These are general notes made while doing this blog installallation (Test Wordpress) and my learning and teaching blog (Terry’s blog) and the WP installation used as a CMS for terrywassall.co.uk.
Installing Wordpress: create mysql database and user
All Wordpress folders and files have been uploaded to terrywassall.co.uk/blog/
I have created a mysql database on plesk called wp_1 and a user wordpress
Rename wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php and make following edits with wp_1 db info:
// ** 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’, ”);
Run the WordPress installation script by accessing wp-admin/install.php in your web browser.so http://www.terrywassall.co.uk/blog/wp-admin/install.php (won’t work without a wp-config.php file with db infor in it)
Full instructions at http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress
Full demo installation with tips http://www.clearpointsystems.com/ewpi.php
Wordpress install completed March 2nd 2008 http://www.terrywassall.co.uk/blog/
The blog is called Test Wordpress but this can be changed later.
There is a system admin user in WP but I have set up another user, terry, as admin too. Looks like I can create as many users as I wish with a range of different levels of rights, so turning the blog into a multi-authored blog. Could be useful. Does not have the social networking functions of Elgg or the ability to create seperate groups, etc.
Installing themes
Download theme zip file
upload unzipped folder to the wp-content/themes folder
new theme will be available for admin to select for whole site.
http://themes.wordpress.net/
Post are public by default
Wordpress posts are public but individual posts can be given the status ‘private’. This makes them invisible to all but the poster. Elgg is better for this.
March 04
Wordpress for Dummies
Just received Wordpress for Dummies from Amazon (thanks Dan and Nicky!). It looks like some people make a good living out of providing WP hosting and/or themes design. There is a multi-user version of WP where everyone can customise their own blog. WP can also be used as a powerful web site content management system and the site doesn’t even have to have a blog if it is not needed. There is a lot of info in the book about customisation of themes, using and maintaining static pages and adding widgets and other components to extend a WP based environment.
New WP blog and changes
Dan is now an administrator on http://www.terrywassall.co.uk/blog. Also a new test user. We can change the test user’s permissions and see what differences this makes. At the moment test is a ‘contributor’.
Started a new personal blog at http://www.terrywassall.co.uk/terry which I managed to do unaided now Dan has told me how to create a databse and db user. I have managed to import all the posts from my original blog since August 2005 - elgg.net which became eduspaces.net.
It looks like we can host as many WP installations as we wish and make them available to individuals who want one. Each one is about 5mb I think and then it depends on how much space is taken for file storage. We would need to charge some sort of annual fee and get more space if it took off. This could cover installation, backup and a certain amount of modification. WP themes are very easy to customise apparently and there are thousands of freely available themes that can be downloaded and used as is or used as the basis for modification.
One issue is that anyone can get a completely free WP blog from Wordpress themselves at http://wordpress.com/. I stated one as an experiement at http://terryw.wordpress.com/. However, there are restictions and extras like custom themes, more space etc. are charged for. I think the other reason people want their own WP installation is that they can have their own domain name.
terrywassall.co.uk is now a WP CMS site
Done it. Using a simple WP theme and the widgets plugin to adapt sidebar. Also set a static page as the home page and a blog as a separate page. To edit theme files had to set them to chmod 666. Folders should be 755. This is R3 W2 E3 for folders and R3 W3 E0 for files. Had to change these as defaults after installation were insufficient. http://www.terrywassall.co.uk
March 6th 2008. WP as a web content mangement system
I’m toying with the idea of turning my whole site (terrywassall.co.uk) over to WP using it as a content management system. I assume this would allow me to have a site blog as a tab on the home page. I’ll investigate further. In the meantime a couple of links to resources:
Wordpress as a CMS - Content Management System
48 Unique Ways To Use WordPress