Requirements on the server side

• PHP 7.4 or greater
• MySQL 5.6 or MariaDB 10.1 or greater

For a list of detail requirements on your web host, refer the official requirement page.

Requirements on local

• Login Account (user id and password) to the server via FTP or shell
• Text Editor
• FTP
• Your web browser of choice

You will need to know how to use a text editor to edit the main configuration file. If you are a Windows user, Notepad will do. If you’re an OS X user you can use TextEdit. Later, you will likely want to edit your Template Files (see Templates for some references). You can do this through the WordPress Administration Screens, but using a good text editor is highly recommended. For more information on this, see Editing Files.

You will need to be able to use an FTP program to upload files and set file permissions (optional). You could choose FileZilla for this task.

Now you are all set to go on to Installation.

Use these instructions for setting up a local server environment for testing and development.

Installing WordPress locally is usually meant for the purpose of development. Those interested in development should follow the instructions below and download WordPress locally.

• Local – Free, one-click WordPress installer.
• Lando – Free plugin to install WordPress locally.
• AMPPS – Free WAMP/MAMP/LAMP stack, with inbuilt Softaculous Installer. Can 1 click install and upgrade WordPress and others as well.
• Installing WordPress Locally on Your Mac With MAMP
• User:Beltranrubo/BitNami Free all-in-one installers for OS X, Windows and Linux. There are also available installers for WordPress Multisite User:Beltranrubo/BitNami_Multisite using different domains or subdomains.
• Instant WordPress is a free, standalone, portable WordPress development environment for Windows that will run from a USB key.

Software Appliance – Ready-to-Use

You may find that using a pre-integrated software appliance is a great way to get up and running with WordPress, especially in combination with virtual machine software (e.g., VMWare, VirtualBox, Xen HVM, KVM).

Another software that can be used is Parallels, which you would have to pay for unlike virtual machine software. It allows you to run both Mac and Windows on your machine.

A software appliance allows users to altogether skip manual installation of WordPress and its dependencies, and instead deploy a self-contained system that requires little to no setup, in just a couple of minutes.

• TurnKey WordPress Appliance: a free Debian-based appliance that just works. It bundles a collection of popular WordPress plugins and features a small footprint, automatic security updates, SSL support and a Web administration interface. Available as ISO, various virtual machine images, or launch in the cloud.

Unattended/automated installation of WordPress on Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS

Unattended installation of WordPress on Ubuntu Server https://peteris.rocks/blog/unattended-installation-of-wordpress-on-ubuntu-server/

You can follow this guide by copy & pasting commands in a terminal to set up WordPress on a fresh Ubuntu Server 16.04 installation with nginx, PHP7, MySQL plus free SSL from LetsEncrypt.

You will not be prompted to enter any credentials or details like in other guides, everything is automated. You can even skip the installation wizard.

WAMP

If you don’t have IIS on your computer or don’t want to use it, you could use a WAMP Stack :

• WAMP Server or WAMP Server at SourceForge
• AMPPS WAMPStack – has Softaculous WordPress Installer
• EasyPHP – Has WordPress installer plugin
• BitNami WAMPStack – Has WordPress stack
• XAMPP WAMPStack

These stacks can be downloaded freely and set up all the bits you need on your computer to run a website. Once you have downloaded and installed WAMP, you can point your browser at localhost and use the link to phpmyadmin to create a database.

Then, in order to install WordPress, download the zip file, and extract it into the web directory for your WAMP installation (this is normally installed as c:\wamp\www). Finally visit http://localhost/wordpress to start the WordPress install. (Assuming you extracted into c:\wamp\www\wordpress).

Tip: If you want to use anything other than the default permalink structure on your install, make sure you enable the mod_rewrite module in WAMP. This can be enabled by clicking on the WAMP icon in the taskbar, then hover over Apache in the menu, then Apache modules and ensure that the rewrite_module item has a checkmark next to it.

MAMP

MAMP is a local server package for Macs. Here are full instructions on using MAMP to run WordPress locally.

Things to Know Before Installing WordPress

Before you begin the install, there are a few things you need to have and do. Refer the article Before You Install.
If you need multiple WordPress instances, refer Installing Multiple WordPress Instances.

Basic Instructions

Here’s the quick version of the instructions for those who are already comfortable with performing such installations. More detailed instructions follow.

1. Download and unzip the WordPress package if you haven’t already.
2. Create a database for WordPress on your web server, as well as a MySQL (or MariaDB) user who has all privileges for accessing and modifying it.
3. (Optional) Find and rename wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php, then edit the file (see Editing wp-config.php) and add your database information.
   Note: If you are not comfortable with renaming files, step 3 is optional and you can skip it as the install program will create the wp-config.php file for you.
4. Upload the WordPress files to the desired location on your web server:
   • If you want to integrate WordPress into the root of your domain (e.g. http://example.com/), move or upload all contents of the unzipped WordPress directory (excluding the WordPress directory itself) into the root directory of your web server.
   • If you want to have your WordPress installation in its own subdirectory on your website (e.g. http://example.com/blog/), create the blog directory on your server and upload the contents of the unzipped WordPress package to the directory via FTP.
   • Note: If your FTP client has an option to convert file names to lower case, make sure it’s disabled.
5. Run the WordPress installation script by accessing the URL in a web browser. This should be the URL where you uploaded the WordPress files.
   • If you installed WordPress in the root directory, you should visit: http://example.com/
   • If you installed WordPress in its own subdirectory called blog, for example, you should visit: http://example.com/blog/

That’s it! WordPress should now be installed.

Detailed Instructions

Step 1: Download and Extract

Download and unzip the WordPress package from https://wordpress.org/download/.

• If you will be uploading WordPress to a remote web server, download the WordPress package to your computer with a web browser and unzip the package.
• If you will be using FTP, skip to the next step – uploading files is covered later.
• If you have shell access to your web server, and are comfortable using console-based tools, you may wish to download WordPress directly to your web server using wget (or lynx or another console-based web browser) if you want to avoid FTPing:
  • wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
  • Then extract the package using:
    tar -xzvf latest.tar.gz

    The WordPress package will extract into a folder called wordpress in the same directory that you downloaded latest.tar.gz.

Step 2: Create the Database and a User

If you are using a hosting provider, you may already have a WordPress database set up for you, or there may be an automated setup solution to do so. Check your hosting provider’s support pages or your control panel for clues about whether or not you’ll need to create one manually.

If you determine that you’ll need to create one manually, follow the instructions for Using phpMyAdmin below to create your WordPress username and database. For other tools such as Plesk, cPanel and Using the MySQL Client, refer the article Creating Database for WordPress.

If you have only one database and it is already in use, you can install WordPress in it – just make sure to have a distinctive prefix for your tables to avoid over-writing any existing database tables.

Using phpMyAdmin

If your web server has phpMyAdmin installed, you may follow these instructions to create your WordPress username and database. If you work on your own computer, on most Linux distributions you can install PhpMyAdmin automatically.

Note: These instructions are written for phpMyAdmin 4.4; the phpMyAdmin user interface can vary slightly between versions.

1. If a database relating to WordPress does not already exist in the Database dropdown on the left, create one:
   1. Choose a name for your WordPress database: ‘wordpress‘ or ‘blog‘ are good, but most hosting services (especially shared hosting) will require a name beginning with your username and an underscore, so, even if you work on your own computer, we advise that you check your hosting service requirements so that you can follow them on your own server and be able to transfer your database without modification. Enter the chosen database name in the Create database field and choose the best collation for your language and encoding. In most cases it’s better to choose in the “utf8_” series and, if you don’t find your language, to choose “utf8mb4_general_ci” (Refer this article).
      
2. Click the phpMyAdmin icon in the upper left to return to the main page, then click the Users tab. If a user relating to WordPress does not already exist in the list of users, create one:
   

   
   1. Click Add user.
   2. Choose a username for WordPress (‘wordpress‘ is good) and enter it in the User name field. (Be sure Use text field: is selected from the dropdown.)
   3. Choose a secure password (ideally containing a combination of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols), and enter it in the Password field. (Be sure Use text field: is selected from the dropdown.) Re-enter the password in the Re-typefield.
   4. Write down the username and password you chose.
   5. Leave all options under Global privileges at their defaults.
   6. Click Go.
   7. # Return to the Users screen and click the Edit privileges icon on the user you’ve just created for WordPress.
   8. # In the Database-specific privileges section, select the database you’ve just created for WordPress under the Add privileges to the following database dropdown, and click Go.
   9. # The page will refresh with privileges for that database. Click Check All to select all privileges, and click Go.
   10. # On the resulting page, make note of the host name listed after Server: at the top of the page. (This will usually be localhost.)

