Automattic / Automattic/jetpack

Offline Mode renders many Jetpack features unavailable in local development environments

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#36,889 13 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
[Feature] Offline Mode [Plugin] Jetpack [Pri] Normal [Status] Needs Author Reply Enhancement Triaged
Dominant language
PHP
Stars
1.8k
Forks
898
Avg merge
1d 18h
Merged PRs (30d)
774

Description

### Impacted plugin

Jetpack

### Quick summary

> Currently in [Offline Mode](https://jetpack.com/redirect/?source=jetpack-support-development-mode&site=localhost:8886) (some features are disabled) because:
Your site URL is a known local development environment URL

Scary message shows up when someone is trying to use Jetpack. Let's imagine they are a new developer who likes Jetpack from WordPress.com - they've used it before.

Then, they try to install it locally and get the warning. No context.. just a message that says "This probably isn't going to work the way you want it to."

### Steps to reproduce

Install Jetpack on any local development environment

### A clear and concise description of what you expected to happen.

I'd expect users to be able to use Jetpack to do local development.

### What actually happened

Who knows? Jetpack doesn't make the user aware of what doesn't work, what can work, just throws a scary message that would deter many from not using it.

Myself included. Am I going to spend 4 hours trying to use Jetpack and it doesn't work?

### Impact

Some (< 50%)

### Available workarounds?

Yes, difficult to implement

### Platform (Simple and/or Atomic)

Simple

### Logs or notes

_No response_

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

No files or tests are named. Reproduce the issue by installing Jetpack on a local development environment, then trace the Offline Mode decision and warning shown to users. Done should make the limitations and supported local-development behavior clear instead of presenting an unexplained blocking message.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
php, wordpress
Domain
developer-experience
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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