Installation

(I was going to add a ton of screen shots here but decided it was pretty straight forward)

As of writing this WordPress is at version 2.8.6 stable. So some thing may change, I’ll do my best to keep up with any changes.

Installation is pretty straight forward and easy in most cases. WordPress even markets itself with a “5-minute” installation.

The first thing we are going to do is DOWNLOAD WORDPRESS from WordPress.org The link is off of their first page which directs you to the download page, or simply click the link above to be taken to the download page.

So Unpack the ZIP file you downloaded into the folder you created for your site(You did this right?) It will contain all of the core files and install files needed to work on your site. It will NOT work off the bat as we have yet to install the database.

The Database

To do this we need to login to the C-panel or whatever service your host offers. My host (HostGator) uses Cpanel.

To get to Cpanel you should look at your welcome e-mail as it will have your passwords and usually a link to your Cpanel. Hostgator simply adds a directory so you would go to : http://www.YourSite.com/Cpanel

Generally your host will automatically create an account for all features of your site(FTP, MySQL) etc.. So you wont have to create a name if you don’t want to. Generally I create a MySQL user name just for WordPress so I can track activity if the need be(imagine running different PHP applications off of one database, and breaking something) and so if someone gets into my wp-config file or some weird hack, they wont get the user name for Cpanel and steal the site away from me.

So scroll down Cpanel until you see the sections marked Databases

This is where it can weird.. You may have to do something different here, but most hosts have what you need. Sometimes you can use the regular Cpanel, or sometimes its a management software. Hostgator HAS phpMyAdmin to work on your database, but wont let you create new ones through it. So you have to use the MySQL link through Cpanel I prefer to use the regular link instead of the wizard. Your host may be different, but for the sake of this tutorial I will be using Cpanel There is no real difference in this case, it would become a issue in some cases but since pMA still works fine once Cpanel creates it I have no issues.

So once you click the MySql link the very top section will say Create Database. For my database I typed: sporky and the database generated was: (Admin Name)_sporky. Obviously without the Admin Name part. Your user name will show up here. (I say this for the hosts I have used, it might not have your name. Its no biggy.) A key to remember is that it IS case sensitive, so a database named sporky is different from a database named Sporky.

Click [GO BACK] on the bottom,

DO NOT HIT THE BACK BUTTON IN CPANEL YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Now we scroll down to the section called Add User. and type a user name for that database. I usually just use “wpress” but you can do whatever. Create a password and WRITE IT DOWN SOMEWHERE.

Scroll back down to Add user to Database and select your user name we just created, and the database we created earlier. Click “add”. Select ALL Privileges.  Click “Make Changes”

Grab a cookie.. That was the hard part..

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