Zach-Browne.com

When you’re ready to install Wordpress, you should have the following things already figured out.

• Domain name
• Web hosting
• Have FTP setup and functional

Some hosts offer one-click installation for Wordpress. Check your host’s control panel and see if they have Fantistico or some other hosting management platform installed that will automatically install Wordpress for you. These instructions are for those of you who need to manually install Wordpress on your server.

If you need to install Wordpress manually, this article is for you. Start off by getting the latest version of Wordpress here: http://wordpress.org/download.

Wordpress offers two formats to download: zip and tar.gz. I recommend getting the zip file, as it’s the most common format for compressed files. Someone using Unix would most likely download the other.

Download Wordpress to your desktop or preferred download location, and unzip it to a folder on your computer’s hard drive. Once downloaded you can begin the installation process. You’ll need to set up a database, upload the web files, and run the installation on your server. The next steps tell you exactly how to do that.

Set Up Database

Wordpress is a blogging platform that uses a PHP and MySQL. It provides all that you need to create your own blog and publish your own dynamic content without the knowledge of programming. Basically all your content (pages, posts, comments, etc.) is stored in a MySQL database on your hosting account.

When a visitor goes to your blog to read an article, they make a request that is sent to your server. PHP receives that request, grabs the data from your MySQL database, and presents the information to your visitors in their browser.

Every host is a little different in how they gives you access to manage your MySQL databases included with your account. This tutorial covers cPanel, a hosting management platform used by most hosting companies for shared hosting accounts. If your hosting provider uses a different platform, the same steps apply; just the setup in the platform that your host provides may be different.

To set up the MySQL database for your Wordpress blog with cPanel, follow these steps:

1. Log in to the administration interface with the username and password assigned to you by your host. I use the cPanel administration interface, but your host may provide NetAdmin or Plesk, or their own proprietory platform.
2. Find the MySQL Database Administration section.
3. In cPanel, click the MySQL Databases icon.
4. Choose a name for your database, and enter it in the Name text box. Be sure to make note of the database name, because you will need it during the installation of Wordpress later. It doesn’t really matter what you choose for the database name, username, or password. For security reasons, however, make sure that your password isn’t something hackers can easily guess. I give my database a name that I will easily recognize later. This concept
   is especially helpful if you plan on running more than one MySQL database. If you name your database something like Wordpress or your site domain, you can be reasonably sure a year or two from now when you want to access your database to make some changes you’ll know exactly which one you need to work with.
5. Click the Create Database button. You should get a message confirming that your database has been created.
6. Click the Go Back link or the Back button in your browser.
7. Choose a username and password for your database, enter them in the Add New User text boxes, and then click the Create User button. You should get a confirmation message that the username was created with the password you specified. Make sure that you write down the database name, username, and password that you set up during this process. You will need them in the next section before officially installing Wordpress.
8. Click the Go Back link or the Back button in your browser. In the Add Users to Database section, choose the user you just set up from the User drop-down menu; then choose the new database from the Database drop-down menu. The MySQL Account Maintenance, Manage User Privileges page appears in cPanel.
9. Assign user privileges by selecting the All Privileges check box. Because you’re the administrator of this database, you need to make sure that you assign all privileges to the new user you just created.
10. Click the Make Changes button, a page opens with a confirmation message that you’ve added your selected user to the selected database.
11. Click the Go Back link and go back to the MySQL Databases page.

Upload Wordpress Files

To upload the Wordpress files to your host, return to the folder on your computer where you unzipped Wordpressr You’ll find all the files you need in a folder called ‘wordpress’. Using your FTP client, connect to your hosting account, and upload all these files to the root directory or the directory you want to run Wordpress from. If you don’t know what your root directory is, it’s usually something like public_html, www, wwwfiles, etc. If you don’t know for sure, check your hosting documentation or contact your host and ask.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re uploading your files:

• Upload the contents of the ‘wordpress’ folder to your hosting account, not the folder itself. Most FTP programs let you select all the files and drag them to your hosting account. Other programs have you highlight the files and click a Transfer button.
• Choose the correct transfer mode. File transfers via FTP have two different forms: ASCII and binary. Most FTP clients are configured to autodetect
  the transfer mode. Understanding the difference as it pertains to this Wordpress installation is important, so that you can troubleshoot any problems you have later:
  • Binary transfer mode is how images (such as .jpg, .gif, .bmp, and .png files) are transferred via FTP.
  • ASCII transfer mode is for everything else (text files, PHP files, JavaScript, and so on). For the most part, it’s a safe bet to make sure that the transfer mode of your FTP client is set to autodetect. But if you experience issues with how those files load on your site, retransfer the files using the appropriate transfer mode.
• You can choose a different folder from the root. You aren’t required to transfer the files to the root directory of your hosting account. You can make the choice to run Wordpress on a subdomain, or in a different folder, on your account. If you want your blog address to be http://www.website.com/blog, you would transfer the Wordpress files into a folder named ‘blog’.
• Choose the right file permissions. You need to pay attention to file permissions when you’re transferring files to your hosting account. File permissions tell the hosting account how these files can be handled on your server, whether they’re files that can be written to. As a general rule, PHP files need to have a permission (chmod) of 666, whereas file folders need a permission of 755. Almost all FTP clients let you check and change the permissions on
  the files, if you need to. Typically, you can find the option to change file permissions within the menu options of your FTP client. Some hosting providers run their PHP software in a more secure format called safe mode. If this is the case with your host, you need to set the PHP files to 644. If you’re unsure, ask your hosting provider what permissions you need to set for PHP files.