Step 3: Set up wp-config.php

You can either create and edit the wp-config.php file yourself, or you can skip this step and let WordPress try to do this itself when you run the installation script (step 5). (you’ll still need to tell WordPress your database information).

(For more extensive details, and step by step instructions for creating the configuration file and your secret key for password security, please see Editing wp-config.php.)

Return to where you extracted the WordPress package in Step 1, rename the file wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php, and open it in a text editor.

Enter your database information under the section labeled

 // ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //

DB_NAME 

The name of the database you created for WordPress in Step 2.

DB_USER 

The username you created for WordPress in Step 2.

DB_PASSWORD 

The password you chose for the WordPress username in Step 2.

DB_HOST 

The hostname you determined in Step 2 (usually localhost, but not always; see some possible DB_HOST values). If a port, socket, or pipe is necessary, append a colon (:) and then the relevant information to the hostname.

DB_CHARSET 

The database character set, normally should not be changed (see Editing wp-config.php).

DB_COLLATE 

The database collation should normally be left blank (see Editing wp-config.php).

Enter your secret key values under the section labeled

  * Authentication Unique Keys and Salts.

Save the wp-config.php file.

Step 4: Upload the files

Now you will need to decide where on your domain you’d like your WordPress-powered site to appear:

• In the root directory of your website. (For example, http://example.com/)
• In a subdirectory of your website. (For example, http://example.com/blog/)

Note: The location of your root web directory in the filesystem on your web server will vary across hosting providers and operating systems. Check with your hosting provider or system administrator if you do not know where this is.

In the Root Directory

• If you need to upload your files to your web server, use an FTP client to upload all the contents of the wordpress directory (but not the directory itself) into the root directory of your website.
• If your files are already on your web server, and you are using shell access to install WordPress, move all of the contents of the wordpress directory (but not the directory itself) into the root directory of your website.

In a Subdirectory

• If you need to upload your files to your web server, rename the wordpress directory to your desired name, then use an FTP client to upload the directory to your desired location within the root directory of your website.
• If your files are already on your web server, and you are using shell access to install WordPress, move the wordpress directory to your desired location within the root directory of your website, and rename the directory to your desired name.

Step 5: Run the Install Script

Point a web browser to start the installation script.

• If you placed the WordPress files in the root directory, you should visit: http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php
• If you placed the WordPress files in a subdirectory called blog, for example, you should visit: http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php

Setup configuration file

If WordPress can’t find the wp-config.php file, it will tell you and offer to try to create and edit the file itself. (You can also do this directly by loading wp-admin/setup-config.php in your web browser.) WordPress will ask you the database details and write them to a new wp-config.php file. If this works, you can go ahead with the installation; otherwise, go back and create, edit, and upload the wp-config.php file yourself (step 3).

Finishing installation

The following screenshots show how the installation progresses. Notice that in entering the details screen, you enter your site title, your desired user name, your choice of a password (twice), and your e-mail address. Also displayed is a check-box asking if you would like your blog to appear in search engines like Google and DuckDuckGo. Leave the box unchecked if you would like your blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines, and check the box if you want to block search engines, but allow normal visitors. Note all this information can be changed later in your Administration Screen.

If you successfully install the WordPress, login prompt will be displayed.

Install script troubleshooting

• If you get an error about the database when you run the install script:
  • Go back to Step 2 and Step 3, and make sure you entered all the correct database information into wp-config.php.
  • Make sure you granted your WordPress user permission to access your WordPress database in Step 3.
  • Make sure the database server is running.

Common Installation Problems

The following are some of the most common installation problems. For more information and troubleshooting for problems with your WordPress installation, check out FAQ Installation and FAQ Troubleshooting.

I see a directory listing rather than a web page.

The web server needs to be told to view index.php by default. In Apache, use the DirectoryIndex index.php directive. The simplest option is to create a file named .htaccess in the installed directory and place the directive there. Another option is to add the directive to the web server’s configuration files.

I see lots of Headers already sent errors. How do I fix this?

You probably introduced a syntax error in editing wp-config.php.

1. Download wp-config.php (if you don’t have shell access).
2. Open it in a text editor.
3. Check that the first line contains nothing but <?php, and that there is no text before it (not even whitespace).
4. Check that the last line contains nothing but ?>, and that there is no text after it (not even whitespace).
5. If your text editor saves as Unicode, make sure it adds no byte order mark (BOM). Most Unicode-enabled text editors do not inform the user whether or not it adds a BOM to files; if so, try using a different text editor.
6. Save the file, upload it again if necessary, and reload the page in your browser.

My page comes out gibberish. When I look at the source I see a lot of “<?php ?>” tags.

If the <?php ?> tags are being sent to the browser, it means your PHP is not working properly. All PHP code is supposed to be executed before the server sends the resulting HTML to your web browser. (That’s why it’s called a preprocessor.) Make sure your web server meets the requirements to run WordPress, that PHP is installed and configured properly, or contact your hosting provider or system administrator for assistance.

I keep getting an Error connecting to database message but I’m sure my configuration is correct.

Try resetting your MySQL password manually. If you have access to MySQL via shell, try issuing:

SET PASSWORD FOR 'wordpressusername'@'hostname' = OLD_PASSWORD('password');

If you do not have shell access, you should be able to simply enter the above into an SQL query in phpMyAdmin. Failing that, you may need to use your host’s control panel to reset the password for your database user.

I keep getting an Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress message but I’m sure my configuration is correct.

Check to make sure that your configuration of your web-server is correct and that the MySQL plugin is getting loaded correctly by your web-server program. Sometimes this issue requires everything in the path all the way from the web-server down to the MySQL installation to be checked and verified to be fully operational. Incorrect configuration files or settings are often the cause of this issue.

My image/MP3 uploads aren’t working.

If you use the Rich Text Editor on a blog that’s installed in a subdirectory, and drag a newly uploaded image into the editor field, the image may vanish a couple seconds later. This is due to a problem with TinyMCE (the rich text editor) not getting enough information during the drag operation to construct the path to the image or other file correctly. The solution is to NOT drag uploaded images into the editor. Instead, click and hold on the image and select Send to Editor.

The following is a list of some of the features that come standard with WordPress, however, there are literally tens of thousands of plugins that extend what WordPress does, so the actual functionality is nearly limitless. You are also free to do whatever you like with the WordPress code, extend it or modify in any way or use it for commercial projects without any licensing fees. That is the beauty of free software, free meaning not only price but also the freedom to have complete control over it.

At a Glance

Proven

WordPress powers almost half of the new sites today. It’s the content management system (CMS) of choice for nearly half of the top million sites making it the most popular on the web and is trusted by content publishers both large and small including CNN and the NY Times.

Easy to use

At the core of WordPress is a simple interface similar to the desktop publishing software you use today. With no coding experience or expert knowledge necessary, the learning curve is often about as short as typing in your site’s URL and logging in. In fact, most users are able to pick up the basics without any training at all. Interfaces are polished and easy to use and are the result of years of refinement. It’s the power of Microsoft Word with the intuitiveness of an iPhone.

Built for Publishing

WordPress makes sharing content and attracting readers to your site a breeze. Whether pushing content to social networks, ensuring that your website is provided in the optimal format to appear at the top of search results the moment you hit publish, or providing visitors the ability to subscribe to specific content sub-feeds in their favorite feed reader (or even via e-mail), WordPress is not simply a website, but rather a content-publishing platform. With a single click, you have a powerful megaphone to broadcast your message to the world.

Backed by community support

WordPress is supported by a vibrant community of users who have already solved many of the toughest challenges to sharing information today. The latest version is downloaded as soon as it is published and the numbers keep increasing. With a library of more than 50,000 free, open-source Plugins and Themes growing each day, and hundreds of core contributors each release cycle, the WordPress community is an ecosystem built around the platform’s viability and proven success.

Multisite

WordPress can be extended to multisite features on a demand base. You are able to develop and maintain multiple sites using a single WordPress installation. Multisite allows multiple virtual sites to share a single WordPress installation. When the multisite feature is activated, the original WordPress site can be converted to support a network of sites.

Content is King

Your entire workflow

WordPress can take the place of your entire workflow from the initial draft to the time you hit publish – spelling, grammar, collaboration, and review – there’s no need for e-mails back and forth or expensive desktop software.

