Editing a third-party plugin is sometimes the only way to get what a client needs. The problem comes with the next update: installing it overwrites your changes, and skipping it leaves security fixes behind.
Naroum Update Merge solves this with a three-way merge, the same approach version control tools use. It compares:
- the original version your changes were made on,
- your customized version, currently installed,
- the new version of the plugin.
Because it knows the original, it can tell what you changed from what the update changed:
- Files and lines changed only by you are kept automatically.
- Files and lines changed only by the update are applied automatically.
- Changes on both sides in different places are merged line by line.
- Only real conflicts, where both sides changed the same lines, are shown to you.
For each conflict you choose which code to keep: my version, the new version, both (in either order), or the original version. The tool only combines code that already exists in these versions; it does not let you type code. To adjust the result by hand, download the merged ZIP, edit it, and install it with Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin.
Safe installation
- ZIP backup of the installed plugin before anything is replaced, downloadable from the tool.
- PHP syntax check of every file that comes from your version or from a merge. Installation is blocked on error.
- Installation is blocked if the plugin changed on the server since the analysis.
- The plugin folder is swapped with two renames on the same disk, with automatic rollback if the second one fails.
- The new release is saved as the reference for your next update, so you only need to provide the original version once.
- Prefer to install manually? Download the merged plugin as a ZIP instead.
Sources
- Original version: downloaded from WordPress.org (matching the installed version number), uploaded as a ZIP, or the reference saved by the previous merge.
- New version: latest release from WordPress.org, or uploaded as a ZIP (premium plugins, specific versions).
- No original version available? A two-way comparison lets you choose every difference, with a bulk action for the files you did not touch.
Who is it for?
Agencies and developers who maintain client sites with customized plugins and want a reviewable, reversible update process instead of redoing their changes by hand.
The tool is available under Plugins > Update Merge, to users who can install and update plugins. It is unavailable when
DISALLOW_FILE_MODS is set. On multisite, it is in the network admin.