Stress-free WordPress installation guide
January 15th, 2006
I get asked the oddest of things and one thing that I'm being asked a lot about lately is installing the blogging platform WordPress. I'm not sure why (maybe because I run a number of blogs, I dunno) but it's happening often enough for me to draw up a "Stress-free WordPress installation guide".
As a rule the people asking the question already have a blog hosted on a platform like Blogger or TypePad and they want to take control over the blog and host it themselves (either on shared hosting or a server that they have access to.
OK then, here goes, my Stress-free WordPress installation guide!
Requirements
The first thing that you need is a server to host and run WordPress from. There are a lot of hosts to choose from but the three main requirements that you need to make sure that you have are:
- PHP version 4,2 or higher
- MySQL version 3.23.23 or higher
- cPanel (not required but if you are asking how to install WordPress then this is a must)
You also need the following:
- FTP access to your server (you host will give you access details). You will also need an FTP program (SmartFTP is a good choice).
- A text editor (Windows Notepad).
- A tool for unzipping compressed files (Windows has one built-in or use WinZip).
- A web browser.
Download WordPress
You're now ready to download WordPress. Download the latest version from here. Windows users choose the .ZIP option.
Preparation
OK, now you have the WordPress ZIP file on your PC extract it to a handy location where you can work on it later. I suggest a folder on your desktop.
Creating the MySQL database and setting up permissions
OK, this is the stage that seems to catch people out - the creating the MySQL database and assigning the access permissions for it.
It's not all that tricky but you need to work methodically to do it right.
Note - Pretty much every cPanel layout I've seen is different so don't expect things to look the same! You might have look around to find what you are looking for.
- Log in to your cPanel (you host should give you details on how to do this).
- Find the icon/link for MySQL Databases and click on it.
- Once this has loaded you need to find the section that allows you to create a new database (I'm assuming here that you are installing WordPress into a new database - most people who aren't will otherwise be familiar with this step).
- Enter a short name for the database and click the Create MySQL Database button. On a shared hosting platform the name of the database will be prefixed with your account username and this will be the name of your database.
When you're done, click Go Back. - Now you need to create a user for the database. Look for the text boxes that allow you to create a new MySQL user.
Enter a username (this will again automatically be prefixed with the username of your account) and a password. Make a note of both of these!
- The final step in cPanel is to grant the user you've just created ALL permissions. Click Go Back and find the section on users. From the dropdown box select the user and the database (if you only have one database and one user, these will already be selected).
Make sure that ALL is checked and then click Grant permissions.
Modify configuration files and upload
The next stage is to modify the configuration file and upload.
Open the folder into which you extracted the WordPress files and find a file called wp-config-sample.php.
Right-click on this file and choose Rename and change the name of it to wp-config.php.
Next open the file in Notepad and fill in the details of the database connection:
- The name of the database (remember that prefix!)
- The database user you created (again, remember that prefix!)
- The password
Upload the WordPress files
Now you are ready to upload the WordPress files to the server. Fire up your FTP program and log in to he server and find the Internet-facing folder (usually called public_html or www - your host should give you these details).
Now you have a choice. If your blog is in addition to a website that you want to run then upload the whole wordpress folder and rename it when on the server (to something like blog). However, if you want to run just a blog then upload the contents of the wordpress folder to the server.
The upload process will take a while so this is a good time for a break.
Once the upload process is over you're ready to run the final installation script.
The installation script
Running the installation script is easy. What you need to do is open the file install.php in the web browser. If you installed WordPress in the root then you should go to http://www.example.com/wp-admin/install.php. If you installed it in a folder (for example, blog) visit http://www.example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php.
Click on First Step (you can't miss it!).
Enter a few details and click on the button to go to the second step.
That's it! Job done! The final screen will give you your login username and password - make a note of these and you're ready to go (you will also be sent an email containing this to the address you specified in step 1).
There you go - You're now ready to start using WordPress! 
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 15th, 2006 at 15:10 and is filed under PC Doctor Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
