June 15, 2014

Getting Started with WordPress (Installation)

In this lesson we review the different ways to get started with WordPress. The lesson walks users through the process of installing WordPress locally on their own computer so they can follow along with future lessons.

Do you want to share the WordPress website that you’ve been creating on your computer with the world? The next step is to use a web host to share your site with the world. Learn about web hosts, my favorite one, and how to get a plan for only $5.78 per month.

About the Author

Brad Schiff

Brad Schiff is a front-end developer, designer, and educator who has been building user interfaces for over a decade. He’s done work for Fortune 500 companies, national political campaigns, and international technology leaders. His proudest achievement is helping people learn front-end web development.

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9 thoughts on “Getting Started with WordPress (Installation)

  1. I am trying to follow your word press theme building tutorial in a logical an sequential manner.
    However you have some many videos scattered all over the place it is impossible to follow them in a chronological manner,which makes the entire exercise very confusing.

    Although i enjoy your tutorials because of their excellent quality, because they are not numbered or even laid out on a step by step basis i may be forced to check out other tutorial if this problem is not rectify.

      1. I looked at the ordered listing of the videos as you have suggested and its exactly what i wanted. You have just made my life so much easier.Thank you very much.Will subscribe to your channel !

  2. Hi Brad,

    Thanks for the great tutorials- I seem to be having some trouble though. I added the WordPress folder that I downloaded to the htdocs folder but it doesn’t seem to be showing up- there was a php file already present in the htdocs folder, which is displayed when I try to go to localhost:8888/ on my computer. This is the text that is displayed:

    “The virtual host was set up successfully.

    If you can see this page, your new virtual host was set up successfully. Now, web content can be added and this placeholder page1 should be replaced or deleted.

    Server name: localhost
    Document root: /Applications/MAMP/htdocs

    1 Files: index.php and MAMP-PRO-Logo.png ”

    Nowhere do I see anything about WordPress…. what am I doing wrong??

    1. Hi Suchita,

      Once you launch the MAMP app and open your web browser, are you visiting “localhost:8888/” or “localhost:8888/wordpress” ?

      What happens when you attempt to view the latter URL?

      1. Hi Brad,

        I was originally visiting “localhost:8888/”, when I tried the latter, I got to a page that reads:

        “There doesn’t seem to be a wp-config.php file. I need this before we can get started.

        Need more help? We got it. [link]

        You can create a wp-config.php file through a web interface, but this doesn’t work for all server setups. The safest way is to manually create the file.

        Create a Configuration File [this is a link]”

        Clicking on that bottom link took me to:

        http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/setup-config.php

        which reads:

        “Welcome to WordPress. Before getting started, we need some information on the database. You will need to know the following items before proceeding.

        Database name
        Database username
        Database password
        Database host
        Table prefix (if you want to run more than one WordPress in a single database)
        If for any reason this automatic file creation doesn’t work, don’t worry. All this does is fill in the database information to a configuration file. You may also simply open wp-config-sample.php in a text editor, fill in your information, and save it as wp-config.php.

        In all likelihood, these items were supplied to you by your Web Host. If you do not have this information, then you will need to contact them before you can continue. If you’re all ready…

        Let’s go! [link]”

        So… do I need to create a configuration file then?

  3. How hard is it to update WordPress when new versions are released? I’ve been using WordPress on a webhost where it’s updated automatically (by them), but I like the idea of having a local version on my Mac to experiment with.

  4. Thanks Brad. I had one issue. Each time you advised to do a web search, i.e.,
    “localhost directory mamp”and”localhost URL mamp” these brought me to google searches rather than to my own computer. I was able to find the folder in Applications but do you know why the direction didn’t bring the desired result? I was searching in the browser search field.

    1. Hi, yep I meant that the URL will be different for everyone depending on your computer and which package you install (Mac, Windows, MAMP, WAMP, XAMPP, etc…) so Googling for URL you should use might be necessary. If you’re using Mac / MAMP you can try typing http://localhost:8888/ into your address bar. Also, after the closing forward slash you would include the name of the folder you placed in “htdocs” – so perhaps “wordpress” or something similar.

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