Docs / Getting started

Installation

Three ways to install FluentSnippets, and what it creates on disk the first time it runs.

All documentation

FluentSnippets is free on the WordPress.org plugin directory. Install it however you normally install a plugin.

From the WordPress dashboard

  1. Go to Plugins → Add New.
  2. Search for FluentSnippets.
  3. Click Install Now, then Activate.

A FluentSnippets entry appears in the admin sidebar. That is the whole setup; there is no onboarding wizard, licence key or account to connect.

With WP-CLI

wp plugin install easy-code-manager --activate

Handy for provisioning scripts and repeatable deploys. Note that easy-code-manager is the directory slug, kept from the plugin’s original name.

NOTE

FluentSnippets does not register any WP-CLI commands of its own. The command above is WordPress core's plugin installer. To manage snippets from the command line, work with the files in the storage directory directly and rebuild the index afterwards, as described in How it works.

Manual upload

  1. Download the ZIP from WordPress.org or the GitHub releases page.
  2. Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin and choose the file.
  3. Click Install Now, then Activate.

What gets created

On activation, FluentSnippets creates a single directory:

wp-content/fluent-snippet-storage/
├── index.php      generated map of every snippet's settings
├── .htaccess      denies direct web access to the .php files
└── cached/        optional .css and .js files, when you enable "load as file"

No database tables are created, and no snippet data is written to the database at any point.

The .htaccess is defence in depth. Every snippet file already begins with an ABSPATH guard, so a direct request returns nothing even without it; the rule covers the case where a server stops processing PHP in that directory and would otherwise hand out your source. It is written once and an existing file is never overwritten. See fluent_snippets/protect_storage_dir if your host objects to it.

Moving the storage directory

If you would rather keep snippets somewhere else, define the path in wp-config.php before WordPress loads plugins:

define( 'FLUENT_SNIPPETS_STORAGE_DIR', WP_CONTENT_DIR . '/uploads/fluent-snippets' );

Move any existing snippet files to the new location and load an admin page once so the index rebuilds. More detail in Constants and hooks.

Upgrading and uninstalling

Updates come through the normal WordPress plugin updater. Your snippet files are untouched by an update; the index is rebuilt automatically when the plugin version changes.

Deleting the plugin leaves wp-content/fluent-snippet-storage/ in place, so nothing is lost by accident. If you had standalone mode enabled, the snippets keep running from mu-plugins after deletion. If you did not, they simply stop running and the files sit there until you remove them yourself.

TIP

Before you write your first PHP snippet on a live site, open Settings and copy the Safe Mode URL somewhere you can reach without the admin. It is the fastest way back in if a snippet ever locks you out. See Safe Mode.