Tag: revision-history

  • Quick Tip: Get Size of Revisions in WordPress

    Quick Tip: Get Size of Revisions in WordPress

    One thing that you might not think of when watching the size of a large WordPress site grow, is unnecessary data in the database. With the introduction of the block editor years ago, there has been a large increase in the number of revisions a post makes when being edited.

    This can create a lot of revisions in the database if you’re not setting a limit.

    If you’d like to do a quick and dirty audit of your revision data, you can use a very ugly SQL query like this:

    SELECT COUNT( ID ) as revision_count, ( SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( ID ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( post_author ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( post_date ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( post_date_gmt ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( post_content ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( post_title ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( post_excerpt ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( post_status ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( comment_status ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( ping_status ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( post_password ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( post_name ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( to_ping ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( pinged ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( post_modified ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( post_modified_gmt ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( post_content_filtered ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( post_parent ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( guid ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( menu_order ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( post_type ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( post_mime_type ) ) + SUM( CHAR_LENGTH( comment_count ) ) ) as post_size FROM wp_posts WHERE post_type='revision' GROUP BY post_type ORDER BY revision_count DESC;Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

    This will give you the number of revisions you have, and the approximate amount of data its using in the database:

    revision_count post_size
    441419 2842450412

    You can see now a very large WordPress site can amass a lot of unnecessary data in its database over a number of years. 2.8 Gigabytes of revisions is a lot of stuff if you’re never going to use them again.

  • Deleting Old Post Revisions in WordPress with WP-CLI

    Deleting Old Post Revisions in WordPress with WP-CLI

    Recently I’ve been working with a client who’s site we’re going to soon be migrating. To help with any downtime, we’ve been looking at reducing their database size, which is something around 50-60 gigabytes. After looking through the database, one easy win would be to purge as many post revisions as possible, since their wp_posts table was about 50% revisions 😱

    We couldn’t just mass delete anything with a revision post type though, because the client had some specific needs:

    • Keep all revisions for posts from the last 12 months.
    • Keep all revisions that were made after the post was published.
    • Keep a backup of all revisions deleted.

    To do this, I crafted a custom WP-CLI command to purge these revisions. I’ve accidentally deleted the final version of the script, since it was only a one-run thing, but here’s an earlier version that could be a good starting point for anyone else that has a similar need to prune revisions:

    /**
     * WP-CLI command that deletes pre-publish post revisions for posts older than 12 months.
     *
     * @subcommand prune-revisions [--live] [--verbose]
     */
    public function prune_revisions( $args, $assoc_args ) {
    	global $wpdb;
    
    	$live    = (bool) $assoc_args[ 'live' ];
    	$verbose = (bool) $assoc_args[ 'verbose' ];
    	$offset  = 0;
    	$limit   = 500;
    	$count   = 0;
    	$deletes = 0;
    
    	if ( $live ) {
    		$output_file = sanitize_file_name( sprintf( 'prune-revisions-backup_%d_%d.csv', get_bloginfo( 'name' ), current_time( 'timestamp', true ) ) );
    		$handle      = fopen( $output_file, 'wb' );
    
    		if ( false === $handle ) {
    			WP_CLI::error( sprintf( 'Error opening %s for writing!', $output_file ) );
    		}
    
    		// Headers.
    		$csv_headers = array(
    			'ID',
    			'post_author',
    			'post_date',
    			'post_date_gmt',
    			'post_content',
    			'post_title',
    			'post_excerpt',
    			'post_status',
    			'comment_status',
    			'ping_status',
    			'post_password',
    			'post_name',
    			'to_ping',
    			'pinged',
    			'post_modified',
    			'post_modified_gmt',
    			'post_content_filtered',
    			'post_parent',
    			'guid',
    			'menu_order',
    			'post_type',
    			'post_mime_type',
    			'comment_count',
    			'filter',
    		);
    
    		fputcsv(
    			$handle,
    			$csv_headers
    		);
    	}
    
    	$count_sql      = 'SELECT COUNT(ID) FROM ' . $wpdb->posts . ' WHERE post_type = "revision"';
    	$revision_count = (int) $wpdb->get_row( $count_sql, ARRAY_N )[0];
    	$progress       = \WP_CLI\Utils\make_progress_bar( sprintf( 'Checking %s revisions', number_format( $revision_count ) ), $revision_count );
    
    	do {
    		$sql       = $wpdb->prepare( 'SELECT ID FROM ' . $wpdb->posts . ' WHERE post_type = "revision" LIMIT %d,%d', $offset, $limit );
    		$revisions = $wpdb->get_results( $sql );
    
    		foreach ( $revisions as $revision ) {
    			$count++;
    			$post_parent_id = wp_get_post_parent_id( $revision->ID );
    
    			// Fail on either 0 or false.
    			if ( false == $post_parent_id ) {
    				WP_CLI::warning( sprintf( 'Revision %d does not have a parent!  Skipping!', $revision->ID ) );
    				continue;
    			}
    
