G´day everyone,
this time we will go and install Wordpress. Wordpress is one, if not the most often used, Blog solution that allows for easy setup and “blogging out of the box”. Plus it´s got a great communitiy which creates an endless amount of useful and not quite so useful plugins.

I´ll stop blathering now about how good Wordpress is and better get installing it. Let´s have a look what we need to get Wordpress up and running on your afreewebhost.com account:

• Wordpress
• MySQL Database for WP to read and store data
• FTP Client to transfer the files to the server

Downloading Wordpress

Ok, now that we know what we need we better get those things ready. Download a fresh copy of Wordpress, which is Wordpress 2.6 at the time i wrote this.
Where to download ? Just point your browser to

   
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This is the Wordpress Homepage where you can download the latest version. As you can see at the top there are a lot of other features, such as the Support Forum where you might address questions to when having trouble with Wordpress or one of it´s plugins that you installed, then there is the Docs link, which will take you to the Wordpress Codex, a documentation area where you can find lots of interesting stuff about Wordpres.


Of interest to us are the orange/red highlighted Links that will let you download Wordpress to your PC. No matter which one you left-click, they will both take you to the same page so just click away. Next screen will give you links to download either a ZIP version or a TAR.GZ version.


I guess the most of you guys are running  Windows XP or Vista, so i suggest you go download the ZIP Version, which can be extracted with the built-in Unzip that comes with XP and Vista. If you got Winrar installed on your PC or any other Archiver that can deal with .TAR.GZ or .TAR files then feel free to download the TAR.GZ version which is a little smaller as the ZIP version. This is because the crunching algorithm of RAR/TAR works bettern than the ZIP one. Technically though there is no difference between those two versions, both contain the same files etc. So it´s up to you which you download.

Ok, file downloaded to your harddrive, now it´s time to unpack that archive. Locate it on your harddrive and go unpack it. No matter what Archvier you have, as long as it can handle ZIPs or TARs you are good. So let´s unpack it and see what it looks like when unpacked.


Oh my, lots of files and three directories. What to do with them ?
Easy answer to that. They need to be uploaded to your webspace. Guess you´ve seen that coming, haven´t you ?

Editing the Wordpress Configuration File

Though before we upload all the files and directories we should take a closer look at a particular file which is

    wp-config-sample.php

Hmm..seems to be a config file as the name suggest, so let´s open it with a text-editor
and have a look what awaits us inside.


Yikes….it is a config file indeed and obviously we have to change it and fill it with your account details. Awkward, isn´t it ? But don´t dispair, it´s not as difficult as it might look. The good thing about the Wordpress config file is that it is very well documented and well structured. That makes editing it a breeze actually. Let´s get cracking on that baby then. The first lines deal with the MySQL configuration and that´s where we start.

We have two possible scenarios now. First one is that you have already set up a MySQL database and have the details for it at hand, meaning you know the database name, username and password for the database. Then you are all good and can fill them right in.

Second scenario is that you don´t have a MySQL database set up. Then you need to create one in cPanel. If you have no idea on how to accomplish that then this link will show you how to create the database, a database user and add the user to the database. If anything is unclear post here.

One way or the other, you should be sitting in front of your computer now having the details for your MySQL database ready. So let´s fill them in:


Do not change the settings for DB_Host, DB_Charset and DB_Collate.
Ok, that´s it for the account details, obviously you have to fill in yours. Now let´s move to the second block of code we saw in the config file which is this one:


Now this might confuse you for a bit, especially the first few lines of that codeblock:

   
WordPress 2.5 and later include a new set of security features for passwords and password hashing and cookie security. This is what the lines above are used for. For best “results” the length of your unique key should be at least 60 characters. You can enter anything there, just slide your fingers across your keyboard for a second or two and you are done. Don´t have to remember the string or anything.

Do that for all three options, AUTH_KEY, SECURE_AUTH_KEY and LOGGED_IN_KEY. When done let´s have a look at the next and final option in the config file we mess around with:

   
What is a table prefix and what is it good for ?
Well, Wordpress creates some tables in your database. Let´s say it creates a table users, which in fact it does. Now looking at the table prefix above the table users will be prefixed by wp_ which then makes it wp_users.

This is a very helpful thing when running different installations of Wordpress in one Database, so you can clearly see which tables belong to which Wordpress installation by just prefixing them by, for example:

So it helps you keep your database structured and make it easy to find which table belongs to what if you prefix the tables in a sound way. Now why should we change the prefix to something else than wp_ ?
I don´t wanna go too much into detail, but you might find this article quite interesting and it gives you a good explanation why and how to change the prefix in case you already installed Wordpress.

Ok, now as all edits are done it is time to save the file. When saving there is something quite important to pay attenttio to. You remember the file we opened was called

    wp-config-sample.php

When we now save it it needs to be renamed so Wordpress will find it when it comes to installing the Script. The filename we save it as is

    wp-config.php

See the difference ? We got rid of the -sample part, and now Wordpress will be able to find the configuration file and use it for getting database details and everything else we changed. When you succesfully saved the file it is time to upload Wordpress to your webspace.

Uploading Wordpress to your Webspace

Now let´s put Wordpress on your Webspace. To do that we need a FTP client such as FlashFXP, FTP Voyager, Filezilla or any other FTP client you can get hold of. All we need to do is connect the FTP client to the server and then choose where to upload all the files that come with Wordpress.

If you haven´t got a FTP account set up yet then this tutorial will help you to do so. Assuming everything went alright and you got the FTP client of your choice configured with user/pass and all that we can now connect to the server.


Seems like we successfully connected to the FTP Server. Now it´s your choice where to install Wordpress. See the  red square thing at the top of the screenshot ? That is the directory on your server.  In this particular case i made my way to /public_html/tutorials as i will be uploading Wordpress there.

Basically you got two options where to upload Wordpress. Either in your document_root which is public_html or a sub-directory within public_html. If you plan to just run Wordpress on your website i would suggest to upload it to public_html. Else upload it to a subdirectory of your choice, such as /blog.

Ok, time to upload Worpress now. While doing that i´ll be taking my dog for a walk and you….do the dishes or something


Upload might take a while depening on your connection speed, but eventually Wordpress will be uploaded to the FTP server. And when the upload is finished, close the FTP client. Won´t be needing it anymore. Now that the files have been successfully transferred to the server we open a browser and point it to where we uploaded the files to. As an example:

   
Register or Login

This if you uploaded it to the /blog subdirectory, if it was uploaded to your public_html folder and not in a subdirectory at all then just point your browser to

   
Register or Login

This should trigger the Wordpress installation process which will welcome you by throwing this in your face


Cool, seems to be working. So there isn´t really much left to do for me. From now on it´s a pretty straight forward process. Give your blog a name, key in your email and hit Install Wordpress. After that you will be given the Admin Login details, write them down as the password that was randomly generated can be tricky to remember. No worries, you can always change it later in the Admin section of Wordpress.

Your Blog should be up and running now, so now it´s your turn to get content and all that.