If your hosting providers doesn’t support a scripted install then you can install WordPress manually.
In this tutorial we look at manually installing WordPress on 1and1 UK hosting but the process can be used on other providers and on local installations using Xampp.
The steps needed are:
- Create the MYSQL database and assign permissions
- Download and Install the WordPress files.
- Run the WordPress install script.
Creating a MYSQL Database
The exact procedures will differ depending on the control panel you are using to create the database.
However you need to:
- Create the database
- Create a new user and give that user all privileges on that database.
- Make a note of the database name, user name and password as they are used in later inthe WordPress configuration file wp_config.php..
Note: Some of the steps may be automatically performed by the control panel.
1and1 control panel provides phpadmin for setting up and administering the Database.
Access is via the MySQL admin icon.
When you create a new database, the database name is automatically generated and a database user is automatically assigned, all you need to do is to assign a password.
There is no need to give the user any permissions as it is done automatically in this case.
You need to make a note of the username, database name and the password as they are needed.
The information can be read from the screen (see screenshot below).
Installing the WordPress files
You will need to download, unzip, edit the wp_config.php configuration file, and then copy the WordPress files to the appropriate folder on the 1and1 server.
You can download the latest WordPress files from the WordPress.org site.
After you have unpacked the WordPress files you need to create a wp-config.php file.
This you do by copying the wp-config-sample.php and renaming it to wp-config.php.
You then need to edit the wp-config.php .
So open the file in Wordpad ( Note notepad may not display the file correctly hence the use of wordpad), and change the database name and database user and password to match what you created in the MySQL configuration earlier.
In my case I’m using the database name blogbase and the database user called wordpress and the password of password.
So my edited file looks like this
For security reasons you should create salt keys. You can use this salt key generator.
Once you have edited it save it as wp-config.php.
Note: make sure its not called wp-config.php.txt by mistake.
Note: on 1and 1 the server is not local host but has the form- db3018.oneandone.co.uk
However before you copy the files you need first to decide where you are going to install WordPress.
You have two options:
- In the root folder – Most common if this is the only install on this domain name.
- create a subfolder. –Used if you intend to host multiple sites or you are installing on a subdomain.
Rather than install into the root folder I always like to create a sub folder and use that.
This does involve a little extra work as you will also need to ensure that your domain name is mapped to the sub folder and not the root folder, which it will be by default.
When you register a domain name it will associate that domain name with the root directory.
If you do this and decide at a later date to host multiple sites on the same package (multiple domain name hosting) , then you will have to do some tricky rearrangement.
It is better to prepare for this possibility by creating a sub folder and using that as the root of your site.
So before you can upload your WordPress files you need to create the desired folder structure on your web space.
You will need to copy all of the files in the WordPress folder to your hosting space.
This may take a little while as in total there are approx 7MB of files/directories.
The video shows you how to use FTP to copy files to a web server.
The Filezilla ftp client is free and you can download it here.
Now you need to ensure that the domain name is pointing to the correct folder.
So you logon to 1and1 hosting account and go to domain management and edit the domain to point to the new folder. See Video associate folder with domain name on 1and1
Running The Install script
Now you are ready to run the install, which simply involves running a PHP script on the server.
So open a web browser and type:
http://websitedomainname/wp-admin/install.php
The install involves two simple steps at the end you will be given a username and password that you can use to logon and configure your WordPress installation.
Make a note of the password!!
Here are the screen shots of the steps
Here is the summary page with the logon instructions. The login details will also be emailed to the email address you provided earlier.
Installation Problems and Solutions
1. Blank page when you try and access the home page but you can access the admin page.
Usually caused by the presence of the default.htm file in the installation folder.
The default.htm is the parking page placed there by 1and1 when you create the new domain name. You need to delete it using the ftp client.
1. Error when running the script.
Usually caused by incorrect wp_config.php the most common one being that it can’t find the database. Check the settings in the wp_config.php file and upload it again.
A php error or error 500 Internal server error is usually caused by the fact that WordPress 3.0 requires php5 and 1and1 is using php4. To correct this you need to add a few lines to the .htaccess file.
Create a .htaccess file and enter the following using notepad or another text editor (not Word).
AddType x-mapp-php5 .php
AddHandler x-mapp-php5 .php
Upload the .htaccess file into the root folder (the one that contains the index.php, config.php files
Here is a video that shows you how to create a ,htaccess file.
Multiple WordPress Installs on Same Database
All of the WordPress settings and data are stored in a database table/tables with the prefix of wp_ .
This prefix can be change in the wpconfig.php file.
It is possible and quite common in a test environment to support multiple WordPress installs by using a different prefix for each install.
So for example:
wp1_ is used for the first install and
wp2_ is used for the second install.
This doesn’t mean however that you can/should have lots of installs using the same database.
I tend to use it for test installs, and don’t mix WordPress with other applications in the same database.
Important Note: Changing the prefix from the default even when only installing a single instance of WordPress is considered good security practice.
Deleting a WordPress Install From A MYSQL Database
You may need to delete an existing WordPress install from a MYSQL database to make room for a fresh install or just to remove old installs that you no longer use.
This video takes you through this process using PHPmysqladmin tool on 1and1 uk, but is applicable to most hosts as they all provide the PHPMysqladmin tool/interface.
References:
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