WP Express

WP Express is an advanced and very useful piece of software designed from the ground up to improve your Wordpress development workflow.

Without over complicating things, this utility makes it effortlessly for you to set up a WordPress project on your local development environment without having to worry about setting up databases, localizing your project and installing or moving files from one place to another.

This said, in order to get started with WP Express, you firstly need to make sure that a local server is running on your computer and that it is compatible with WordPress. Another issue to be aware of is the fact that the database (MySQL) is required to be fully accessible by third-party apps or services.

Once you have this step covered, you can get the utility up and running in just a few minutes at most. After a typical installation process, you are required to undergo a streamlined and uncomplicated configuration process.

Upon launching the app, you are greeted by the main window that clearly displays the three step configuration process. You need to select an installation folder, or you can drag and drop it on the app's main window.

The next step requires that you enter the database details such as the username, password, hostname or address and the port number. By clicking the "Test Connection" button, the application checks if the database is accessible and establishes the connection and you can select an existing database or create new ones with just a few clicks.

The final main step requires you to enter your WordPress site details, such as title, the URL or the running local environment and select the language packs, if you do so desire.

Depending on what version of WP Express you are running, it might also be possible for you to add themes and plugins to your projects, in order to improve your workflow even more.

The app also allows you to save the default settings, once again, for speeding up the setup process.

It somewhat difficult to get excited about WP Express, since it is one of those apps that has a great potential of improving your WordPress development workflow but does not really stand out with flashy or generally-desirable features.

The utility only cuts down on the number of repetitive tasks by making sure that you always start with the latest version of WordPress for your projects, by automatically creating databases for your sites and by allowing you to quickly search for existing ones and by downloading and installing language packs on your sites.