WP Workbench version 1.0.2 released (Pro repos only)

Joe · March 17, 2025, 7:07pm

Changes since 1.0.1:

Correctly handle PHP versions when calling wp CLI commands

ivanbg · March 18, 2025, 8:19am

Hello,

I have installed Wp Workbench with dnf install wbm-virtualmin-wp-workbench
. I have Virtualmin Pro. But I do not see it in Manage Web Apps page when selecting a virtual server with WordPress… I cleared the Brave cache and Virtualmin cache.

I see the plugin activated in Features and Plugins, but any of my domains are using it (there is 0 in this page).

Do I need to do anything for WP Workbench to recognize my WordPress installations? I installed WordPress manually on the server in every domain.

Thank you very much.

Best regards,

Ivan

stefan1959 · March 18, 2025, 9:40am

You don’t see it in Manage Wordpress? You will need to use the script install of wordpress I would think.

ivanbg · March 18, 2025, 9:48am

No, I do not have that page. I only see:

Yes, I think this is the problem. I need to install WordPress with Virtualmin script install.

@Ilia Is there any way to use WP Workbench with a manual installation of WordPress? Thanks!

stefan1959 · March 18, 2025, 9:53am

In cpanels they have a scan for wordpress, maybe something like that to allow for wordpress management.

Ilia · March 18, 2025, 12:38pm

Ah, I see what you mean—yes, we do have an option for this!

You can use the Virtualmin CLI for this purpose:

virtualmin detect-scripts --domain domain.tld --dir /home/domain/public_html/wordpress

@ivanbg However, beware—there’s currently a tiny bug that will also import ClassicPress clone as WordPress installations. It’s not a big deal, though—you can manually find and delete the unwanted entry in the /etc/webmin/virtual-server/scriptlog directory.

Just don’t use Virtualmin to remove/uninstall it, or it will delete your actual WordPress installation.

@Jamie, any thoughts on addressing this? I think we need to run a more thorough check to distinguish between WordPress and ClassicPress—I will take a look.

ivanbg · March 18, 2025, 12:46pm

Thank you very much!

Great news and a wonderful plugin.

One more reason to continue with Virtualmin Pro

You should promote this feature more. I think it is a game changer for many people in the WordPress ecosystem.

Thanks again!

ivanbg · March 18, 2025, 1:22pm

I follow your recommendation, and all it’s ok. The menu appears in
Manage WordPress, but under WP WorkBench I see the following error:

Perl : Failed to parse JSON output from WP-CLI command : malformed JSON string, neither array, object, number, string or atom, at character offset 0 (before "(end of string)") at /usr/libexec/webmin/web-lib-funcs.pl line 13005.
PHP  : Failed running `/bin/php83 /home/domain/public_html//wp-cli.phar --path=/home/domain/public_html/` command. See the log file at /home/domain/logs/wp_cli_log

In the logs I see:

cat /home/domain/logs/wp_cli_log
Could not open input file: /home/domain/public_html//wp-cli.phar
Could not open input file: /home/domain/public_html//wp-cli.phar

Update1: In the logs (The blog is in Spanish), I see:

malformed UTF-8 character in JSON string, at character offset 2142 (before "\x{ed}a de Egipto. I...") at /usr/libexec/webmin/web-lib-funcs.pl line 13005.

Update2: I tried the installation in some other blog and the problem is the same.

Perl : Failed to parse JSON output from WP-CLI command : malformed JSON string, neither array, object, number, string or atom, at character offset 0 (before "(end of string)") at /usr/libexec/webmin/web-lib-funcs.pl line 13005.
PHP  : Failed running `/bin/php83 /home/domain2/public_html/wordpress/wp-cli.phar --path=/home/domain2/public_html/wordpress` command. See the log file at /home/domain2/logs/wp_cli_log

I have WP CLI installed in the server, and works perfect.

Any idea? Thanks!

