One of the frustrations and time-consuming things most WordPress developers and engineers do is setting up sandboxes to test various plugins, features and themes. This new service, which is currently free promises to change the game when it comes to that. Joe Guilmette and the team behind WP All Import, has just launched Poopy.life to the public today. They are offering free unlimited WordPress installs for anyone who needs a temporary site. Whilst the name of the domain might sound funny, it’s not an Aprils fools joke. It’s a real service that has a lot of promise.
With just one click, Poopy.life creates a test install and sends you to the WordPress admin dashboard. Where you can see credentials for logging in and the web address to get to your instance. The install expires after 7 days, unless manually extended with the button in the admin. It also allows you to create a sandbox template that can be shared via a URL so that others can quickly create a duplicate install. We set up a test account and it was really fast.
Joe Guilmette and his team plan to add a paid version which allows you to add a custom domain to your install. When asked about why they chose the Joe said “We chose poopy.life specifically because it is ridiculous and no one will be able to use it in a professional context,” Guilmette said. “Also it was shorter than the previous domain we were going to use – oxygen-is-really-amazing-and-everyone-loves-it.com.”
Poopy.life currently runs on CloudLinux and Guilmette said it is hosted on “a handful of very powerful dedicated servers and ~10 smaller helper instances/load balancers, and duct tape.”
Joe and his team plans introduce a commercial tier on wpsandbox.io to allow users to have installs on a custom domain, as well as control of the welcome notice and email.
“The WordPress installs are real WordPress installs and you can install any plugin on them,” Guilmette said. “You can install a PHP shell and dig around the server and run whatever weird spammy malware you want. There really isn’t any way to prevent it.”
“Poopy.life is basically magical golden dogfood we’ve been eating for years,” Guilmette said. “This platform is huge for us. Back before we got serious about this we were hosting it on a VPS at MediaTemple, just kind of hacking it together. It would go down all the time, and whenever it did it would throw our support channel into disarray and sales would drop by 50%.”
Joe Guilmette said the most vital thing WP All Import clients need to know is if the item will have the capacity to import their documents. A testing stage drives deals for the companies and reduces buyers regret since clients know precisely what they are getting. It likewise has demonstrated to diminish bolster demands.
“We get way fewer simple questions about the UI, because people can just try it,” Guilmette said. “So that clears support up for people who have real problems. It also makes those support requests easier, because the user can reproduce the problem on a debug install, and we can poke at it without worrying about breaking their site.”