Beyond black and white

Everything that makes webpages feel rich – pictures, videos, music, documents – can feel right at home in WordPress. With a drag-and-drop file uploader that uses the latest technology to ensure your file effortlessly makes it to the web page every time, and a media browser to help you store, organize and find the files you’re looking for, WordPress hosts the files that make your pages pop.

Distraction-free writing

Between email, IMs, texts, tweets, and status updates, we have enough distractions in today’s world. Your publishing platform should not be one of them. While writing, WordPress literally fades away, letting you concentrate on your ideas themselves, not how you’re getting them out there.

Never lose a word

WordPress automatically saves your work as you type so you don’t have to worry if your computer crashes or you make a mistake. Want to go back to a previous version? Not a problem. Every time you hit save, WordPress creates a snapshot that you can restore with a single click.

Time Travel

Okay, not really, but it’s pretty close. WordPress lets you schedule posts for some time in the future or lets you backdate a post for some time in the past so that you can write when it’s convenient for you.

Publish Anywhere

The internet’s everywhere, so why shouldn’t your workflow be? WordPress has mobile applications for Android and iOS. Wherever you are, control of your site is literally at your fingertips. Phone not listed? No fret. You can even post to your site by e-mail.

Password protection

You can give passwords to individual posts to hide them from the public. You can also have private posts which are viewable only by their author.

Multi-paged posts

If your post is too long, cut it up into pages, so your readers don’t have to scroll to the end of the world.

Save Drafts

Save your unfinished articles, improve them later, and publish them when you’re done.

Previewing Posts

Before you press the “Publish” button, you can look at the preview for the article you just wrote to check if everything is the way you want it. In fact, you can do that at any time, since the preview is “live”.

A Supercharged V8 Under the Hood

The Right Tuxedo for Any Content

Your content deserves the best. The site should conform to your content, not the other way around. WordPress comes with a full theme system which makes designing everything from the simplest site to the most complicated portal a piece of cake. Have a new design every day. Your ideas should look as good as what they say.

Obsessively Organized

It doesn’t matter how much content you have if your visitors can’t find it. WordPress organizes your content by day, by month, by year, by author, by category — any way you can describe it — and dynamically creates browsable archives so things always stay up to date.

Killer search inside and out

WordPress has killer search baked in. Every word you write is fully searchable through a single box at the top of each page and if your users choose to use an external search engine like Google, rest assured, WordPress will present your content in a way that all but ensures it makes it to the top of the results every time.

Even the URLs are beautiful

Ever go to a site and look up to the URL bar only to see a string of letters and number gobbledygook? WordPress realizes that websites are built for people, not computers. Every URL is intuitively written for humans and describes what your content says, not where it sits in a database.

Typography nerds rejoice

To do it right, publishing on the web can be a pain without the right tools. Every time you hit publish WordPress silently typesets each and every letter for seamless web production. Where many other CMSs let the details fall by the wayside, WordPress uses the Texturize engine to intelligently convert web-unfriendly characters like quotes, apostrophes, ellipses, em and en dashes, multiplication symbols, and ampersands into typographically correct HTML entities. For information about the proper use of such entities see Peter Sheerin’s article The Trouble With Em ’n En.

¡Bienvenidos a WordPress!

WordPress has been fully translated to more than 180 different languages, so however you say “publish”, you’ll be saying it in no time flat. You can create a site that is localized to your choice, and delivered in a language of your choice. The gettext method is used to translate and localize WordPress to the fullest extent.

Drag and Drop Administration

Didn’t major in computer science? No degree is required. Most of what users see from menus to the dynamic functionality on each page can be fully customized with simple drag-and-drop controls on the back end.

Multiple Personalities

Got a bunch of users? Not a problem. WordPress lets you define different roles for different users – just like in real life – and lets you assign privileges accordingly. Users can register themselves (if you want), and can submit content for your review.

User Tested, Geek Approved

Out-of-the-box Power

WordPress provides extensive functionality right out-of-the-box and often little customization is needed to adapt the software for your unique use. Many other CMSs rely on you to hunt down, install, and configure a long-list of add-ons just to get many of the features WordPress considers core (comments, RSS feeds, revisions, etc.) and relies on developers to undertake significant coding efforts to provide the functionality you need. WordPress does the heavy lifting so you don’t have to. Why reinvent the wheel when you already have the best wheel in the world?

Open and Transparent

WordPress is built by a dedicated community of professional developers, academics, and enthusiasts with the source code released to the world to take apart, build upon, and improve. Its hallmark is a rapid development cycle, meaning frequent updates and always up-to-date software, all with no licensing fees or direct costs. And with an extensive international community professional support is always wherever you are.

It’s Your Data

Some publishing platforms lock you in with proprietary data formats. Not here. WordPress relies on open standards to allow you to take your data with you and even comes with tools to seamlessly import from many popular sources. It’s your data, and you should be able to do what you want with it. We currently have importers for Movable Type, Textpattern, Greymatter, Blogger, and b2. Work on importers for Nucleus and pMachine is underway.

It’s Your Software

WordPress is designed to be installed on your own web server, in the cloud, or in a shared hosting account. You have complete control. Unlike commercial software or third-party hosted services, you can be sure of being able to access and modify everything related to your site. You can even install WordPress on your personal computer, or on a corporate intranet.

Power One Site or Millions

WordPress offers multi-site technology. It is the same technology that powers over 20 million sites on WordPress.com and global sites like CNN and the New York Times. Multi-site technology allows users to have full administrative control over their own site, without any security concerns. Each site can have its own look-and-feel (themes), its own functionality (plug-ins), and manage its own users, while at the same time, network-wide policies and security updates can be deployed at the click of a button.

Dynamic page generation

No rebuilding of all your pages each time you update your site or any aspect of it. All pages are generated using the database and the templates each time a page from your site is requested by a viewer. This means that updating your site, or its design is as fast as possible and required server storage space usage is minimal.

Template Driven Design

WordPress uses templates to generate the pages dynamically. You can control the presentation of content by editing the templates using your favorite text editor or IDE, or even the built-in Template Editor tool. Template tags make it easier to design the content and information displayed on your site. You don’t need to be a PHP whiz to make your site’s look-and-feel match your vision.

A Serious Platform for Serious Content

Your Site is Your Castle

WordPress has more than eight years of history powering stable, secure websites. Vulnerabilities are discovered quickly because of the wide user base and dedicated open-source community, patches are rapidly developed by the dedicated security team, and are often released in the span of hours from the time they are reported. WordPress comes with an integrated core-update system, so patches are deployed at the click of a mouse. WordPress sanitizes all user input, restricts URL access, has an extensive user permission system, and never stores passwords in an unencryptable format. WordPress uses WordPress.com’s 20 million users to beta test releases before they come out so that by the time new versions are released, stakeholders can be confident in their stability.

Extensive APIs

WordPress’s core relies on its own extensive API interface (commonly known as dogfooding) which consequently allows developers to quickly and effectively customize the application to their unique needs. Many aspects of the essential WordPress experience can be overridden or modified by user-generated hooks and filters. These APIs help WordPress integrate seamlessly with existing systems, a necessity in a stove-pipe rich environments.

Enterprise Ready

Any challenges the organization faces, chances are, someone else has already tackled it and provided the code free of charge. WordPress has been adapted to countless enterprise environments and provides support for Active Directory authentication, user management, workflow integration, and scheduled backups, among other enterprise-centric features.

Interoperability

Want to connect WordPress to another system? WordPress uses XML-RPC, an open XML standard that allows different systems in different environments to talk to one another. XML-RPC is designed to be as simple as possible, while at the same time allowing for complex tasks to be performed. WordPress also supports an extended version of the Blogger API, MetaWeblog API, and finally the MovableType API. You can even use clients designed for other platforms like Zempt.

Maintenance is so simple you’ll wonder why you did it the other way

Installing and upgrading WordPress is a piece of cake. WordPress’s famous five-minute installation is the envy of the industry, and with one click updates, you’ll know you are always using the best. Try it and you’ll wonder why all software isn’t this easy.

Standards Compliant… and then some

The WordPress team has gone to great lengths to ensure every bit of WordPress-generated code is in full compliance with the standards of the W3C. This is important not only for interoperability with today’s browser but also for forwarding compatibility with the tools of the next generation. Your website is a beautiful thing, and you should demand nothing less.

More than a Blog… Much, Much More

Anyone who says WordPress is a mere blogging platform is covering for the fact that they haven’t been following the CMS’s explosive growth over the past couple of years. Saying WordPress is only a blogging platform is like saying BMW is only a propeller manufacturer. In fact, the majority of the time, WordPress isn’t even used as a blog. With built-in support for custom post types and custom taxonomies, if you can dream it, WordPress can make it a reality.

