your Shifter site is now available on Netlify.

Of course this is one step to getting started with Netlify and Shifter.

For more info check out their blog and Official Docs to take it further.