How To Install WordPress

Create A SQL Database For Wordpress

The first thing we need to do is create an SQL database for our wordpress installation. Hopefully you did as I requested and purchased a hosting account that has CPanel, if you did then this process will be simple.

Next we want to login to our CPanel to create the database. To do this do the following:

• Launch your web browser and type in your web address followed by cpanel. For example: http://www.bc-condos.ca/cpanel.
• Enter your username and password and click Ok. (The username and password was supplied by your web hosting company).
• You should now be in your cpanel as illustrated below. For security reasons the left portion of the window has been cut out.

Now that we are logged into our cpanel let's create the database.

• Scroll down the cpanel list until you see Databases
• Click on MySQL Database Wizard as illustrated below.

The next step is to give the database a name. I chose to type in bccondo as illustrated below. You can type any name in here you like, I just chose the name of a business. When finished click Next.

The next step is to create a user and a password for the database we just created as illustrated below. Make sure you use a strong password for this step. A strong password consists of upper and lower case letters as well as numbers. View how to create a secure password for more info. When finished click Next.

The next step is to add the new user to the database. Select All Priviledges as shown in the illustration below. Please take note at this time to notice the database name and the name of the database user as shown below. You will need this information later on. Notice the database name is bccondo_bccondo and the database username is bccondo_billybo. When finished click Next.

Congratulations you have successfully created a database. Give yourself a pat on the back. This would be a good time to grab a coffee.

SetUp the wp-config.php File

Do not let this next step intimidate you. This is the last thing we need to accomplish before uploading the files to our website in order for everything to clip along at a smooth rate. Follow the instructions to the letter and you should have no problems.

Launch your favorite text editor. Notepad will work just fine if you have it installed. Do not use Microsoft Word for this step.

Open up the wordpress folder on your hard drive. Find the file called wp-config-sample.php Rename the file to wp-config.php and then open the file with Notepad

If you can’t see file extensions on your computer go to this page: how to view file extensions and follow the instructions there to enable viewing file extensions.

Find the section in the file with the following information:

// ** MySQL settings ** //
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘putyourdbnamehere’); // The name of the database
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘usernamehere’); // Your MySQL username
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘yourpasswordhere’); // …and password
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’); // 99% chance you won’t need to change this value
define(‘DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8');
define(‘DB_COLLATE’, ”);
// Change SECRET_KEY to a unique phrase. You won’t have to remember it later,
// so make it long and complicated. You can visit https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm
// to get a phrase generated for you, or just make something up.
define(‘SECRET_KEY’, ‘put your unique phrase here’); // Change this to a unique phrase.

Change the information to your settings that you created earlier. For example do the following:

• DB_NAME This is the name of the database you created earlier.
• DB_USER This is the username for the database we created earlier.
• DB_PASSWORD This is the password for the database we created earlier.
• DB_HOST Leave this set as localhost unless we have problems. 99% of hosting companies use this value and you shouldn’t need to change it.
• DB_CHARSET Leave this on the default setting of utf8
• DB_COLLATE Leave this on the default setting of blank you shouldn’t need to change it.
• SECRET_KEY Change this to a uniques phrase that you can identify.
• That is it. Save the file. Make sure you renamed the file to wp-config.php

Upload Files To Your Server

The next thing we have to accomplish is uploading the files to our web server. In order to upload files to a web server we will need a software application that gives us FTP abilities. FTP stands for “File Transfer Protocol”. There are a few programs available on the Internet to accomplish this. I use a program called Cute FTP. Cute FTP can be downloaded from Globalscape, it comes in 3 flavours, you can decide which one you prefer. There is also trial versions available. If you would like a free version of FTP software download Filezilla from Sourceforge. I will be using Filezilla for this tutorial because it is FREE. So go ahead and download Filezilla and install the software.

Launch Filezilla and do the following:

• Click File and then select Site Manager as illustrated below.

• Next under My Sites type in the name of your website for example I typed in BC Condos
• Next on the General Tab In the Host: box type in your website address, for example I used www.bc-condos.ca as illustrated below.
• Under logontype: choose Normal. Type in your username and password for your account. This was provided to you by your hosting company. See illustration below.

Once you have completed the above steps it is time to test our connection. Go ahead and click on Connect. If everything went well you should now be logged into your website. You should see a screen similar to the one below.

Notice there are two sections in Filezilla now. You have your local site: view on the left which is your computer, and your remote site: view on the right which is your website, as I have illustrated below.

Upload Files To Your Website

The next steps are critical, you will have to pay close attention to what we are doing here. In the next steps we will upload the contents of the wordpress folder to your website.

Launch Filezilla and connect to your website and then do the following:

• In the right window in Filezilla Double click the Public HTML folder or the www folder.
• This is the folder we want to upload the contents of the wordpress folder to, as seen in the illustration below.

• In the left window of Filezilla navigate to where the wordpress folder lives on your computer. If you downloaded this package to My Documents or Documents in a folder called My Website that is the folder we want to navigate to.
• Double click the wordpress folder to open it up.
• Select all the files in the folder as shown below in the illustration and then right click the highlighted blue and select upload. (TIP): If you click on the first folder in the list wp-admin and then hold the Shift Key down on your keyboard, you can scroll to the last file in the list xmlrpc.php and click on it. Notice how everything is selected now.

Once all the files are uploaded you need to run the wordpress install script.