Broadcast your ideas

Feeds

The RSS 1.0 (aka RDF), RSS 2.0, and ATOM specifications are fully supported by WordPress, and what’s more, just about any page on your site has an associated feed that your readers can subscribe to – there’s a feed for the latest posts, for categories, comments, well, like we said earlier, for anything you want. The more options your readers have to keep track of different sections of your site, the easier it is for you to spread the word around the world. WordPress also fully supports RSS 2.0 with enclosures, so adding mp3 files (such as podcasts) to your RSS feeds is a snap.

Inter-site communication

In an increasingly connected world, WordPress comes ready for PingBack and TrackBack, two very useful ways of connecting to other sites and enabling them to do the same. Plus, WordPress supports pinging Ping-O-Matic, which means maximum exposure for your site to search engines.

Grow your community

Community building

WordPress is not the YMCA, but it does help build communities around sites, through the use of comments, trackbacks, and pingbacks, helping you keep in touch with the audience and fostering friendship

Comments

Visitors to your site can leave comments on individual entries, and through Trackback or Pingback can comment on their own site. You can enable or disable comments on a per-post basis.

Spam protection

Out-of-the-box WordPress comes with very robust tools such as an integrated blacklist and opens proxy checker to manage and eliminate comment spam on your blog, and there is also a rich array of plugins that can take this functionality a step further.

Full user registration

WordPress has a built-in user registration system that (if you choose) can allow people to register and maintain profiles and leave authenticated comments on your blog. You can optionally close comments for non-registered users. There are also plugins that hide posts from lower-level users.

Allowed HTML tags

Not everyone is evil, but keep those who are in check by limiting which HTML tags are kosher on your site. The default HTML tags allowed by WordPress are a sane choice to let people use HTML in their comments, without compromising the safety of your data or server.

Moderation

For the control freak in all of us, WordPress provides an array of moderation options. You can moderate

• all comments before they appear on the blog
• comments with specific words in them
• comments posted from specific IP addresses
• comments containing more than some specified number of links.

All these moderation options keep spammers and vandals in check.

Notification

WordPress can keep you in the loop by sending you an email each time there is a new comment or a comment awaiting moderation.

License, Platform, and Philosophy

License

WordPress is licensed under the GPLv2 or later which guarantees users several freedoms:

• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
• The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish.
• The freedom to redistribute.
• The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others.

Platform

PHP 7.2 or greater and MySQL 5.6 or greater and mod_rewrite Apache module. More information

Philosophy

WordPress’s development is guided by a set of unwavering principles. They are:

• Work Out of the Box
• Design for the Majority
• Decisions, not Options
• Clean, Lean, and Mean
• Strive for Simplicity
• Deadlines are not Arbitrary
• Be Mindful of the Vocal Minority
• The WordPress Bill of Rights

1. WordPress Multisite feature: a single WordPress instance (with multiple sites created within the same WP instance) sharing a single database instance.
2. Single Database: multiple WordPress instances sharing a single database instance.
3. Multiple Databases: multiple WordPress instances with each instance using its own databases instance.

Let’s first look at the third type, multiple WordPress instances with multiple databases, because it has the same installation process as the single WordPress site except there are multiple sites.

Multiple WordPress Instances with Multiple Databases

You’ll need a separate MySQL database for each blog you plan to install. If you have not yet created these, basic instructions are found here.

The wp-config.php file will vary for each installation. The lines to change are the following:

define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress');    // The name of the database
define('DB_USER', 'username');     // Your MySQL username
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'password'); // ... and password

DB_NAME is the name of the individual database created for that blog. If you are using different user logins for each database, edit DB_USER and DB_PASSWORD to reflect this as well.

Upload each wp-config.php file to its specific root/installation directory, and run the installation. See Installing WordPress for more information.

The Multisite Feature

If you want multiple sites to use WordPress, you can use the multisite feature to create what is referred to as a network of sites. The multisite feature involves installing a single WordPress instance and a single database.

The multisite feature appears to be simpler than other types of multiple WordPress installations, but there are some considerations and restrictions. Refer to the following documents for more detailed information:

• Before You Create A Network
• Create A Network
• Multisite Network Administration

Multiple WordPress Instances with a Single Database

As with the multiple-database solution described above, the wp-config.php file will vary for each installation. In this case, however, only a single line is unique to each blog:

$table_prefix = 'wp_'; // example: 'wp_' or 'b2' or 'mylogin_' 

By default, WordPress assigns the table prefix wp_ to its MySQL database tables, but this prefix can be anything you choose. This allows you to create unique identifiers for each blog in your database. For example, let’s say you have three blogs to set up, with the names Main, Projects, and Test. You should substitute the prefix wp_ in each blog’s
wp-config.php:

Main blog:

$table_prefix = 'main_'; 

Projects blog:

$table_prefix = 'projects_'; 

Test blog:

$table_prefix = 'test_'; 

As noted, you may use a prefix of your own making. Those provided here are for example only.

Upload each wp-config.php file to its specific root/installation directory, and run the installation. See Installing WordPress for more information.

Multiple Databases, Same Users

You can use the same userbase for all your blogs on the same domain by defining the CUSTOM_USER_TABLE and optionally the CUSTOM_USER_META_TABLE constants to point to the same wp_your_blog_users and wp_your_blog_usermeta tables.
See Editing wp-config.php/Custom User and Usermeta Tables.

Password Problems

For information on problems logging in due to a wrong or lost password, see Resetting Your Password. Remember: the Username and Password fields are case-sensitive.

Enable Cookies

In order to make sure that cookies are enabled for your browser, you need to:

1. Clear your browser cookies.
2. Clear your browser cache.

To see how to clear cookies and caches on various browsers, visit Clearing Cache and Cookies.

Check your Firewall

Some firewalls (e.g., eTrust Personal Firewall) block you from logging in to WordPress. Disable your firewall and try to log in again.

If All Else Fails

If these steps fail, please indicate that you have tried all these possible solutions when posting at the WordPress Support Forum. 

Be sure to give details of your server setup, if you know it, including MySQL and PHP versions, as well as your operating system (OS), browser, and the WordPress version that is causing these problems.

How do I install WordPress?

Under most circumstances, installing WordPress is a very simple process and takes less than five minutes to complete. Many web hosts offer tools to automatically install WordPress for you. If you prefer a manual installation you can take a look at the Installation Guide.

How do I find a good host for my WordPress website?

Any host that supports the requirements for WordPress can be used for hosting your website. If you’re not sure if your host can run WordPress the best thing to do would be to contact them and ask if they meet the requirements for running WordPress. You can find a list with some good hosts here.

How do I install using cPanel / cPanel X?

If you want to perform a manual installation using cPanel you can follow the guide on using cPanel.

How do I configure the wp-config.php file?

The wp-config.php file is one of the most important files of your website. It’s located in the root of your WordPress installation and contains most of the website’s configuration details. Editing this file can be done in any plain-text editor. Usually this isn’t necessary unless you’re installing WordPress manually.
See also:

• Editing wp-config.php

What are the requirements for installing WordPress?

The current requirements for running WordPress can be found on the requirements page at WordPress.org.

How do I get WordPress to use my language?

If you want to change the language that WordPress is using, you can select your preferred language in the Administration Screen. To do this you can go the Settings > General, and choose your preferred language from Site Language dropdown menu.

Do I need to create a database?

Yes. WordPress requires access to a MySQL or MariaDB database to store information. So you’ll need a database.
You should create a new database if:

1. You have not already created one on the server
2. Your generous host offers you more than one database, and you wish to have a separate database for the website you are setting up.

It is not essential to create a new database for each WordPress installation.

• If you are using the same database for multiple WordPress installations, take care to edit the wp-config.php file ensuring that each installation has a unique database prefix.
• If you are setting up a new database for a new website, edit wp-config.php, and be sure to get the database name, and other details correct.

See also:

• Installation, Detailed Instructions

Why is my website showing a 403 Error?

If the following (or similar) message appears after uploading your website a couple of things can be happening:

You are not authorized to view this page. You might not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials you supplied. If you believe you should be able to view this directory or page, please try to contact the Web site by using any e-mail address or phone number that may be listed on the personal.fredsmith.com home page. You can click Search to look for information on the Internet. HTTP Error 403 – Forbidden

If your account is hosted on a Apache based server the following things can be happening:

• server permissions aren’t allowing the request from being executed
• your index.php isn’t configured to be an allowed directory index
• the underlying filesystem isn’t allowing Apache access to the files requested

If you have checked all these settings and everything seems to be set up correctly you’d best contact your hosting provider for support.

