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The famed 5-minute installation is one of the most-talked-about aspects of WordPress. I've installed WordPress several times, and the process has always been painless, but knowing a few things will make it much smoother for those who are new to WordPress. The most common way to install WordPress involves using a remote server-a computer that's set up to serve Web sites to anyone who wants to visit them. You can also do what is known as a local install of WordPress by using your own computer as a local server. This installation isn't accessible to other folks but is good for testing.
Getting What You Need
I'll walk you through installing WordPress on a remote server. First, though, you need to gather some files and tools, and doublecheck some settings. WordPress requires certain programs to be available on your remote server, and to access that remote server from your computer, you need an FTP client.
A Web host
You need to have Web-hosting space before you can install WordPress. Here are a few things to look for in a host, because your host has to have them for you to run WordPress:
- PHP version 4.3 or later. WordPress itself is written in PHP, so it makes sense that PHP has to be installed on the server for WordPress to run.
- MySQL database version 4.0 or later. MySQL is an open-source database that stores all sorts of information for your WordPress install. All your posts, users, and settings will be stored in this database.
Local tools
When your Web hosting is all set, you need to make sure that you have the necessary tools on your local machine to set up WordPress. Here's the list:
- FTP client. You need to get files from your computer to your hosting space. You have several ways to transfer files, but the easiest is FTP. FTP isn't a program, but an agreed-upon protocol that programs use to transfer files. File-transfer programs that use the FTP protocol-called FTP clients-are available for every operating system. For more information, see the nearby "FTP Clients" sidebar.
- A text editor. The WordPress application is made up of files that you can edit with any plain old text editor. Before you use your FTP client to upload files to your hosting space, you need to use a text editor to edit a configuration file.
Any text editor will do the trick, but don't use Microsoft Word. Word adds a bunch of stuff to text files that only causes trouble with WordPress files.
FTP Clients
Chances are that you're using either of two operating systems (OSes) on your computer: Apple's Mac OS X or a fl avor of Microsoft Windows. Both OSes have command-line FTP tools built into them, but I'm a graphicalinterface kind of guy. Here are some FTP clients that you should check out. For Windows:
- FileZilla is free; open source; and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux computers. You can't beat that!
- WS_FTP has been around forever. Both the Home and Professional versions are feature packed - as they should be, because pricing starts at $39.95 for the Home version.
- For Mac OS X: CyberDuck is open source and full featured.
- Transmit is the gold standard of FTP clients for the Mac and is made by a great indie Mac developer. For $29.95, you get one license for this well-thought-out FTP client.
The WordPress code
After you've gathered all your tools, you need the raw materials: the WordPress files. Getting these files couldn't be easier. Simply point your browser to www.wordpress.org/download. You'll see an orange box with a large hyperlink for downloading the most current and stable version of WordPress, which is WordPress 2.6.2 at this writing. Notice that I said the orange box hyperlinks to the stable version of WordPress. If you like living on the edge, you can check out the Beta Releases and Nightly Builds hyperlinks on the left side of the page.
Beta Releases
The word beta should be familiar to anyone who's used the Web in the past few years. A beta release of a product allows the public to use that product before it's fully done. When you use a beta release, you get in on the snazzy new features ahead of the rest of the population, and the company gets an unpaid tester to encounter any nasty bugs that may be lurking in the not-ready-for-prime-time code.
What Are Those Files, Anyway?
You've downloaded and uncompressed the latest version of WordPress, and now you have a folder called wordpress sitting on your computer. A quick peek inside the folder reveals a bunch of other files and folders. Not too impressive, is it? Sorry if you were expecting more, but that handful of files is going to enable you to share your thoughts with the entire world. That's pretty powerful stuff, wouldn't you say? At this point, you can ignore most of the files in the wordpress folder. You may want to check out the read-me file, and if you're curious you can open any of the files in your favorite text editor. Just make sure not to change any of the code, because changes could lead to unexpected behavior in your install.
You can join the WordPress beta program by signing up on the tester list-but if you're new to WordPress, you shouldn't sign up unless you're a fan of the "sink or swim" learning methodology.
Nightly Builds
Nightly builds often are even scarier than betas. WordPress is a large opensource project, which means that an army of people out there are using their free time to work on the code that powers WordPress. When a creator is done with the code, he or she checks it into the system for someone else to look over. After all the changes have been given a once-over, a nightly build is created, containing all the most recent, untested changes. I suggest downloading a nightly build of WordPress only if you're the type of person who has to be on the bleeding edge. If you buy your cell phone from eBay Japan just so you can have it a few weeks before your friends, the nightlies may be up your alley.
WordPress.org maintains an archive of old WP releases, just in case you're hankering for some olde-tyme WordPress. Point your browser to http://wordpress.org/download/release-archive/ for a trip down memory lane. Be warned, however, that many of these releases were superseded by new releases that fixed security issues. Download at your own risk.