In recent weeks, the suspension of the WordPress update infrastructure for WP Engine, a WordPress hosting company, has been the dominant topic in the WordPress community. In this context, decentralized update options have gained renewed attention in public discussions. The plugin Git Updater is far from new but more relevant than ever.
You can not simply go to WordPress.org and download the plugin from there. It turns out that replacing the official update mechanism conflicts with the guidelines for plugins listed in the official plugin directory. However, Andy Fragen, the developer behind Git Updater, offers a fantastic solution for developers, agencies, and tech-savvy users to source plugin and theme updates from platforms other than WordPress.org.
In addition to the standard support for the code management platform GitHub, the plugin—through the installation of small add-ons—also supports similar services such as Bitbucket, GitLab, Gitea, and Gist.
As described on the tool’s website, plugins and themes need to be equipped with specific header data, and the Git Updater plugin must be installed on the respective website. The header data specifies the repository URI, for which there are two possible formats (only one is needed):
GitHub Plugin URI: user/repo-name
GitHub Plugin URI: https://github.com/user/repo-nameCode language: JavaScript (javascript)In addition to the main plugin, which can be downloaded for free, Andy offers additional tools. For instance, a $20 extension allows updates from private repositories, while the free version only supports updates from public repositories.
A few days ago, Andy also released Git Updater Lite, which enables developers to load updates without requiring an additional plugin.