Can I rename the WordPress folder?

If you have not already installed WordPress, you can rename the folder with the WordPress files, before, or even after uploading the files.

If you have WordPress installed already, and you want to rename the folder, login to your website as an administrator and change the following settings in Settings > General:

• WordPress Address (URL):
• Site Address (URL):

Once you have done this, you can rename the directory or folder with the WordPress files in it.

See also:

• Moving WordPress

Why is my upload directory “C:apachehtdocswordpress”?

When you specified the upload path, you used backslashes.

Use forward slashes “/” to specify the path to the directory.

Can I install WordPress on Windows Server?

Yes you can! As long as you have PHP installed you shouldn’t have any trouble getting started with WordPress. Both Apache and Microsoft IIS are capable of serving your WordPress website.

Advanced Installation

How do I install WordPress with the files in different directories?

This also answers the questions:

• How can I have my blog in one folder but my index at root?
• How can I have people see my blog at www.example.com but keep all the files in www.example.com/wordpress?
• How do I install WordPress in a different directory than where the index.php resides?

See also:

• Giving WordPress Its Own Directory
• Moving WordPress

How can I hide my blog from people?

Whether you are testing a new version of WordPress, setting up a new blog or have some other reason to limit access, the following information may help you keep unwanted visitors out.

Apache

There is no guaranteed way to do this. You can use the .htaccess file (which also contains your permalink code) to check for certain IP addresses and prevent them from viewing your site. This will only stop the IP address, not the person, so if they have access to an allowed IP address, they can get to your page. One tutorial for this is located at Clockwatchers.com

An .htaccess file can also be used to prevent others from “hot-linking” to your images (bandwidth theft) or to set up a password protected blog.

Apache Basic Authentication

To require a password to access your site using .htaccess and .htpasswd.

Tools that help you create the files necessary to password protect your site: Htpasswd generator, htaccess Tools and Clockwatchers.com .htaccess And .htpasswd Tools

Note: When your site is accessed the password is encoded weakly using Base64 and can be easily intercepted and decoded.

Search Engines: Spiders and Bots

Search Engines will index your site and cache your content. If you do not want this to happen, you can go to the Settings > Reading from Administration Screen, and Click Check the ‘Discourage search engines from indexing this site’ box to ask search engines not to index this site.
Note: It is up to search engines to honor your request.
You may use a file called robots.txt. More details can be found at Affilorama.com and elsewhere on the web.

How can I solve login problems?

See also:

• Login Trouble

How can I get WordPress working when I’m behind a reverse proxy?

In some setups, it’s necessary to use something other than the HTTP_HOST header to generate URLs. Reverse proxies take the original request and send it to one of a group of servers. To do so, it overwrites the HTTP_HOST with the internal server’s domain. When that domain is not publicly accessible, at best your images might not load correctly, at worst, you’ll be stuck in a redirect loop. To fix this, figure out which header has the right domain name and add a line to your wp-config.php file that overwrites HTTP_HOST with the correct hostname.

If you need to use SERVER_NAME, add this line to wp-config.php:

$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] = $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'];

If you need to use HTTP_X_FORWARDED_HOST, add this line to wp-config.php:

$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_HOST'];

FTP

How do I FTP?

See also:

• Using FileZilla and FTP Clients

How do I use FileZilla?

See also:

• Using FileZilla

How do I upload the files and folders?

See also:

• Using FileZilla

How do I CHMOD files?

See also:

• Changing File Permissions

MySQL or MariaDB

Do I really need MySQL/MariaDB?

Yes. You certainly need the MySQL or MariaDB database servers to power your WordPress blog. In fact, WordPress only supports the MySQL and MariaDB database servers.
See also:

• Requirements for WordPress

Can I use a database other than MySQL/MariaDB?

No. Other databases are not supported at the moment.

There are several other excellent database storage engines, such as PostgreSQL and SQLite that WordPress is interested in supporting in the future. Supporting multiple databases is trickier than it sounds and is not under active development, although there are plenty of architectural discussions about the best approach to take. Approaches for increasing the number of supported databases are discussed at Using Alternative Databases.

Why does WordPress use MySQL/MariaDB?

MySQL and MariaDB are extremely fast. It is also the most widely available database server in the world. Open-source and free, MySQL and MariaDB are supported by thousands of low-cost Linux (and Windows!) hosts, which means a very low barrier to entry for anyone wanting to start a WordPress (or database-driven) website. MySQL’s documentation is useful, cogent and thorough. (Note: it may be intimidating if you are new to all this.) Add to all that the fact that users are able to directly manipulate MySQL and MariaDB with phpMyAdmin, developed expressly for that purpose, and it is obvious that MySQL and MariaDB are the best choice.

PHP

What is phpMyAdmin?

phpMyAdmin is a tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL/MariaDB over the Web.

See also:

• phpMyAdmin

Do I need to know PHP to use WordPress ?

No. The only time you would modify your WordPress blog with PHP would be when integrating some of the plugins. In most cases clear instructions are given within a text file that accompanies the plugin. Other than that, you will not be changing any of the PHP files.

Will WordPress run in PHP Safe Mode?

Most definitely! There are no known issues with any version of WordPress when PHP is running in Safe Mode.

Do I really need PHP?

Yes. You certainly need PHP to power your WordPress blog. PHP is the scripting language that drives all of WordPress, and without PHP, your server will not be able to interpret the pages that create your weblog. For supported PHP version, refer Requirements for WordPress.

How do I find out which version of PHP I have?

To get information about your server, you can use the phpinfo() function. This will also give you information about your Apache and PHP version and mod_rewrite.

See also:

• Finding Server Info

Importing

How can I import posts from my current weblog which uses a different blogging tool such as b2, Movable Type MT, Blogger, etc.?

See also:

• Importing Content

You have several choices.

Creating a sandbox

Do this for test driving your WordPress Theme and style sheet, allowing you to develop your WordPress Theme on your computer. This limits you to only working on CSS and not using plugins and other powerful features of WordPress. This is best for just styling a page.

Hiding your WordPress test area

You can also close off access to your WordPress test site on your website server. This involves some familiarity with .htaccess and Apache, but it allows you to continue working on the Internet while not exposing your test site to the public.

Install WordPress on Your Computer

If you are determined to put WordPress through its paces, you can install WordPress on your own computer with a few modifications. This allows you total control over the actions and capabilities of WordPress. You can still use plugins, template files, and themes, and redesign everything as if it were on the Internet without using bandwidth or suffering from slow Internet access times. We have two sets of explanations for this: Installing a New Installation on Your Computer and Installing an Existing WordPress Site. We also cover Moving WordPress Onto Your Website after you have finished developing your site on your computer.

Creating a Sandbox

A Sandbox is a term related to the sandbox you might have played in and built sand castles in as a child. It is a playground for working on concepts and exploring your imagination. A WordPress Sandbox is basically a copy of a generated page on a WordPress site that is saved to your hard drive for you to play with as you develop your final theme and look for your site.

WordPress uses different template files to generate different views on your site. In general, there is the front page view, the single post view, and the multi-post view, used for categories, archives, and searches. For more information on the structure of WordPress Themes, see Site Architecture 1.5. As different page views use different CSS styles, at the least you need to put three page views in your sandbox following these instructions.

1. Choose the WordPress Theme you want to work from in your Appearance screen of your Administration Screen.
2. From your initial or test WordPress site, view one of the following page views:
3. * Front Page
4. * Single Post
5. * Mult-Post Page
6. From your browser:
7. # Choose File > Save As.
8. # Name the saved page with one of the above “titles.”
9. # Save each page’s file to your sandbox folder.
10. From your Theme’s folder, copy the style.css style sheet file to your sandbox folder.
11. Open each of the three files you have saved in a text editor and change the following:

<style type="text/css" media="screen">
@import url('/wp-content/themes/yourtheme/style.css');
</style>

to

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="style.css" />

Lastly, find all the image files and graphics associated with the style sheet, like background images, icons, bullets, or others, and copy them to your sandbox folder. Links to these items from within your style sheet should have no folders in their links, or link to a subfolder within your sandbox folder, such as:

header {
  margin:5px;
  padding:10px;
  background:url(images/background.jpg)....
}

To test this, double-click on one of the pages in that folder to view it in your browser. If the styles and graphics are visible, it worked. If not, check the link to your style sheet.

Now, you have a sandbox to play in.

