Installing WordPress on 8-Coral

Installing WordPress on 8-Coral

This guide shows you how to install WordPress on The Uniform Server 8-Coral Series.

Preparation

Download WordPress

1. Download WordPress 3.3 (or newer version) from here to a known location.
2. Extract this file to The Uniform Server's root folder *\UniServer\www.

This creates a new folder named wordpress that has all the application files.

Create the MySQL database

Before installing MediaWiki you must create a new MySQL database and user.

1. From the control menu select: Server configuration > MySQL > Create delete Database
2. Enter the database name to create; for example "wordpress" (without the quotes)
3. Click the "Create Database" button. You can now close this menu.

Installation

Type http://localhost/wordpress into your browser to start the installation sequence.

The first page shows that there isn't a wp-config.php file available, and we will proceed to Create a Configuration File.

The next page is the "gather your info" page. Continue by clicking "Let's go!"

Database connection page Fill in the fields as below:

• Database name: wordpress (The name of the database you created.)
• User name: root
• Password: root, or the password you set for MySQL root account)
• Database host: localhost (or 127.0.0.1 for Windows 7)
• Database table prefix: wp_

Now click "Submit" for the next step.

This next page shows whether you have a valid connection to the database, and when you click "Run the install" it continues the rest of the process.

The Welcome page requires the following information:

• Site title: WordPress on Coral -- (Choose whatever you like; you can change this later in WordPress)
• Username: admin (or a more obscure and secure name)
• Password: (Make this reasonably secure, but memorable)
• Your e-mail: admin@localhost.org -- (Any email will do; you can change this later in WordPress)
• Uncheck, "Allow my site to appear in search engines ..." -- (Not required for localhost)

Click on Install WordPress

You should see the Success! page.

When you click on Log in, it goes to the administration login page.

Put in the username and password you specified for the installation and click on Log In. If you remembered correctly, you should now see the WordPress Dashboard page.

Portability

If you want a portable version of WordPress, copy the folder UniServer and all its content to your USB memory stick. That’s it. Don’t expect fantastic speeds, however it is usable.

Move Servers

One of The Uniform Server’s unique features is the capability to run more than one complete server on the same PC. When running a server from a USB memory stick, you can use this to great advantage and prevent server collisions. You will have noticed that Unicontroller's icon displays a one (meaning standard ports). Moving The Uniform Server increments this digit for each server move. In reality it’s not just a port change but a complete server update. Running server status displays the server characteristics.

This works just fine for the servers, but WordPress is unaware of the change and will fail to run properly. Note that the port numbers you use must match the ones for this particular server stack. For the examples below, the servers have been moved to ports 83 (Apache) and 3309 (MySQL).

You must make two different changes.

1. Edit the wp-config.php file and change the DB_HOST entry to have the following:

define('DB_HOST', ';localhost:3309');
 or
define('DB_HOST', '127.0.0.1:3309');

2. Using phpMyAdmin, update the siteurl and home entries in the wp_options table as follows.

1. Select the WordPress database for this installation.
2. Select the wp_options table for browse.
3. Edit the entry for siteurl (normally the first location) and change "localhost" to "localhost:83"
4. Edit the entry for home (normally about 30-40 entries down) and change "localhost" to "localhost:83"

Your WordPress should now work properly.

Security

This installation guide is intended to get the application up and running purely for testing. The configuration options should be reviewed if you are intending to put the application online. Be sure to read any security advice from MediaWiki and check their web site.

More importantly, the above installation is an extreme security risk if put online as is. It is imperative that you secure the MySQL server before putting your servers online. Please read MySQL Security and restrict the privileges for any user who has connection access to your server.

Among other things, you should create a restricted MySQL user limited only to the WordPress database and substitute that user and password for "root" in the wp-config.php file.

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