Home / design

Wordpress

WordPress is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL. Features include a plugin architecture (free and paid) and a template system.

There are many different themes you can install, and you can easly switch between them without having to alter the core code.
Additional benefit is that the themes have standard support for many different screen sizes, including mobiles. So you don't have to worry over it.

Install

To install you can download the latest wordpress version from WordPress.org.
As stated above, an up-to-date PHP version and MySql version is required.

Here is a short version on how to install it. ( version 5.1.1)

  1. Download and unzip the WordPress package
  2. Create a database for WordPress on your web server, as well as a MySQL user who has all privileges for accessing and modifying it. CREATE DATABASE wordpress
    GRANT select,insert,update,delete,create,drop ON wordpress.* TO 'username'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
  3. Find and rename wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php, then edit the file and add your database information.
    // ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
    /** The name of the database for WordPress */
    define( 'DB_NAME', 'database_name_here' );
    
    /** MySQL database username */
    define( 'DB_USER', 'username_here' );
    
    /** MySQL database password */
    define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'password_here' );
    
    /** MySQL hostname */
    define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );
    
  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 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 or SFTP.
    • 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 is it. You can now configure WordPress via the webinterface.

Security

WordPress is used by many sites, so any exploits or bugs are quickly used to gain access to those sites. So it is important to regularly update and install the latest patches, for WordPress but also for all the plugins that you use.
If there is a plugin you nolonger use, it is best to deactivate it.
This can be done in the plugins tab.

You can also install extra plugins to help you handle the security. iThemes Security is one of these.
https://ithemes.com/security/

 

TOP