wp_is_development_mode() │ WP 6.3.0

Checks if the site is in the specified development mode: core, plugin, theme, all.

The development mode is set in the wp-config.php file via the constant WP_DEVELOPMENT_MODE. For example:

define( 'WP_DEVELOPMENT_MODE', 'all' )

The development mode in WordPress is different from debug mode (WP_DEBUG) or the development environment wp_get_environment_type(). It does not affect error handling or debugging, but is needed to execute or not execute something in development mode. For example, a plugin can check if the plugin development mode is enabled and NOT use caching for a specific section of code.

Use wp_get_development_mode() when you need to get the name of the current development mode.

Uses: wp_get_development_mode()

No Hooks.

Returns

true|false. True if the current development mode is equal to the specified one, false otherwise.

Usage

wp_is_development_mode( $mode );
$mode(string) (required)

The development mode to check. One of:

  • core
  • plugin
  • theme
  • all - whether all three development modes (core, plugin, and theme) are enabled.

Examples

0

#1 Disabling caching in development mode

Example from the core function code wp_get_global_global_styles_custom_css():

    /*
	 * Ignore cache when development mode is set to 'theme' so as not to interfere with the theme developer's work.
	 */
	$can_use_cached = ! wp_is_development_mode( 'theme' );

	$cache_key   = 'wp_get_global_styles_custom_css';
	$cache_group = 'theme_json';
	if ( $can_use_cached ) {
		$cached = wp_cache_get( $cache_key, $cache_group );
		if ( $cached ) {
			return $cached;
		}
	}

	$tree       = WP_Theme_JSON_Resolver::get_merged_data();
	$stylesheet = $tree->get_custom_css();

	if ( $can_use_cached ) {
		wp_cache_set( $cache_key, $stylesheet, $cache_group );
	}
0

#2 Disabling cache for plugin developers.

Suppose we write a plugin and want to make it so that in plugin development mode our plugin does not use caching, but in any other mode it does.

// some code
	/*
	 * Ignoring transit cache in 'core' development mode.
	 * This is to avoid interfering with the plugin developer's workflow.
	 */
	if ( ! wp_is_development_mode( 'plugin' ) ) {
		$transient_name = 'wp_core_block_css_files';
		$files          = get_transient( $transient_name );
		if ( ! $files ) {
			$files = glob( wp_normalize_path( __DIR__ . '/**/**.css' ) );
			set_transient( $transient_name, $files );
		}
	} 
	else {
		$files = glob( wp_normalize_path( __DIR__ . '/**/**.css' ) );
	}
// some code

Changelog

Since 6.3.0 Introduced.

wp_is_development_mode() code WP 6.8.1

wp-includes/load.php 
function wp_is_development_mode( $mode ) {
	$current_mode = wp_get_development_mode();
	if ( empty( $current_mode ) ) {
		return false;
	}

	// Return true if the current mode encompasses all modes.
	if ( 'all' === $current_mode ) {
		return true;
	}

	// Return true if the current mode is the given mode.
	return $mode === $current_mode;
}

debug

Other Functions