Installing and Configuring
WordPress
Richard Boakes
rjb@boakes.org
Introduction
 A talk based on experiences
 A view from orbit
with zoom where necessary
 A necessarily incomplete view
covering just the bits I use
avoiding the obvious
 An invitation
to get involved
Richard Boakes
31 May 2016
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Introduction (You)
 You are:
a) Poised to install this second
b) Planning on installing soon
c) Might install one day
d) Just vaguely interested
e) Catching up on email
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31 May 2016
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Agenda
 Key Features
Reasons to use WP
 Installing WordPress
Pre-Requisites
Getting the code
The Famous 5-minute
Install
Updating WordPress
Content Backups
 Extending WordPress
Finding and Using Plugins
Particularly Useful Plugins
Creating and Extending
Plugins
 Closing thoughts
Integrating with WordPress
The Future of WordPress
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31 May 2016
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Key Features
 An editor
For weblog articles &
For static pages.
 Runs on many common
hardware & OS combinations.
Win32/64, Linux, Solaris
 Adheres to open standards
e.g. XHTML, RSS, ATOM, CSS,
XML-RPC.
 Sound program architecture.
 Handles all visitor interaction
Including comments, trackbacks
& pingbacks.
Sanitized and Salted.
 Robust anti-spam solutions.
Over 3 yrs & 300,000 spams.
None were published.
 Export and Import mechanisms
Easy to backup and restore.
Easy to move your data if you
don’t get on with it.
Easy to maintain.
Easy to adapt.
Easy to extend.
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31 May 2016
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Installing WordPress
Pre-Requisites
 Required
Web Server Apache – v2
 with rewrite module enabled
PHP – v4.3
MySQL –v4.0
 Optional
a subversion client
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31 May 2016
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Decide where you are working
 Work on the server, over SSH
Great when hacking about & setting up.
Only mildly scary on a live service
Take temp copies for safety
 Work on a client
Great if it’s a private or local site
For servers:
Manually upload using sftp, etc.
Use sync tool
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31 May 2016
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Locate your httpd.conf
 Windows
C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\conf
 Linux
/etc/apache2/httpd.conf
 Mac OS X
/etc/apache2/httpd.conf
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31 May 2016
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Remember your DocumentRoot
 DocumentRoot is defined in httpd.conf
common values are:
 /home/www/yourserver/htdocs
 /Library/WebServer/Documents
 You’ll need it later
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Configure httpd.conf
 Enable PHP (Win)
LoadModule php5_module
"C:/Program Files/PHP/php5apache2.dll“
 Enable PHP (Linux)
LoadModule php5_module
libexec/apache2/libphp5.so
 Enable PHP index pages
DirectoryIndex index.php index.html
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Configure httpd.conf
 Allow .htaccess override
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
</Directory>
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Configure PHP
 On Windows
 The MSI does everything for you
 you need to specify the MySQL extension
 On Mac OS X
An extra step is sometimes needed
 cp /etc/php.ini.default /etc/php.ini
 sudo chmod +w /etc/php.ini
 sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl restart
 On linux
 ??? (lets see what breaks)
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Locate your MySQL
 Windows
C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\bin\
 Linux (apt-get)
/usr/bin/
 Mac OS X
/usr/local/mysql-5.1.32-osx10.5-x86/bin/
 Got root? find it with
sudo find / –name mysql
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31 May 2016
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Configure MySQL
 Login to mysql
mysql -u adminusername -p
Enter password:
 Create a database for wordpress to use
mysql> CREATE DATABASE mydbname;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
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Configure MySQL
 Create a DB user for WordPress
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES
ON mydbname.*
TO “myusername"@“myhostname“
IDENTIFIED BY “mypassword";
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
 Force the changes through
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
mysql> EXIT
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Get the code
 either
download the code from
http://wordpress.org/download/
unpack it to your DocumentRoot
 or
Navigate to your DocumentRoot, and
svn co http://svn.automattic.com/
wordpress/tags/2.7.1 wordpress
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Configure WordPress
 Copy the sample config file
cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php
 Edit your new config file
define('DB_NAME', mydbname');
define('DB_USER', myusername');
define('DB_PASSWORD', mypassword');
define('DB_HOST', ‘myhostname');
… and make up 4 random auth keys…
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The moment of truth…
 Visit
http://yourserver/wordpress/
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Congratulations!
 You up and running
(hopefully)
 …but
Vulnerabilities arise
 so update regularly.
Things go wrong
 so make backups
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Updating WordPress!
 When an update is released
either
 download the code
 unpack it
 copy it into your existing folder
or
 Use subversion to switch to the latest stable
tagged build
 i.e. svn switch
http://svn.wordpress.org/the/tagged/version
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Content Backups

Use mysqldump to backup
mysqldump.exe
-uroot –ppassword
--all-databases >c:\backup.sql

And recover using mysql
mysql.exe -uroot –ppassword <c:\backup.sql

Or use a plugin…
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31 May 2016
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Extending WordPress
Admin Screen
 http://yourserver/wordpress/wp-admin
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Pretty Permalinks
 Default URLs are not descriptive
http://example.com/?p=1
 Pretty Permalinks are better
http://example.com/helloworld
 Open the Settings/Permalinks
Select “Custom Structure”
Enter /%postname%
Save changes
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Quick notes on publishing
 Adding content
 Adding tags
 Editing a published article
 Renaming a published article
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Widgets
 Add handy things to your pages
 In the admin interface
Open Appearance / Widgets
 Add widget plugins for more capabilities
e.g. Twitter
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Finding and Using Plugins

How to find
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins
Search Engines

How to install
Web
 Automated installation
 Web upload
Command line
 Manual installation
 SVN installation
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Particularly Useful Plugins
 Anti-spam
Akismet (installed)
BadBehaviour
 Identity
OpenID
 Anti-slashdot
WPSuperCache
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Creating and Extending Plugins
 Source Control
Subversion over HTTP
 The Plugin Format
Descriptive Header
PHP Code
 Actions (aka Events, Hooks, Callbacks)
do_action(“my_action”);
add_action(“action_name”, “function_name”)’
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A NeSC Plugin
<?php /*
Plugin Name: NeSCPlugin
URI: http://nesc.ac.uk/made/up/url
Description: This adds the word NeSC to every page on the admin screen
Author: Rich Boakes
Version: 0.1
*/
function nesc_tagline() {
echo "<p class='floaty'>" . wptexturize( "NeSC" ) . "</p>";
}
function nesc_css() {
echo "<style type='text/css'>.floaty { position: absolute; top: 5em; right: 5em;
}</style>";
}
add_action('admin_head', 'nesc_css');
add_action('admin_footer', 'nesc_tagline'); ?>
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Integrating with WordPress
 XML-RPC interface
editing articles,
publishing,
moderating comments
 For example:
iphone.wordpress.com
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The Future of WordPress
 3.6million downloads of v2.7
 GNU Public License v2
 Three releases per year
features are voted for by the user community
 Further Help
WordCampUK
Cardiff, 18-19 July 2009 (a weekend)
http://uk.wordcamp.org
Web
http://wordpress.org
IRC
#wordpress
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Where to find out more
 WordCampUK
Cardiff, 18-19 July 2009 (a weekend)
http://uk.wordcamp.org
 Web
http://wordpress.org
 IRC
#wordpress
 Or ask me
rich@boakes.org
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