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Limitations

WordPress Playground is under active development and has some limitations you should keep in mind when running it and developing with it.

You can track the status of these issues on the Playground Project board.

In the browser​

Access the Plugins, Themes, Blocks, or Patterns directories​

Playground disables network connections by default, blocking access to wp.org assets (themes, plugins, blocks, or patterns) in wp-admin. You can still upload zipped plugin and theme files from your device or enable the option via the Query API or Blueprints API.

Temporary by design​

As Playground streams rather than serves WordPress, all database changes and uploads will be gone when you refresh the page. To avoid losing your work, either export your work before or enable storage in the browser/device via the "Save" button found in the "Open Playground Manager" menu on the top left of the site.

The open Playground Manager button:

Open Playground Manager

The save button:

Save Button

When developing with Playground​

Iframe quirks​

Playground renders WordPress in an iframe so clicking links with target="_top" will reload the page you’re working on. Also, JavaScript popups originating in the iframe may not always display.

Run WordPress PHP functions​

Playground supports running PHP code in Blueprints using the runPHP step. To run WordPress-specific PHP functions, you’d need to first require wp-load.php:

{
    "step": "runPHP",
    "code": "<?php require_once('wordpress/wp-load.php'); OTHER_CODE ?>"
}

Using WP-CLI​

You can execute wp-cli commands via the Blueprints wp-cli step. However, since Playground runs in the browser, it doesn't support the full array of available commands. While there is no definite list of supported commands, experimenting in the online demo will help you assess what's possible.