Using WordPress

Using WordPress

WordPress is a popular blog publishing application in PHP. It provides features such as templates, link management, permalinks, categories, tagging, typographic functions, Trackback and Pingback.

Security warning!

Like hundreds of other free software packages on our servers, WordPress is available and officially supported, but this should not be taken as an endorsement. Many third-party PHP scripts lack in proper maintainership and have poor track records with respect to security. We work diligently to keep all preinstalled software packages up-to-date and we can only guarantee that security fixes will be applied as soon as they are released.

Installing the software

A maintained, preinstalled version of WordPress is available our servers. In order to use it, you need to run the install.sh script in /var/www/wordpress, from the ~/www/ directory of your choice:

  $ cd ~/www/mydomain.ext
  $ sh /var/www/wordpress/install.sh mywordpress

Database setup

WordPress uses MySQL as its database backend so before proceeding further, you need to create a database and a MySQL user. You can do this from the Databases section of the web interface, or alternatively from the shell interface:

  csoftadm> db mysql add mywordpressdb
  csoftadm> db mysql useradd mywordpressuser
  csoftadm> db mysql grant mywordpressdb mywordpressuser all

If you wish to reuse the contents of a previous WordPress installation, assuming mydump.txt was previously generated by mysqldump, you would use:

  $ cat mydump.txt | mysql -u mywordpressuser -p mywordpressdb

Editing wp-config.php

Open the file wp-config.php in the WordPress installation directory in a text editor, and edit the "MySQL settings" section:

  // ** MySQL settings ** //
  define('DB_NAME', 'mywordpressdb');
  define('DB_USER', 'mywordpressuser');
  define('DB_PASSWORD', 'yourpasswordhere');
  define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');

Set arbitrary phrases in AUTH_KEY, SECURE_AUTH_KEY and LOGGED_IN_KEY. If you require internationalization, set the WPLANG value accordingly.

Using the web installer

Point your browser to the new URL (http://mydomain.ext/mywordpress) and enter the requested information (blog title and e-mail address). Proceed, and note the generated password.

The installation is now complete. You can now log in as admin. For better security, consider using a secure URL (https:// URL). If you don't have an official SSL certificate, it is possible to generate one yourself.

Links

Home of WordPress