Installing WordPress in a Local Development Environment Using WampServer (Video)

Installing WordPress on Your Local Server

Welcome, my name is Philip King.

In this guide we will be installing WordPress in a local development environment using a method that will allow multiple blogs on multiple MySql databases.

WordPress is well known for its easy five minute installation and many web hosts offer tools such as Fantastico to automatically install WordPress on their servers, but as we are installing WordPress on our local server (localhost) we will do a manual install so we know where everything is and what everything does.

I will presume you already have a local development environment installed and operational which should consist of at least the following, an Apache HTTP server, a MySql database server, a PHP application server and an application such as phpMyAdmin to handle the administration of the MySql database. Just use the latest versions and you should have no problems.

If you do not have a local development environment setup, my step-by-step video guide, ” Installing a local development server environment using WampServer2 (Video)”, will show you how to create a local development server environment (the links can be found at the end of the article). WampServer2 is the Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP software stack for Windows based systems. It is an ideal starter platform for creating a local development environment.

 

This video tutorial, “Installing WordPress in a Local Development Environment“, is also available as a HD PDF file for download. You will need Adobe Acrobat 9 or better to view.

 

 

Create Database

To begin we need to create a database for WordPress. So presuming the WampServer2 setup is installed, click on the WampServer icon to display the menu.

1. Select phpMyAdmin to administrator the MySql database.
2. Enter a name for the WordPress database into the, “Create new database” text box. I’m just going to use, “wp_dbtest”.
3. Click the, “Create” database button.
4. When the database has been created, go back to the phpMyAdmin home page and select the User “Privileges” link to create a new user. Setting up a new user can be omitted if you intend to use just the administrator account. In which case just ignore the next few steps.
5. Select the, “Add new user” link.
6. Making sure, “Use text field” is selected in the dropdown menus.
7. Select the, “User Name” text box and enter a user name.
8. Select the, “Password” text box and enter a user password.
9. Move to the, “re-type” password text box and enter the password again. Don’t forget to write down your username and password.
10. Click the, “Go” button to implement the changes. All options under Global privileges can be left at their defaults.
11. Return to the phpMyAdmin home page and select the User “Privileges” link again to assign user privileges.
12. Select the edit wp_username Privileges icon link.
13. Scroll down until you see the, “Database Specific Privileges” section and use the, “Add privileges on the following database” dropdown to select our database, “wp_dbtest”. The page will refresh with privileges for that database.
14. Click “Check All” to select all privileges and click the “Go” button.
15. Make a note of the host name listed after “Server” at the top of the page, (usually localhost.)
16. Return to the home page and close phpMyAdmin.

Download WordPress Files

We now need to download the WordPress files. So open your browser.

17. Browse to the WordPress download page at http://wordpress.org/download.
18. Select the download link.
19. Enter the file save location in the popup. I recommend you place the file in the web site root directory. This makes it easier to create WordPress sites.
20. Click the save button.
21. When the file has finished downloading close the browser window.

Extract WordPress Files

We now need to extract the WordPress files. So…

22. Browse to the location you saved the WordPress archive using Windows Explorer and extract the files.
23. Select the directory created and rename the directory to the same name as the database, wp_dbtest, this just makes things easier to remember and helps a lot when you have multiple WordPress sites and databases.

Setup wp-config.php

We now need to setup the wp-config.php file. This file controls the WordPress database usage.

24. Open the new directory and copy the wp-config-sample.php configuration file to wp-config.php. Copy (Ctrl+C), Paste (Ctrl+V) and Rename (F2). You could just rename the file but I prefer to keep the original file as a backup.
25. Open wp-config.php in your text editor, I’m using Notepad++ but any text editor will do.
26. Scroll down and find, define (‘DB_NAME’… and enter the name of our MySql database ‘wp_dbtest’ in the indicated field.
27. Scroll down and find, define (‘DB_USER’… and enter the name of a username ‘wp_username’ in the indicated field.
28. Scroll down and find, define (‘DB_PASSWORD’… and enter the name of a password ‘wp_password’ in the indicated field.
29. Click the save button.
30. Close the text editor.

Configure WordPress

We now need to run the installation script to configure WordPress.

31. Open your browser and run the install script, “http://localhost/wp_test/wp-admin/install.php”. This will display the configuration page.
32. Enter your blog title.
33. Enter your admin email address, this doesn’t have to be a valid address.
34. Select the Allow my blog to appear in search engines like Google and Technorati check box if this is your requirement.
35. Cick the install WordPress button.
36. With a successful installation comes a new username and password. Make a note of these details, we’ll change the password straight away.
37. Click the Log In button.
38. Enter the username, “admin”.
39. Enter the generated password (you did make a note, didn’t you).
40. Click the Log In button
41. At the top of the Dashboard page is a notice area, click on the link, “Yes, Take me to my profile page text box” so we can change the password.
42. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and enter a new password. Don’t forget to make a note of the password.
43. Click the, “Update Profile” button.

Test blog

It’s time for a test run of our new blog.

44. Enter the blogs web address in the browsers address bar, “http://localhost/wp_test”, to see the public front page.
45. Enter the blogs admin web address in the browser address bar, “http://localhost/wp_test/wp-admin”, to be taken to the Log In screen where you can enter the username and password again to obtain access to the administrators dashboard area. Here you can explore and begin customising your blog. The first area you should investigate is the, “Settings” and “Appearance” menu items.

Congratulations

Congratulations, we are finished, you have just learned how to install WordPress in a local development environment.

If you need more MySQL databases and more WordPress sites to play with, just repeat the steps and construct as many WordPress sites as you wish.

Well, that’s this step by step guide complete. I hope you found something useful and enjoyed this session, please don’t forget to let me have your thoughts on this tutorial.

See you soon.

You may also be interested in the following: