STU-22: Add custom local domain support for WordPress sites #994

youknowriad · 2025-03-02T13:19:47Z

Related issues

Fixes Feature Request: Router mode request (localhost and site domain) #215

Summary …

Implemented custom domain support for WordPress sites using a proxy server
Added UI for setting custom domains when creating sites
Integrated with system hosts file for local domain resolution
The user chooses a custom domain on site creation (editing an existing site is harder because it would require updates to the WP database).

Implementation details

Created a proxy server that listens on port 80 and forwards requests to the appropriate local site. This means that if 80 is already used, custom domains won't work (there's no way around this)
Added domain management in hosts file to resolve custom domains to localhost
Updated site details to store and display custom domain information
Modified URL display in settings to show custom domain when enabled
Added validation for custom domain format

Test plan

Create a new site with custom domain enabled
Verify the domain is added to hosts file (requires admin permission)
Visit the site using the custom domain (without port)
Verify admin and frontend URLs work properly
Delete the site and verify domain is removed from hosts file

Pre-merge Checklist

Have you checked for TypeScript, React or other console errors?

Important note This PR has been created for a huge part using AI. My main purpose with this PR was to learn both Studio's code base and learn AI while implementing a useful feature.

youknowriad · 2025-03-03T07:15:22Z

src/lib/proxy-server.ts

+	try {
+		console.log( 'Attempting to start proxy server with elevated privileges' );
+
+		if ( currentPlatform === 'win32' ) {


Apparently in Windows, we need to run the proxy with admin rights. The AI proposed using netsh to forward to a custom port. I need someone to help me test Windows.

src/lib/proxy-server.ts

src/lib/hosts-file.ts

src/site-server.ts

src/index.ts

src/lib/hosts-file.ts

src/components/site-form.tsx

fredrikekelund

This seems to work relatively well in my light testing, which is great 👍 Still, this is a big feature, and we will need to test it thoroughly before landing.

A couple of initial high-level thoughts:

There are several visual issues in the Add site modal right now. We should get some designer input from @matt-west or someone else on how to implement this.
Users should be able to edit the domain after a site is added. This is already a big PR, so we don't necessarily need to implement that here, but it should go into the same release as this feature.

fredrikekelund · 2025-03-04T10:01:27Z

src/components/site-form.tsx

+	useCustomDomain,
+	setUseCustomDomain,
+	customDomain,
+	setCustomDomain,
+	customDomainError,


This is not the fault of this PR, but we should really move this state inside SiteForm and pass it back to the parent in the onSubmit handler. Too much prop drilling now with no clear benefit.

Entirely agree, I noticed it too :)

src/lib/hosts-file.ts

src/lib/proxy-server.ts

fredrikekelund · 2025-03-04T11:22:00Z

src/storage/user-data.ts

+					port,
+					phpVersion,
+					customDomain,
+					useCustomDomain,


Do we really need to store a boolean for useCustomDomain in the user config? Is it not enough to store customDomain?

I'm hesitant, I believe that we can get away with just "customDomain" but a boolean gives a sense of clarity. We absolutely need both as state values in the form.

src/lib/hosts-file.ts

fredrikekelund · 2025-03-04T11:39:43Z

src/lib/hosts-file.ts

+		if ( domainRegex.test( hostsContent ) ) {
+			return; // Domain already exists
+		}


What do we do when this happens..? Display some kind of error in the app?

To clarify, I was thinking of cases when the domain is pointing to a different IP. Edge case, perhaps, but it ties into other error handling questions like #994 (comment)

src/ipc-handlers.ts

wojtekn

The basic happy path works fine on Mac. I left some comments related to small issues and different cases.

src/components/site-form.tsx

src/lib/hosts-file.ts

wojtekn · 2025-03-04T12:34:35Z

src/lib/hosts-file.ts

+		const tempPath = '/tmp/wp-studio-hosts';
+		await writeFile( tempPath, content );
+		// @ts-expect-error promisify doesn't seem typed properly.
+		await sudoExec( `cat ${ tempPath } > ${ hostsPath }`, {


It asks for permission each time I add a new site. Is there a way to save it somehow, at least for the current Studio session?

If I'm reading this properly https://www.npmjs.com/package/sudo-prompt#concurrency it's probably not possible.