To use your sandbox, have two programs open. One is your text editor with the style.css file and the other is your browser with the page you are working on in view. Make a change in your style sheet, save it, then do a total refresh of your browser screen and look at what changes. Then repeat the process. When you are done with one page, go to the next page and check those changes and add more if necessary.

Sandbox tips

Here are a few tips for playing in your sandbox.

Backup Frequently

As you work, copy the files in the folder before making major renovations to a backup folder. Or you can use a file compression utility like a zip program to save the entire folder. If the changes you make do not work, you have recent backups to work from.

Trace DIVS and CLASSES

Before you begin, go through the source code file of each of the three-page views in your text editor and add a comment as to where each division begins and ends. These often cross lines between template files and can be difficult to trace. Make your life easier by documenting where these begin and end.

Make Notes

Before making a huge change, write down what you are changing. This way you have notes to refer to when things do not work later and you are trying to trace the history of the changes.

Make Notes Inside

When making significant changes to the style sheet or to the web page source code, add notes or comments to the code. This will also help you to keep track of the changes you’ve made.

Make Small Steps

Making a lot of changes at once makes it harder to find the small change that made things go out of whack. A good approach would be to take small steps and check, then make additional, small modifications and check again.

Avoid Changing the Template Files

Begin by staying with the site architecture and style references already in place. If you will be releasing your Theme to the public, modifications to the template files must be seriously reconsidered and done carefully. If you are rebuilding your site for your private use, then you can make those changes to your HTML saved pages source code, then move those changes into the template files later.

Moving Your Sandbox To Your Theme

When you have made all your changes and are satisfied with the results, it is time to move your sandbox back into your WordPress Theme.

1. Upload the style.css style sheet file to your WordPress Theme folder on your site, replacing the old file.
2. Upload all graphics and images to the Theme folder or subfolder.
3. View your site in your browser. The changes should be immediate.
4. If you made changes to the source code of any of the three pages, track those down to their specific template file and make the changes in those template files on your site.

Install another Blog

1. Install WordPress again, but in the wp-config.php file, use a different table prefix.
2. In Options > Writing > Update Services, clear the box.
3. Tell no one where your blog is located.

If you go to another site from your blog, then your site could be discovered because of the referer in the browser. To prevent this, go to your real blog, then to another site.

This method is useful toward the end of testing as you can ask for people to test using other browsers/screen resolutions.

Hiding Your WordPress Test Area

To hide your WordPress test folder from others, you can use the .htaccess file on an Apache web server. The .htaccess file is a file that stores server directives, and instructions that tell the server what to do in specific situations. You could also use the Apache config file (httpd.conf) or other methods, but the .htaccess file can apply only to the folder in which the .htaccess file resides, and all the folders under that one, allowing you to restrict access to a specific folder.

Remember, this will only work on servers that support .htaccess. If you are unsure that your server supports .htaccess, contact your hosting provider. You may or may not be able to do this depending upon the access permissions you have with your host server. You may need their assistance. If you are running your own server, or if your hosting provider is clue-free, consult the AllowOverride documentation.

Using the .htaccess file, you need to provide instructions to tell the server to restrict or deny access to your WordPress test site. In the folder or directory in which WordPress is installed, do the following:

1. Using a text editor create a blank text file called .htaccess.
2. You need the following information:
3. * The full path of a directory on your site server that is not accessible to the public (like http://example.com/public_html/ is accessible but http://example.com/private/ is not. Use the latter.
4. * The name of the secured area such as “Enter Password” or “Secure Area” (this is not important, just simple).
5. In the file type the following, replacing /full/path/of/directory/ and Security Area with the above information:AuthUserFile /full/path/of/directory/.htpasswd AuthName "Security Area" AuthType Basic require valid-user
6. Save this .htaccess file and upload it to the directory on your server you want hidden and secured. This would be the installation directory for WordPress such as /wordpress/ or blog.
7. Using Telnet, cPanel, or another way to access your server’s command panel, go to the directory specified as AuthUserFile.
8. Type the following command, where user_name is the user name for the access:htpasswd -c .htpasswd user_name
9. When prompted, enter the password, and confirm it.
10. Write down your password and user name and keep it in a safe place.

When you are ready to open your site to the public and remove the protection, delete the password and .htaccess files from their locations.

It is highly recommended that you remove the default ping URL to Ping-o-Matic!, otherwise your test posts will ping and your test blog will be made public though not accessible.

Htaccess resources

• .htaccess files howto
• Authentication, Authorization and Access Control

Installing WordPress on a Mac

Use these instructions for setting up a local server environment for testing and development on a Mac.

• Installing_WordPress_Locally_on_Your_Mac_With_MAMP

Installing WordPress on Your Windows Desktop

In order for WordPress to work, it must have access to an Apache server, MySQL/MariaDB, and phpMyAdmin. Installing these separately can be painful. Luckily for us, XAMPP installs all of these with one program, allowing you to run WordPress on your computer. There are two versions of the program, Basic and Lite. The Lite version is usually adequate.

1. Download and install XAMPP.
2. This installs by default into C:/xampplite or C:\xampp.
3. Start XAMPP from c:\xampplite or c:\xampp.
4. You may need to restart your computer to allow apache services to start.
5. In your browser, go to http://localhost/xampp.
6. In the left column under Tools, click phpMyAdmin.
7. Login is admin.
8. In Create a new database enter wordpress.
9. In the next box, select utf8 unicode ci.
10. Click Create button.
11. Unzip your WordPress download into the htdocs directory – c:\xampp\htdocs\.
12. From the folder, open wp-config-sample.php in a text editor.
13. The connection details you need are as follows: // ** MySQL settings ** // define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress'); // The name of the database define('DB_USER', 'root'); // Your MySQL username define('DB_PASSWORD', ''); // ...and password define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); // 99% chance you won't need to change this
14. Save as wp-config.php.
15. Install by going to http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php

IMPORTANT: It is possible to use this to actually host your blog if you have a good enough connection. If you want to do this, you MUST increase the security level. This description is NOT SECURE if you allow web access to your blog.

Installing an existing WordPress site

With the help of XAMPP, you can install WordPress directly on your computer and play with it to your heart’s content. This way, it is totally isolated from public exposure and all your mistakes are hidden. When you are ready, you can then move it onto your website, ready for all to see.

Requirements

1. Access to your server database.
2. Ability to download your entire WordPress installation to your computer.
3. Basic XAMPP for Windows
4. Enough room on your hard drive to accommodate your database, WordPress installation, and XAMPP.

Backup WordPress

Begin by backing up your WordPress site completely, the files and the database. This will ensure that you have a good copy to fall back on, just in case.

A second backup is then required of your database, but it requires you do a little housekeeping.

As the WordPress database normally stands, there are statistics tables that contain a huge amount of data which add to the overall size of the database and slow down the process of backing up and downloading this backup copy of your database. You do not have to clear these, but it is generally considered a good idea.

1. Login to PHPMyAdmin on your website server.
2. From the main login screen, select Databases.
3. Choose the name of your WordPress database.
4. From the tags at the top of the screen, choose Export.
5. In the frame at the top of the Export section you will see a list of tables in your database.
6. You will need to choose only those tables that correspond to your WordPress install. They will be the ones with the table_prefix found in your wp-config.php file. If you only have WordPress installed, then choose Select All from the left column.
7. Make sure the SQL button is selected.
8. On the right side of the panel, make sure the following boxes are checked.

* Structure * Add AUTO_INCREMENT value * Enclose table and field names with backquotes * Data Tick the Save as file option, and leave the template name alone. For Compression, select None. Click Go. You should be prompted for a file to download. Save the file to your computer. Depending on the database size, this may take a few moments.

Download WordPress

Now, download your entire WordPress site to your computer. This is usually done with an FTP client program. Make sure you include all core WordPress files within your root or WordPress directory, including the index.php.

You should now have in your computer two items:

1. One or more database backups.
2. All your WordPress files, folders, and image directories.

Copy the backup files again to somewhere safe on your machine so you work on a copy of the backup for the next stage.

Install Basic XAMPP

1. Install XAMPP. By default, it will install to C:\xampp.
2. Go to C:\xampp\apache\conf and open the file called httpd.conf in a text editor.
3. About line 166 you will find: #LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so.
4. Remove the # and save the file (this switches mod_rewrite on).
5. Create a folder inside C:\xampp\htdocs. This will be for WordPress.
6. Copy all your downloaded WordPress files (not the sql backup) into that directory.
7. With a text editor, open the file wp-config.php on your WordPress install.
8. Change the details for your new MySQL connection: // ** MySQL settings ** // define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress'); // The name of the new database you made define('DB_USER', 'root'); // keep this as is define('DB_PASSWORD', ''); // keep this empty define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); // 99% chance you won't need to change this
9. Your main index.php should be in the /htdocs folder or in a subdirectory such as /htdocs/wordpress/. Write that down.
10. Start XAMPP by clicking the orange xampp_start.exe or using the console program from Program Files\ApacheFriends\XAMPP\XAMPP Control Panel.
11. Once it is working, click on the link in the left sidebar for phpMyAdmin.
12. Create a database. The name should match the one used in your wp-config.php file.

