Description
Geared URL Replacer gives administrators a review-first workflow for changing stored URLs without running direct SQL replacements.
Create a match rule, choose a replacement and scope, then run the mandatory dry run. The report shows proposed changes before the Apply step becomes available.
Safety-focused workflow
- Matches complete URL values rather than arbitrary text fragments.
- Supports contains, starts with, ends with, exact URL, domain, and path rules.
- Filters internal, external, absolute, or relative URLs.
- Previews every supported change in a resumable dry run.
- Preserves HTML, block markup, JSON, and serialized PHP structures.
- Excludes protected fields such as GUIDs, credentials, sessions, caches, and plugin-owned data.
- Creates a protected rollback snapshot before each verified write.
- Restores only fields that still match the value written by the plugin, so later edits are preserved.
- Uses bounded, resumable batches for scanning, applying, and rolling back.
Supported locations
Default and optional scopes include posts, pages, public custom post types, post metadata, navigation menus, widgets, ordinary options, terms, comments, users, revisions, and explicitly selected safe custom tables.
Important backup notice
Rollback snapshots are recovery evidence for this plugin’s changes. They are not a complete database backup. Create and verify an independent database backup before applying replacements or starting a rollback.
Accessibility
The administrator interface follows WordPress admin patterns, supports keyboard navigation, provides visible focus, associates labels with controls, and announces changing progress and status messages.
Privacy
Geared URL Replacer processes site content locally and does not send content, URLs, reports, telemetry, or personal data to an external service.
Dry-run reports and rollback snapshots can contain excerpts or original stored values. They are kept in protected plugin-owned database tables and are available only to administrators. Ordinary logs redact sensitive values.
By default, rollback snapshots are retained for seven days and plugin data is preserved during uninstall. Administrators can choose one-day, seven-day, thirty-day, or manual retention; run cleanup; delete snapshots; delete completed job history; and explicitly opt into destructive uninstall.
Support
Use the WordPress.org support forum for setup questions and reproducible defects after the plugin is published. Include the WordPress, PHP, and plugin versions plus the visible error code.
Do not post private URLs, credentials, nonces, cookies, database exports, protected report contents, or rollback snapshots in a public support topic. Report suspected security issues privately to the plugin owner.
Screenshots
Installation
- Upload the
geared-url-replacerfolder to/wp-content/plugins/, or install the ZIP from Plugins > Add New. - Activate Geared URL Replacer.
- Open Tools > Geared URL Replacer.
- Create and verify an independent database backup.
- Build a rule, select the scope, and complete the mandatory dry run.
- Review the report before confirming Apply.
Network activation is intentionally blocked. On multisite, activate the plugin separately on each site where it is needed.
FAQ
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Does a dry run change my content?
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No. A dry run reads eligible fields and stores a protected report in the plugin’s own tables. It does not write to source content.
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Does the plugin replace arbitrary text?
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No. It conservatively identifies complete URL values. Ambiguous plain text and malformed structures are skipped or reported instead of being changed.
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Can I undo a replacement?
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The plugin stores a protected snapshot before each verified write. Rollback restores a field only when its current value still exactly matches the value written by the replacement. Later edits are left untouched and reported.
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Is rollback a substitute for a database backup?
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No. Always create and verify an independent database backup before applying or rolling back changes.
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Does the plugin send site data to an external service?
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No. Processing occurs on the WordPress site. The plugin does not call a remote service, load remote assets, track usage, or add advertising.
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Which users can run replacements?
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Only administrators with the
manage_optionscapability can access the workflow and its protected reports. -
Why was a field skipped?
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The field may be protected, unsupported, malformed, changed after the dry run, or no longer match the reviewed proposal. The report records a privacy-safe reason.
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What happens when I uninstall the plugin?
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Protected job, report, and rollback data is preserved by default. To remove it during uninstall, enable destructive uninstall in Settings before deleting the plugin. This choice is irreversible.
Reviews
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Contributors & Developers
“Geared URL Replacer” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “Geared URL Replacer” 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
- Renamed the plugin to Geared URL Replacer for the WordPress.org submission.
- Updated the public slug, text domain, namespaces, runtime prefixes, and listing assets.
1.0.1
- Initial public release.
- Added complete-URL matching, structure-preserving transformation, mandatory dry-run reporting, guarded replacement, and hash-protected rollback.
- Added resumable batches, protected-field exclusions, privacy-safe exports, retention controls, and multisite per-site activation.
- Added distinctive author-prefixed namespaces, constants, options, hooks, database tables, REST identifiers, and browser assets.