    			$revision_modified   = get_post_modified_time( 'U', false, $revision->ID );
    			$parent_publish_time = get_post_time( 'U', false, $post_parent_id );
    
    			if ( $parent_publish_time < current_time( 'timestamp') - ( MONTH_IN_SECONDS * 12 ) ) {
    				// Post is older than 12 months, safe to delete pre-publish revisions.
    				if ( $revision_modified < $parent_publish_time ) {
    					if ( $live ) {
    						// We're doing it live!
    						WP_CLI::log( sprintf( 'Deleting revision %d for post %d. (%d%% done)', $revision->ID, $post_parent_id, ( $count / $revision_count ) * 100 ) );
    
    						// Backup data!
    						$output = [];
    						$data   = get_post( $revision->ID );
    
    						// Validate the field is set, just in case.  IDK how it couldn't be.
    						foreach ( $csv_headers as $field ) {
    							$output = isset( $data->$field ) ? $data->$field : '';
    						}
    
    						fputcsv( $handle, $output );
    
    						$did_delete = wp_delete_post_revision( $revision->ID );
    
    						// Something went wrong while deleting the revision?
    						if ( false === $did_delete || is_wp_error( $did_delete ) ) {
    							WP_CLI::warning( sprintf( 'Revision %d for post %d DID NOT DELETE! wp_delete_post_revision returned:', $revision->ID, $post_parent_id ) );
    						}
    						$deletes++;
    
    						// Pause after lots of db modifications.
    						if ( 0 === $deletes % 50 ) {
    							if ( $verbose ) {
    								WP_CLI::log( sprintf( 'Current Deletes: %d', $deletes ) );
    							}
    							sleep( 1 );
    						}
    					} else {
    						// Not live, just output info.
    						WP_CLI::log( sprintf( 'Will delete revision %d for post %d.', $revision->ID, $post_parent_id ) );
    					}
    				} else {
    					// Revision is after the post has been published.
    					if ( $verbose ) {
    						WP_CLI::log( sprintf( 'Post-Publish: Will NOT delete Revision %d for post %d.', $revision->ID, $post_parent_id ) );
    					}
    				}
    			} else {
    				// Post is too new to prune.
    				if ( $verbose ) {
    					WP_CLI::log( sprintf( 'Too-New: Will NOT delete Revision %d for post %d.', $revision->ID, $post_parent_id ) );
    				}
    			}
    		}
    
    		// Pause after lots of db reads.
    		if ( 0 === $count % 5000 ) {
    			if ( $verbose ) {
    				WP_CLI::log( sprintf( 'Current Count: %d', $count ) );
    			}
    			sleep( 1 );
    		}
    
    		// Free up memory.
    		$this->stop_the_insanity();
    
    		// Paginate.
    		if ( count( $revisions ) ) {
    			$offset += $limit;
    			$progress->tick( $limit );
    		} else {
    			WP_CLI::warning( 'Possible MySQL Error, retrying in 10 seconds!' );
    			sleep( 10 );
    		}
    
    	} while ( $count < $revision_count );
    
    	$progress->finish();
    
    	if ( $live ) {
    		fclose( $handle );
    		WP_CLI::success( sprintf( 'Deleted %d revisions', $deleted ) );
    	} else {
    		WP_CLI::success( sprintf( 'Processed %d revisions', $revision_count ) );
    	}
    }Code language: PHP (php)
  • Wisps, a WordPress Plugin

    Wisps, a WordPress Plugin

    Last year I had a need for an editable JSON file that was retrievable via HTTP. Of course there’s a million ways that I could do this, but the easiest I thought of would be to have it inside of WordPress, since all of the people that needed access to edit the file already had edit access to a specific site. So I built a plugin.

    Doing this inside WordPress already brings a lot of benefits with little to no effort:

    1. User Management
    2. Revision History
    3. oEmbed Support
    4. Permalinks
    5. Syntax Highlighting Code Editor
    6. Self-Hosted Data

    Possibly more benefits as well, depending on the setup, such as caching.

    I’ve tweaked the plugin some, and I’m almost ready to submit it to the WordPress.org Plugin Repository. I just need to do the hard part of figuring out artwork. Ugh.

    Introducing Wisps:

    Wisps are embeddable and sharable code snippets for WordPress.

    With Wisps, you can have code snippets similar to Gist, Pastebin, or similar code sharing sites. Using the built-in WordPress code editor, you can write snippets to post and share. This has the benefit of WordPress revisions, auto-drafts, etc to keep a record of how code changes.

    Wisps can be downloaded by appending /download/ to the permalink, or viewed raw by adding /view/ or /raw/. There is full oEmbed support so you can just paste in a link to a wisp in the editor and it will be fully embedded.

    PrismJS is used for syntax highlighting for oEmbeds.

    You can add Wisp support to your theme either by modifying the custom post type page-wisp.php template, which will continue to display Wisps in the loop securely, or you can use add_theme_support( 'wisps' ) to tell the plugin to not automatically escape the output. You can then do what you like, such as potentially adding frontend support for syntax highlighting.

    Here’s what the oEmbed data looks like:

    (Yeah, I totally stole the design from Gists, because I’m not talented 😬)

    View the example Wisp

    View it raw

    Download it

    Currently available on GitHub

    Hopefully one day available on the WordPress.org Plugin Repository 🙂

    If you give it a try and have any suggestions, or issues drop me a line here or on GitHub!