Importing Your SQL Backup File

Before you begin to import your SQL backup file, you need to change some information inside your .SQL file.

1. Using your text editor, open the .sql backup database file you downloaded.
2. Find and replace all the instances of your old URL with your new URL. For instance, if your blog address is at http://example.com/wordpress/, and your files on your computer are at /htdocs/wordpress/, replace it with http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/.
3. Click Save – Do not use Save as.

Now it is time to import your sql file. From within the phpMyAdmin on your computer, click on your database name, then choose the SQL tab. From this screen, click Browse and find your backup files on your computer. Click Go. This can take a few minutes to import.

Once the procedure is complete, your database will be restored and will work just as it did before. If something goes wrong with this last part of the process, it could be that either your backup was corrupted in some way, or something went wrong with the database itself. Keep your backup files safe!

If everything so far has gone well, it is now time to visit your blog! In your browser, type in http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/index.php or the actual name of the folder you created for your WordPress files.

If you get a 404, check you have the right place. You do not need to put htdocs or xampp or anything else after the http://127.0.0.1/ except using your directory name.

WordPress should now function just as it did on the web. You do not need to use the built-in editor in WordPress to alter your files. Just open the files directly in a text editor and edit them as you would any other file. Refreshing your browser’s web page will then show the effects.

Moving your test WordPress site to your website

Coming soon – how to move your test site from your computer back live onto your host server site.

Resources

• Test themes on a live blog with Theme Test Drive
• qSandbox.com – Create a free WordPress test site to try (new) plugins and themes

Moving to a New Server

If you are moving WordPress from one server to another, begin by backing up your WordPress directory, images, plugins, and other files on your site as well as the database. See WordPress Backups and Backing Up Your Database.

Keeping Your Domain Name and URLs

Moving your domain without changing the Home and Site URLs of your WordPress site is very simple, and in most cases can be done by moving the files.

• If database and URL remain the same, you can move by just copying your files and database.
• If database name or user changes, edit wp-config.php to have the correct values.
• If you want to test before you switch, you must temporarily change “siteurl” and “home” in the database table “wp_options” (through phpMyAdmin or similar).
• If you had any kind of rewrites (permalinks) setup you must disable .htaccess and reconfigure permalinks when it goes live.

Changing Your Domain Name and URLs

Moving a website and changing your domain name or URLs (i.e. from http://example.com/site to http://example.com, or http://example.com to http://example.net) requires the following steps – in sequence.

1. Download your existing site files.
2. Export your database – go in to MySQL and export the database.
3. Move the backed up files and database into a new folder – somewhere safe – this is your site backup.
4. Log in to the site you want to move and go to Settings > General, then change the URLs. (ie from http://example.com/ to http://example.net ) – save the settings and expect to see a 404 page.
5. Download your site files again.
6. Export the database again.
7. Edit wp-config.php with the new server’s MySQL database name, user and password.
8. Upload the files.
9. Import the database on the new server.

When your domain name or URLs change there are additional concerns. The files and database can be moved, however references to the old domain name or location will remain in the database, and that can cause issues with links or theme display.

If you do a search and replace on your entire database to change the URLs, you can cause issues with data serialization, due to the fact that some themes and widgets store values with the length of your URL marked. When this changes, things break. To avoid that serialization issue, you have three options:

1. Use the Velvet Blues Update URLs or Better Search Replace plugins if you can access your Dashboard.
2. Use WP-CLI’s search-replace if your hosting provider (or you) have installed WP-CLI.
3. Use the Search and Replace for WordPress Databases Script to safely change all instances on your old domain or path to your new one. (** only use this option if you are comfortable with database administration ** )

Note: Only perform a search and replace on the wp_posts table.
Note: Search and Replace from Interconnectit is a 3rd party script

Moving Directories On Your Existing Server

Moving the WordPress files from one location on your server to another – i.e. changing its URL – requires some special care. If you want to move WordPress to its own folder, but have it run from the root of your domain, please read Giving WordPress Its Own Directory for detailed instructions.

Here are the step-by-step instructions to move your WordPress site to a new location on the same server:

1. Create the new location using one of these two options:
   1. If you will be moving your WordPress core files to a new directory, create the new directory.If you want to move WordPress to your root directory, make sure all index.php, .htaccess, and other files that might be copied over are backed up and/or moved, and that the root directory is ready for the new WordPress files.
2. Log in to your site.
3. Go to the Administration > Settings > General screen.
4. In the box for WordPress Address (URL): change the address to the new location of your main WordPress core files.
5. In the box for Site Address (URL): change the address to the new location, which should match the WordPress (your public site) address.
6. Click Save Changes.
7. (Do not try to open/view your site now!)
8. Move your WordPress core files to the new location. This includes the files found within the original directory, such as http://example.com/wordpress, and all the sub-directories, to the new location.
9. Now, try to open your site by going to yourdomain.com/wp-admin. Note, you may need to go to yourdomain.com/wp-login.php
10. If you are using Permalinks, go to the Administration > Settings > Permalinks panel and update your Permalink structure to your .htaccess, file, which should be in the same directory as the main index.php file.
11. Existing image/media links uploaded media will refer to the old folder and must be updated with the new location. You can do this with the Better Search Replace or Velvet Blues Update URLs plugins, WP-CLI’s search-replace if your hosting provider (or you) have installed WP-CLI, manually in your SQL database, or by using the 3rd party database updating tool Search and Replace Databases Script * Note: this script is best used by experienced developers.
12. In some cases your permissions may have changed, depending on your ISP. Watch for any files with “0000” permissions and change them back to “0644”.
13. If your theme supports menus, links to your home page may still have the old subdirectory embedded in them. Go to Appearance > Menus and update them.
14. Sometimes you would need to restart your server, otherwise your server may give out an error. (happens in MAMP software (Mac)).

It is important that you set the URI locations BEFORE you move the files.

If You Forget to Change the Locations

If you accidentally moved the files before you changed the URIs: you have two options.

1. Suppose the files were originally in /path/to/old/ and you moved them to /path/to/new before changing the URIs. The way to fix this would be to make /path/to/old/ a symlink (for Windows users, “symlink” is equivalent to “shortcut”) to /path/to/new/, i.e.
   ln -s /path/to/new /path/to/old
   and then follow the steps above as normal. Afterwards, delete the symlink if you want.
2. If you forget to change the WordPress Address and Blog Address, you will be unable to change it using the wordpress interface. However, you can fix it if you have access to the database. Go to the database of your site and find the wp_options table. This table stores all the options that you can set in the interface. The WordPress Address and Blog Address are stored as siteurl and home (the option_name field). All you have to do is change the option_value field to the correct URL for the records with option_name=’siteurl‘ or option_name=’home‘.

Note: Sometimes, the WordPress Address and Blog Address are stored in WordPress Transients. Search and replace scripts can have trouble modifying those to the new address and some plugins might therefore refer to the old address because of them. Transients are temporary (cached) values stored in the wp_options database table that can be recreated on-demand when removed. It’s therefore safe to delete them from the migrated database copy and let them be recreated. This database query (again, have a backup!) clears all transients:

DELETE FROM `wp_options` WHERE option_name LIKE '%\_transient\_%' 

If You Have Accidentally Changed your WordPress Site URL

Suppose you accidentally changed the URIs where you cannot move the files (but can still access the login page, through a redirection or something).

wp-login.php can be used to (re-)set the URIs. Find this line:

require( dirname(__FILE__) . '/wp-load.php' );

and insert the following lines below:

//FIXME: do comment/remove these hack lines. (once the database is updated)
update_option('siteurl', 'http://your.domain.name/the/path' );
update_option('home', 'http://your.domain.name/the/path' );

You’re done. Test your site to make sure that it works right. If the change involves a new address for your site, make sure you let people know the new address, and consider adding some redirection instructions in your .htaccess file to guide visitors to the new location.

Changing The Site URL also provides the details of this process.

