blogmaking.net

DreamHost’s 1 click install was down on the weekend, but this ended up being a good thing because it forced me to do a manual install (which is supposed to be much healthier) and I realised how wonderfully easy it actually was. I normally can’t stand back-end stuff, once it starts getting too codey I freak out and run away screaming but it was just so simple!

Test that it has all worked by logging in, you should go to the dashboard and be able to start your first post.

I just followed these instructions at Installing WordPress « WordPress Codex and voila it was done. BRILLIANT.

Anyway, these instructions are mostly a copy and paste from the WordPress Codex with some tweaking, refer to the Codex for more indepth info. This is also just what I did, if you want more options, refer to the Codex

1. Download and Extract
Download the most recent WordPress release here: WordPress › Download (I’m currently using 2.0.4) and unzip it onto your desktop or other favourite location. It will extract to a folder called wordpress.

2. Create the Database and a User
This will really depend on your server and there is some info on a few types on the Codex. On DreamHost, I clicked on Goodies/Manage MySQL and created a new database called dbname on a new hostname called db.blogmaking.net and a new user called wpadmin with a password which I won’t tell you! And then clicked on “make database now” and waited about 5-10 minutes for it to be set up.

The Codex talks about making sure that priviledges are set to all, I found that was done automatically. In DreamHost, if you click on the user name next to the database in “Manage MySql” you’ll come to a page where you’ll find “what may admin do to tables in these databases?” and a whole lot of checkboxes, these should all be ticked.

Make a note of the folder name you want to use (blog), the database name (dbname), the hostname (db.blogmaking.net) and the user name you set up (wpadmin) and password (secret), you’ll need this for the next step.

3. Set up wp-config.php
Go to the wordpress folder you extract in step 1 and rename the file wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php.

Open the renamed wp-config.php file in a text editor like notepad and replace the names as you noted above as follows (changes in bold):

// ** MySQL settings ** //
define(’DB_NAME’, ‘dbname‘); // The name of the database
define(’DB_USER’, ‘wpadmin‘); // Your MySQL username
define(’DB_PASSWORD’, ‘secret‘); // …and password
define(’DB_HOST’, ‘db.blogmaking.net‘); // 99% chance you won’t need to change this value (but you do for DreamHost!!!)

Save the file (make sure it is still in the wordpress directory where it was before).

4. Place the file

You have to decide where you want your blog to appear on your web site, in your root folder, eg http://domain.com/ or in a subdirectory, eg http://domain.com/blog/.

I always set up my blog in a folder outside the root folder, in this case I uploaded the WordPress folder I downloaded and renamed it “blog” (you could have kept it called wordpress and then your blog address would be http://domain.com/wordpress/). It just keeps the whole thing neater and makes it easier to run other software (for example you might want to have a forum which you could set up in a “forum” directory) in the future. You can redirect http://domain.com to http://domain.com/blog/ later (upcoming post).

If you want it in the root folder then upload the contents of the wordpress folder to your root directory (but don’t actually upload the wordpress folder itself).

For uploading, use your host’s web based FTP or your own FTP program. One of my favourites is FireFTP which is a FireFox extension. It’s brilliant and charityware.

5. Run the Install Script.
Using your favorite web browser, visit wp-admin/install.php within the directory into which you just installed WordPress on your web site.

So if you uploaded it and renamed it “blog” then you would visit: http://domain.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php. If you left it as “wordpress”, then you would visit: http://domain.com/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php.

If you uploaded it directly to your root folder (and didn’t upload the containing wordpress folder) then you would go to you would visit: http://domain.com/wp-admin/install.php

Just follow the instructions on the page and in a couple of screens, it’s all done! Make sure you take a note of the password and login you get given on the confirmation screen, this should be emailed to you but note it down just in case. You’ll need this to login.

If it doesn’t work then double check your wp-config.php file that all the names are correct. Also check you haven’t accidentally left out a quotation mark. When I was cutting and pasting I had ‘db.blogmaking.net instead of ‘db.blogmaking.net’ it was only one missing quotation mark but it was enough for it not to work. I opened up the file in Edit mode in my WebFTP, added the missing quotation mark and it immediately worked.