Lesson 1ª

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why WordPress and how do you get a copy?

So you decided to use WordPress? If so there's little doubt that you've heard of its power and flexibility. Used on tens of thousands of websites, from the simple journals of individuals to the large corporate blogs of multinationals and even as the base of websites that look and feel nothing like blogs. It's a system that can be adapted to do almost anything. As well as providing the foundation on which your website or blog will be based, it's also hugely popular for the so-called "Web 2.0" community features it offers - WordPress allows you to interact with an audience and for the audience to interact right back at you.

So why WordPress? There's no questioning that it has become the standard for online blogs, as well as being a great choice for smaller websites that need what is called a "content management system", basically a way in which to edit and create content for a website through an administration interface. Its popularity means there are countless Themes and Plugins available to expand your basic installation, with more being created every day. As free and open-source software, anyone can download WordPress and use it on their own web space from their own web host. Alternatively, you can have the commercial arm of WordPress host a slightly more restricted version for you for free.

Getting a copy of WordPress and getting it installed is a simple process no matter how you go about it.

Option 1. Registering at WordPress.com for a free blog.

Registering an account at WordPress.com is the easiest and quickest way to get started. Hosting is free and installation is automatic. This version of WordPress does have a number of differences that set it apart from the standard downloadable version this tutorial deals with, but the vast majority will still remain relevant. The biggest benefit of hosting your own copy of the software is unrestricted expansion through Themes and Plugins, but using WordPress.com to get to grips with the software for the first time might not be a bad idea. Besides, you will need a WordPress.com account at some point in the future for certain plugins to work correctly on your own hosted blog.

Option 2. Downloading from WordPress.org for manual installation on your web space

If you already have web hosting that meets the requirements for WordPress (PHP, MySQL), which most do, you can download the latest stable version from WordPress.org. The file comes in a ZIP file which would need to be unzipped ready to be uploaded to your server.

Option 3. Installing with your web hosting company's automatic method

Due to the popularity of WordPress and the fact that many people buy web space with the sole intention of installing WordPress, many web hosting companies offer tools to install the system for you. You may find your web space already has WordPress set up for you if you bought special WordPress hosting, or that it can be set up with just a couple or even a single click of the mouse.

 

If you already have your copy of WordPress installed and you are looking at the Dashboard - great! If you've extracted your ZIP file and have a folder called "WordPress" sitting somewhere on your computer, let's finish this first part of the tutorial with the famous 5-minute manual installation process.

To begin, you'll need:

  • a text editor such as Notepad,
  • access to your server via FTP
  • an FTP client.

Generally you access your web server with your FTP account, usually the same username and password as for your overall hosting account.The "host" will likely be your domain name. If this is not obvious to you, your web hosting company will be able to point you in the right direction, and might provide tutorials to teach you how to use FTP.

Step One

You've extracted the ZIP file and you have a folder on your computer that depending on the latest version of the software might be called "WordPress-3.0" or more. Inside this is another folder called "WordPress", and inside that are that files and directories that make up the software.

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In these files, find the file named wp-config-sample.php and open it in your text editor. If this looks complicated, don't worry, you will only be editing a couple of lines.

In this text file, you will need to enter certain details about your web server that will be given to you buy your hosting company.

The information you'll be entering is: The name of your database, the username for your database, the password and the host name of your database.

With these details at hand, you can modify the following lines, replacing the text between the quotation marks:

define('DB_NAME', 'putyourdbnamehere');
define('DB_USER', 'usernamehere');
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'yourpasswordhere');
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');

A few lines down you are presented with these lines, and as requested, write absolutely anything here, even if gibberish. These random keystrokes keep your WordPress users' sessions secure yet never need to be remembered.

define('AUTH_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('SECURE_AUTH_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('LOGGED_IN_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('NONCE_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');

Now save the file and rename it from 'wp-config-sample.php' to just 'wp-config.php' - we are 1/3rd through the process!

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Step Two

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You may want to have WordPress located in the root of your server, that is, have the WordPress index page be the first thing people see when they arrive to yoursite.com. On the other hand, you might already have an active site and would prefer WordPress to be located in a subdirectory, perhapsyoursite.com/blog

With your FTP client you will now connect to your server and enter go to the root of your publicly visible web space (usually public_html).

If you'd like to have WordPress operate in the root of your server, upload the contents of the 'WordPress' folder to the root of your publicly visible web space (If you upload the folder itself, you'll website will be in a directory called WordPress at yoursite.com/WordPress)

If you'd like to have WordPress operate in a sub-directory on your server, rename the 'WordPress' folder as you please and upload the folder, not just the contents, to the publicly visible root.

When all files are transferred to your server correctly, this can take a while, we are 2/3rds through the process. Now for the easy bit!

 

Step Three

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With the files uploaded, you will now be able to visithttp://www.yoursite.com/wp-admin/install.php (or perhaps if it is in a sub-directory http://www.yoursite.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php) in your web browser.

If the details entered in step one were correct, you'll now just have to enter your Blog Title and your email address then click "Install WordPress". If all went smoothly, you're done! Make a note of your randomly generated password, or use it now to login and change your password to something more memorable. If you receive and error message, go back to step one and check your database access details.

This tutorial couldn't possibly go into the specifics of resolving different installation problems or creating a MySQL database should one not exist on your server, or even how to install the software with the various different systems employed by different hosts, but fear not, help is at hand. You are a paying customer, and so your hosting company is obliged to provide support, and most will up to the point when you are faced with a completely installed WordPress system. Contact your hosting company to help you get WordPress up and running.

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