Managing Your Old Site

Shutting It Down

1. Download a copy of the main wordpress files from your OLD site to your hard drive and edit wp-config.php to suit the new server.
2. Go back to your OLD site and go to Administration > Settings > General screen and change the URL (both of them) to that of your new site.
3. Login on your server, go to phpMyAdmin, export as file, and save your database (but keep the old one just in case). Now, upload this new database and the copy of the wordpress core files with the edited wp-config.php to your new server. That’s it!

Keeping it Running

Caution: Make sure you have a backup of your old site’s WordPress database before proceeding!

Part A – Activating Your New Site

1. Download your entire WordPress installation to your hard drive. Name the folder appropriately to indicate that this is your OLD site’s installation.
2. Download your database.
3. Go back to your OLD site and go to options and change the url (both of them) to that of your new site.
4. Again, download your entire WordPress installation to your hard drive. Name the folder appropriately to indicate that this is your NEW site’s installation.
5. Download your database once again (but keep the old one). Upload this database to your new server. It will be easiest if you use the same database name and you create a user with the same login credentials on your new server as on your old server.
6. If you used a different database name and/or user (see previous step), edit wp-config.php in your NEW site’s installation folder appropriately.
7. Upload the NEW site’s installation folder to your new site. Presto, your NEW site should be working!

Part B – Restoring Your Old Site

1. On the original server, delete your OLD site’s database (remember, you should have a copy on your local computer that you made at the very beginning).
2. Upload your OLD site’s installation folder to your original server, overwriting the files that are currently there (you may also delete the installation folder on the server and simply re-upload the OLD site’s files).
3. Upload your OLD site’s database from your local computer to the server. That should do it!

Another procedure for making copies of posts, comments, pages, categories and custom field (post status, data, permalinks, ping status, etc.) easy to follow:

1. Install a new WordPress site
2. Go on old site Admin panel. Here, in Manage > Export select “all” in menu Restrict Author.
3. Click on Download Export File
4. In new site go on Manage > Import, choose WordPress item.
5. In the page that will be shown, select the file just exported. Click on Upload file and Import
6. It will appear a page. In Assign Authors, assign the author to users that already exist or create new ones.
7. Click on Submit
8. At the end, click on Have fun

Note: using this method, if there are some articles in the new site (like Hello World, Info Page, etc.), these will not be erased. Articles are only added. Using the former procedure, the articles in new site will be deleted.

Moving WordPress Multisite

Multisite is somewhat more complicated to move, as the database itself has multiple references to the server name as well as the folder locations. If you’re simply moving to a new server with the same domain name, you can copy the files and database over, exactly as you would a traditional install.

If, instead, you are changing domains, then the best way to move Multisite is to move the files, edit the .htaccess and wp-config.php (if the folder name containing Multisite changed), and then manually edit the database. Search for all instances of your domain name, and change them as needed. This step cannot yet be easily automated. It’s safe to search/replace any of the wp_x_posts tables, however do not attempt blanket search/replace without the Search and Replace for WordPress Databases script (aka the interconnectit script).

If you’re moving Multisite from one folder to another, you will need to make sure you edit the wp_blogs entries to change the folder name correctly. You should manually review both wp_site and wp_blogs regardless, to ensure all sites were changed correctly.

Also, manually review all the wp_x_options tables and look for three fields and edit them as needed:

• home
• siteurl
• fileupload_url

If you are moving from subdomains to subfolders, or vice-versa, remember to adjust the .htaccess file and the value for SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL in your wp-config.php file accordingly.

Related Links

• How to move WordPress site to another server with zero downtime
• Moving a blog from wordpress.com to self-hosted blog
• Moving WordPress to a new domain or server
• Italian version of this article – Versione italiana dell’articolo
• How to move a WordPress Blog or Website
• Search and Replace for WordPress Databases
• Online WordPress Serialized PHP Search and Replace
• Cloning a live WordPress site to a local Mac test environment
• PHP script to replace site url in WordPress database dump, even with WPML
• The Duplicator plugin helps administrators move a site from one location to another
• Technical tutorial on moving your WordPress blog to Bitnami’s AWS configuration

A multisite network can be very similar to your own personal version of WordPress.com. End users of your network can create their own sites on demand, just like end users of WordPress.com can create blogs on demand. If you do not have any need to allow end users to create their own sites on demand, you can create a multisite network in which only you, the administrator, can add new sites.

A multisite network is a collection of sites that all share the same WordPress installation core files. They can also share plugins and themes. The individual sites in the network are virtual sites in the sense that they do not have their own directories on your server, although they do have separate directories for media uploads within the shared installation, and they do have separate tables in the database. NOTE: Upgraded and can’t find the Network Admin menu?

Step 0: Before You Begin

Compared with a typical single WordPress installation a network installation has additional considerations. You must decide if you want to use subdomains or subfolders and how you want to manage them. Installing themes and plugins is different: for example, each individual site of a network can activate both, but install neither.

This guide describes how to install manually WordPress Multisite in your current WordPress installation. There are also available ready-to-run packages from BitNami.

Please read Before You Create A Network in full before continuing.

Step 1: Prepare Your WordPress

Your existing WordPress site will be updated when creating a network. Unless this is a fresh install and you have nothing to lose, please backup your database and files.

Verify that Pretty Permalinks work on your single WP instance.

Also deactivate all active plugins. You can reactivate them again after the network is created.

If you plan to run WordPress out of its own directory, do that before activating Multisite.

Step 2: Allow Multisite

To enable the Network Setup menu item, you must first define multisite in the wp-config.php file.

Open up wp-config.php and add this line above where it says /* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */. If it doesn’t say that anywhere, then add the line somewhere above the first line that begins with require or include:

/* Multisite */
define( 'WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true );

You will need to refresh your browser to continue.

Step 3: Installing a Network

The previous step enables the Network Setup item in your Tools menu. Use that menu item to go to the Create a Network of WordPress Sites screen.

To see an example of the Create a Network of WordPress Sites screen, look at Administration >Tools > Network Setup. The screen does not look exactly the same in all circumstances. The example shown is for an installation on localhost, which restricts the options available.

Addresses of Sites in your Network

You are given the choice between sub-domains and sub-directories, except when existing settings restrict your choice.

You must choose one or the other. You can reconfigure your network to use the other choice after installation, despite the advice on the screen, but reconfiguring it might not be easy.

You only need wildcard DNS for on-demand domain-based sites, despite the advice that may be on the screen.

Once more: See Before You Create A Network.

• Sub-domains — a domain-based network in which on-demand sites use subdomains
• Sub-directories — a path-based network in which on-demand sites use paths

Network Details

These are filled in automatically, but you can make changes. Server Address The domain of the URL you are using to access your WordPress installation. Network Title The title of your network as a whole. Admin E-mail Address Your email address as super admin of the network as a whole.

Double-check the details and press the Install button.

Note: The installer may perform a check for wildcard subdomains when you have not configured them yet, or when you do not need them at all. Ignore the warning if it does not apply to your network. See the Server Requirements section in Before You Create A Network for information about wildcard subdomains.

Step 4: Enabling the Network

To enable your network, follow the instructions on the Create a Network of WordPress Sites screen. The instructions that you see are customized for your installation. They might not be the same as the examples you see here.

Back up your existing wp-config.php and .htaccess files, unless this is a fresh install and you have nothing to lose.

There are two steps: 1. Add the specified lines to your wp-config.php file The extra lines go just after where you added the line in Step 1: Prepare Your WordPress. 2. Add the specified lines to your .htaccess file If you do not have a .htaccess file, then create it in the same directory as your wp-config.php file. If you ALREADY have a .htaccess file, replace any existing WP lines with these new ones. In some cases you might also have to add Options FollowSymlinks at the start of the file.

After completing these steps, log in again using the link provided. You might have to clear your browser’s cache and cookies in order to log in.

Step 5: Network Admin Settings

At the left of your WordPress toolbar, My Sites is now the second item. There, all your sites are listed, with handy fly-out menus, as well as a Network Admin menu item. Under Network Admin you can use the Dashboard item to go to the Network Dashboard screen.

Go to the Settings Screen to configure network options, and the Sites Screen to manage your sites.

For more information, see: Network Admin

Upgraded and can’t find the Network Admin menu?

Step 6: Administration

There are some additional things you might need to know about advanced administration of the network, due to the additional complexity of a Multisite. Even if you’re familiar with WordPress, the location and behavior of Multisite Network Administration can be confusing.

Read Multisite Network Administration for more information.

For help troubleshooting:

• Debugging a WordPress Network

Related Articles

• Hosting WordPress
• Installing Multiple Blogs
• How to adapt my plugin to Multisite?