Run Install

• Type this URL in the address window of your browser, replacing www.website.com with your own domain name: http://www.website.com/wp-admin/install.php If you chose to install Wordpress in a different folder from the root directory of your account, make sure you indicate this fact in the URL for the install script. If you transferred the Wordpress software files to a folder called /blog, for example, you would point your browser to the following URL to run the installation: http://www.website.com/ blog/wp-admin/install.php. Assuming that you did everything correctly, you will see the following screen.
• Click the Create a Configuration File button. The next page that opens is a Welcome to Wordpress message, which gives you the information you need to proceed with the installation.
• Click the Let’s Go button at the bottom of that page.
• Dig out the database name, username, and password that you saved earlier, and use that information to fill in the following fields:
  • Database Name: Type the database name you used when you created the MySQL database before this installation. Because hosts differ in configurations, you need to enter either the database name or the database name with your hosting account username appended. If you named your database Wordpress, for example, you would enter that in this text box. Or if your host requires you to append the database name with your hosting account username, you would enter username_Wordpress, substituting your hosting username for username. My username is zbrowne, so I entered zbrowne_Wordpress.
  • User Name: Type the username you used when you created the MySQL database before this installation. Depending on what your host requires, you may need to append this username to your hosting account username.
  • Password: Type the password you used when you set up the MySQL database. You don’t need to append the password to your hosting account username here.
  • Database Host: Ninety-nine percent of the time, you’ll leave this field set to localhost. Some hosts, depending on their configurations, have different hosts set for the MySQL database server. If localhost doesn’t work, you need to contact your hosting provider
    to find out the MySQL database host.
  • Table Prefix: Leave this field set to wp_ or you can change it to something different for better security. Like wps_ or wordpress_.
• When you have all that information filled in, click the Submit button. You see a message that says, “All right, sparky! You’ve made it through this part of the installation. Wordpress can now communicate with your database. If you’re ready, time now to run the install!”
• Click the Run the Install button.
  You see another welcome page with a message welcoming you to the famous five-minute Wordpress installation process.
• Enter or possibly change this information:
  • Blog Title: Enter the title you want to give your blog. The title you enter isn’t written in stone; you can change it at a later date, if
    you like.
  • Your E-Mail Address: Enter the e-mail address you want to use to be notified of administrative information about your blog. You can
    change this address at a later date, too.
  • Allow My Blog to Appear in Search Engines Like Google and Technorati: By default, this check box is selected, which lets the search engines index the content of your blog and include your blog in search results. To keep your blog out of the search engines, deselect this check box.
• Click the Install Wordpress button. The Wordpress installation machine works its magic and creates all the tables within the database that contain the default data for your blog. Wordpress gives you the login information you need to access the Wordpress Administration panel. Make note of this username
  and password before you leave this page. Write it down on a piece of paper or copy it into a text editor such as Notepad. After you click the Install Wordpress button, you’re sent an e-mail with the login information and login URL. This information is handy if you’re called away during this part of the installation process.
• Click the Log In button to log in to Wordpress. If you happen to lose this page before clicking the Log In button, you can always find your way to the login page by entering your domain followed by the call to the login file (for example, http://www.website.com/wp-login.php). You know that you’re finished with the installation process when you see the login page. Check out Common Wordpress Installation Problems below if you experience any problems during this installation process; it covers some of the common problems users run into.

Common Wordpress Installation Problems

• Error Connecting to the Database: The database name, username, password, or host was entered incorrectly. Revisit your MySQL database to obtain the database name, username, and password, and reenter that information.
• 500 Internal Server Error: Permissions on PHP files are set incorrectly. Try setting the permissions (chmod) on the PHP files to 666. If that change doesn’t work, set them to 644. Each hosting account has different settings for how it lets PHP execute on its servers.
• 404 Page Not Found: The URL for the login page is incorrect. Double-check that the URL you’re using to get to the login page is the same as the location of your Wordpress installation (such as http://www.website.com/wp-login.php).
• 403 Forbidden Access: An index.html or index.htm file exists in the Wordpress installation directory. Wordpress is a PHP application, so the default home page is index.php. Look in the Wordpress installation folder on your hosting account. If there is an index.html or index.htm file in there, delete it.

As always, if you need assistance or would like to hire me to do this for you, please contact me through my website or send me a tweet to @zachbrowne.