This plugin hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.

Development Mode for Jetpack

Description

Contrary to popular belief, Jetpack does not require you to connect your website to WordPress.com before you can use it at all.

Several Jetpack modules are self-contained and do not require a WordPress.com connection to function:

  • Asset CDN
  • Beautiful Math
  • Carousel
  • Contact Form
  • Copy Post
  • Custom CSS
  • Custom content types
  • Extra Sidebar Widgets
  • Gravatar Hovercards
  • Infinite Scroll
  • Lazy Images
  • Markdown
  • Sharing
  • Shortcode Embeds
  • Site verification
  • Sitemaps
  • Tiled Galleries*
  • Widget Visibility

The Development Mode for Jetpack plugin enables (wait for it…) Jetpack Development Mode, which does two things:

  • Eliminates “nags” to connect a Jetpack-enabled site to WordPress.com.
  • Allows usage of modules that do not require a WordPress.com connection.

It also means you can stop using individual Jetpack modules that have been forked out into standalone plugins by random people. These plugins tend to be unsupported and out of step with the latest version of the official Jetpack equivalent.

Please note that this plugin requires Jetpack to be activated alongside it to be of any use, and will not help with the following modules that do require a WordPress.com connection:

  • Ads
  • Backups and Scanning
  • Comment Likes
  • Comments
  • Enhanced Distribution
  • Google Analytics
  • Image CDN
  • JSON API
  • Likes
  • Monitor
  • Notifications
  • Post by email
  • Protect
  • Publicize
  • Related posts
  • SEO Tools
  • Search
  • Secure Sign On
  • Site Stats
  • Subscriptions
  • VideoPress
  • WP.me Shortlinks
  • WooCommerce Analytics
  • WordPress.com Toolbar

Lists of Jetpack modules in this plugin description should not be considered comprehensive or authoritative, and may change at any time.

  • According to the previously linked documentation page for Jetpack Development mode:

Tiled Galleries requires the WordPress.com Photon CDN; however, in Development Mode, Jetpack provides a fallback so developers can have a similar experience during development and testing.

Other modules may also have “reduced functionality” but retain “a good-faith representation of the feature.”

Installation

  1. Upload the plugin files to the /wp-content/plugins/development-mode-for-jetpack directory, or install the plugin through the WordPress plugins screen directly.
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ screen in WordPress
  3. That is it. There is no settings page.

FAQ

How can I see a full list of modules I can activate in Jetpack with Development Mode enabled?

On your website with both Jetpack and Development Mode for Jetpack enabled, go to example.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=jetpack_modules, replacing example.com with your website URL.

On that page, you will see a complete list of modules available for activation with Development Mode.

Props to Ben Gillbanks for the tip.

You sound like a Jetpack hater! Is that true?

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

I support Jetpack feature(s) in every single one of my themes. An odd thing for a “hater” to do, isn’t it?

Many of the Jetpack features I support in my themes are derived from the aforementioned, self-contained modules. Jetpack Development Mode makes it easier to develop by eliminating unnecessary tasks.

Where is the settings page?

There isn’t one!

Activate this plugin if you want to enable Jetpack Development Mode. Deactivate if you don’t.

Can’t I get the same effect by adding a line to my theme’s functions.php file, or plopping this into an mu-plugin?

You sure can! Here’s the line you would need to add:

add_filter( 'jetpack_development_mode', '__return_true' );

Activating a plugin like this is just one approach. I prefer it, and you may prefer another.

To each their own.

How does this plugin differ from other plugins in the repository that do the same thing?

One comparable plugin I could find hasn’t been updated in over 2 years. While such a simple, one-line plugin needs minimal maintenance, it would be nice if it was periodically tested with the latest versions of Jetpack and WordPress to ensure smooth operation.

I plan on doing that, since I use Jetpack Development Mode very often.

That other plugin also ships with translations and includes a textdomain loading function. My plugin does not.

Finally, my plugin uses a slightly different, more defensive coding style that ensures Jetpack is active and loaded, prior to running any pertinent code.

Not huge differences, but I do want to note the differentiation.

Reviews

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Contributors & Developers

“Development Mode for Jetpack” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Development Mode for Jetpack” has been translated into 1 locale. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Development Mode for Jetpack” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

1.0.2

  • Tested and working with WordPress 5.5.1 and Jetpack 8.9.1.
  • Update readme with updated Jetpack module list.
  • Remove unnecessary Jetpack class_exists() check.

1.0.1

  • Tested and working with WordPress 4.8 and Jetpack 5.0

1.0.0

  • Initial release