That said, I don't think it's a problem, I think it was more visible when we had the bug where the hosts file was modified on each "start". But right now, it's only when you start the server for the first time for a given site. So a real user is very unlikely to face the issue on a regular basis.

src/lib/hosts-file.ts

src/components/site-form.tsx

mcsf · 2025-03-06T15:56:19Z

Pushed some unit tests for the hosts-file module. 9bf1b56 and b3c4c7b show different possible approaches. Read the their commit messages for details. Feel free to push a revert for the latter if the former is preferred.

mcsf · 2025-03-06T16:00:36Z

I pushed a revert, so we keep the first approach. Decisions, not options. :)

youknowriad · 2025-03-06T16:05:29Z

Thanks @mcsf

I tried adding e2e test myself for the feature, there's a good and a bad news:

The good news is that the infrastructure in place allows writing e2e tests pretty easily. Thanks @wojtekn and friends.
The bad news is that the current PR can't be e2e tested because it relies on a system prompt (sudo)

Overall, I think the PR is a good state, I would love more testing specifically. cc @wojtekn @fredrikekelund

(This somewhat breaks the layout. Feel free to revert.)

youknowriad added the [Type] Enhancement label Mar 2, 2025

youknowriad requested review from fredrikekelund, nightnei and katinthehatsite March 2, 2025 13:19

youknowriad self-assigned this Mar 2, 2025

youknowriad force-pushed the add/custom-domain-support branch 2 times, most recently from 4f49875 to 57a013b Compare March 2, 2025 13:23

youknowriad commented Mar 3, 2025

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youknowriad requested review from wojtekn and sejas March 3, 2025 08:56

mcsf reviewed Mar 3, 2025

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ellatrix reviewed Mar 3, 2025

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fredrikekelund requested review from a team and removed request for wojtekn, sejas, fredrikekelund, nightnei and katinthehatsite March 3, 2025 11:47

youknowriad commented Mar 3, 2025

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fredrikekelund requested a review from matt-west March 4, 2025 15:07

richtabor added Enhancement and removed [Type] Enhancement labels Mar 5, 2025

youknowriad requested review from fredrikekelund and wojtekn March 5, 2025 19:17

richtabor changed the title ~~Add custom local domain support for WordPress sites~~ STU-22: Add custom local domain support for WordPress sites Mar 5, 2025

youknowriad and others added 21 commits March 7, 2025 05:32

Add custom local domain support for WordPress sites

ae765a9

Fix unit tests

27855d7

Fix elevated domain proxy

055ba22

cross platform port elevation

39c6986

Fix unit tests

cb1eea2

Changes per review

e40a05a

Remove no longer used variable currentPlatform

e465216

hosts-file: Group custom domain entries in one block

da47d12

Explain next to checkbox the need for sudo prompt

b494308

(This somewhat breaks the layout. Feel free to revert.)

Handle empty custom domain on submit

d3c0cee

User os utils

70a506d

Remove useless logs

2e99aab

throw error when a domain was not added to the hosts file properly

86c9a1b

Reuse sanitize function

fc2b893

Move to advanced settings

8611ba3

Allow setting custom domains during onboarding

025a5b1

Better validation

d7d78c5

hosts-file: Reimplement grouping of custom domains

3059e59

Fix unit tests

c1e1b0b

Fix cross platform cat command

503cf40

Remove proxy elevation

12ce9e9

youknowriad force-pushed the add/custom-domain-support branch from dfd8a89 to 12ce9e9 Compare March 7, 2025 04:32

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STU-22: Add custom local domain support for WordPress sites #994

STU-22: Add custom local domain support for WordPress sites #994

youknowriad commented Mar 2, 2025 •

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youknowriad commented Mar 6, 2025

STU-22: Add custom local domain support for WordPress sites #994

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STU-22: Add custom local domain support for WordPress sites #994

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youknowriad commented Mar 2, 2025 • edited Loading

Related issues

Summary …

Implementation details

Test plan

Pre-merge Checklist

youknowriad Mar 3, 2025 • edited Loading

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mcsf commented Mar 6, 2025

mcsf commented Mar 6, 2025

youknowriad commented Mar 6, 2025

youknowriad commented Mar 2, 2025 •

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youknowriad Mar 3, 2025 •

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