Ilia · March 18, 2025, 5:24pm

ivanbg:

PHP  : Failed running `/bin/php83 /home/domain2/public_html/wordpress/wp-cli.phar --path=/home/domain2/public_html/wordpress` command. See the log file at /home/domain2/logs/wp_cli_log

I have WP CLI installed in the server, and works perfect.

What does log /home/domain2/logs/wp_cli_log say?

ivanbg · March 18, 2025, 6:09pm

Only This:

Could not open input file: /home/domain2/public_html/wordpress/wp-cli.phar
Could not open input file: /home/domain2/public_html/wordpress/wp-cli.phar

I downloaded wp-cli.phar to this path. The PHP error disappeared, but not the perl error:

malformed UTF-8 character in JSON string, at character offset 2142 (before "\x{ed}a de Egipto. I...") at /usr/libexec/webmin/web-lib-funcs.pl line 13005.

ivanbg · March 18, 2025, 6:34pm

Find the solution:

I download in /home/dominio/public_html the archive wp-cli.phar with:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wp-cli/builds/gh-pages/phar/wp-cli.phar

Change permission (executable) and ownership (root to virtual server user) and all works now.

Before, I hadn’t changed the file owner from root to the server user.

Is it necessary to have the WP-CLI file wp-cli.phar in the root directory of each WordPress installation in order to WP Workbench to works?

Also, I have installed WP-Cli in my home user directory: /usr/local/bin/wp with:

mv wp-cli.phar /usr/local/bin/wp
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/wp

For security, I put in /public_html/.htaccess:

<Files "wp-cli.phar">
   Order Deny,Allow
   Deny from all
</Files>

And change permissions to 644.

Jamie · March 18, 2025, 8:16pm

I didn’t even know that ClassicPress was a thing! Is there a way we can differentiate it from regular WordPress?

Ilia · March 18, 2025, 9:07pm

No, actually, that’s discouraged. We’ll update the WordPress installer in Virtualmin to place it in the domain home at ~/bin/wp, and you should move it there rather than leaving it in the document root.

This also prevents checksum verification issues with ./wp core verify-checksums command, which we plan to implement soon in the WP Workbench plugin.

Ilia · March 18, 2025, 9:08pm

Yes quite easily, the PR is here:

shoulders · March 18, 2025, 9:35pm

I didn’t know either, a most pointless software.

I won’t use wordpress that has millions of dollars spent in r and d

ivanbg · March 19, 2025, 4:47am

Thanks again!

I move wp-cli.phar to ~/bin/wp in domain home, and all works perfect.

Ilia · March 19, 2025, 2:04pm

Thanks for the feedback!

And, I have also updated the Virtualmin WordPress and ClassicPress installers to place WP-CLI in the ~/bin directory.

jimr1 · March 19, 2025, 2:50pm

Sounds like your getting a bit more indie and lossing the microsoft faith

kamyar.hu · March 20, 2025, 8:17am

I am also facing:
‘Perl : Failed to parse JSON output from WP-CLI command : malformed JSON string, neither array, object, number, string or atom, at character offset 0 (before “(end of string)”) at /usr/share/webmin/web-lib-funcs.pl line 13005.
PHP : Failed running /bin/php8.2 /home/domain/bin/wp --path=/home/domain/public_html command. See the log file at /home/domain/logs/wp_cli_log’

and

is empty.

wp-cli.phar is placed in ~/bin/wp and permissions set to be executable by owner and group. Both the folder and .phar file owned by the virtualmin host’s user.

ivanbg · March 20, 2025, 8:22am

You have to go to home/your_user_server/bin and do the following (change your_user_server and your_group_server):

#Download wp-cli.phar
sudo curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wp-cli/builds/gh-pages/phar/wp-cli.phar
#move wp-cli.phar to wp
sudo mv wp-cli.phar /home/your_user_server/bin/wp
#make the file executable 
sudo chmod +x wp
#Change user and group from your virtual server
sudo chown your_user_server:your_group_server wp

That’s it.