Installing WordPress (Software) Manually

The manual installation of WordPress (Software) that's instructed in this documentation is divided into five parts. But of course, you need to get a domain name and find a suitable web host that meets the system requirements first before proceeding to the installation. You can follow these guidelines to install WordPress to your website.

Download and Extract the Software Package

1. Go to WordPress › Download WordPress.
2. And click on such as the “Download WordPress 3.6.1” button for version 3.6.1, to download the software package.
3. Wait a minute while your computer is downloading such as the "wordpress-3.6.1.zip" file for the version 3.6.1. It may take 1 to 2 minutes, depends on the speed of your connection and if the server isn't busy.
4. Now “Show in folder” the newly downloaded ZIP file.
5. And ‘Extract to "wordpress-3.6.1\"’ (or to what version your WordPress is,) that ZIP archive.

Now you have the real contents of WordPress software if you've followed the instructions above.

Create a Database and Its User

1. Log in to your control panel.
2. Note that you need to remember the values of the database name, username and the password you chose and the value of your database hostname if any which is usually be "localhost" in default.
3. And create a MySQL database and its user, and select all the privillages for this user to complete the task.

Set Up "wp-config.php" File

You can either rename and edit the "wp-config-sample.php" file yourself, or you can skip this section and let WordPress try to do this itself when you run the installation script. You just need to tell WordPress your database details later while Running the Script if you've skipped.

1. On your computer, find the extracted file folder such as "wordpress-3.6.1" in my case, which is often in the Downloads folder of the user's home directory.
2. Open that folder, and under it, there you will see another folder named "wordpress".
3. And open that folder named "wordpress".
4. Now, you will see the "wp-config-sample.php" file.
   1. Right click on this PHP file to "Rename" it.
   2. And change the name of the "wp-config-sample.php" file to "wp-config.php".
5. Now, edit the renamed file "wp-config.php" with a text editor. And enter your database details under the section labeled:
   // ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
   1. Change the value "database_name_here" to the database name you created for WordPress.
   2. Change the value "username_here" to the username of your database user you created.
   3. Change the "password_here" to the password of your DB user that you chose.
   4. Change the value "localhost" if only your MySQL hostname is different from that value.
      • You can find the exact hostname of your MySQL server through phpMyAdmin.
   5. The database character set therein the file is "utf8" and normally should not be changed!
   6. The database collation with the attribute of DB_COLLATE should normally be left blank!
   And now focus under the section labeled:
   * Authentication Unique Keys and Salts.
   1. And run a web browser (but don't close the text editor) and go to: https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/
   2. And copy all the code text therein the web page. It contains automated random secret key values.
   3. And go back to your "wp-config.php" file-editing text editor.
   4. And select from the beginning of the line with the code define('AUTH_KEY', to the end of the line started with the code define('NONCE_SALT',

How to Find the Root Web Directory's Location?

In this blog, you'll see how to find the location of the root directory for your specific domain that's hosted by your web hosting provider.

On cPanel

If you're using cPanel, you may see your Home Directory under the content Stats on the sidebar, but it may not the root directory of any of your hosted domains. But it could be the containing folder of the root directory for your domain.

• To find the root directory for your addon domain or even for your main domain that's listed at the row Main Domain of the content Stats.
  1. When you click the “File Manager” on the cellbox Files and if you didn't mark to skip the follow up question yet.
  2. There you will see the popup File Manager Directory Selection.
     
  3. Select the option with the words “Document Root for:”.
  4. And choose the hosted domain you want to see the location of its root directory.
  5. And lastly, click the "Go" button below the popup area.
  6. In File Manager, focus on the top left area of the application interface.
     

How to Find the Hostname of a Database Server?

Some web software for a website needs the value of the hostname of a database server for it to be installed to a web server, such as WordPress (software) which needs MySQL database connection details. The MySQL database hostname will usually be "localhost" on most web hosting companies, but not always!

The name could be simply "localhost" if your database is local to your web server or to the server on your hosting provider. But if your database is external to your web server or to your hosting server, then you or your hosting provider would need to put the name of that database.

Most Hosting Providers

To be sure about your database hostname, here we will going to find the exact hostname of MySQL server through the application called phpMyAdmin, version 4.0.5:

1. First, log in to your control panel.
2. Find the PHP application "phpMyAdmin":
   
   • On the Databases heading section if you're using cPanel.
   • Or on the Advanced Features heading section if you're using DirectAdmin Web Control Panel.
   And then click it to run that application.
3. And in phpMyAdmin, the value of the item "Server" on the top of the user interface, is your database hostname.
   

Automated Installation Using an Installer

An auto installer also known as scripts installer, is used to automate the installation of the software. For you to know more about it, visit What is a Web Application Auto-Installer?

Requirement: Your server hosting account must have the specific auto installer that you will going to use!

Note that we already have blogs how to automate the installation of the software that you want to install to your website by using:

Softaculous Auto Installer

Fantastico De Luxe

If the web application installer on your control panel is different from the scripts installers that are linked above, then you can still view them to see how it works. Actually it's really easy to use an auto installer, you can even use it without any instructions but if you still need it, as I said you can view the links above and you can also check the following simple guidelines below for using a simple auto installer:

1. Log in to your control panel that have the specific scripts installer that you'll going to use.
2. Find the “Auto Installer” application on your logged control panel. It may be found on the Website section of the applications and may have a name such as “Auto Installer” or any.
3. Inside the web application installer, find the exact name of the software you may wish to install to your website, and click it.
4. Now you may see some information about the software that you've chosen. You will going to install it and when you're now on the installation form, fill out that form such as these:
   1. Choose what folder do you want to “Install To”. For example if you want to install in only "example.com" then leave it empty, and if you want to install to "example.com/wordpress" then fill the word "wordpress" therein the field.
   2. Fill your personal username in the “Administrator username” field.
   3. Fill a strong password in the “Administrator password” field.
   4. There may be another fields which was not listed here. And if there are another fields, you need to fill out all the required fields therein the form!
   And last, click on such as “Install {Software Name}” to continue. (Note that the {Software Name} is our term on the name of the software you chose.)

Automated Installation Using Fantastico

Fantastico De Luxe is an auto installer for cPanel servers. For more information about Fantastico De Luxe, please visit What is a Web Application Auto-Installer? To be able to use this autoinstaller, your web server hosting must have it! Asking how to use Fantastico De Luxe? Here we will going to automate the installation of the software that you want, by using Fantastico De Luxe:

1. Log in to your cPanel server hosting account.
2. Run the application named “Fantastico De Luxe” under the Software/Services (heading) section.
   
3. Make sure that you haven't reached your database limit for a new database.
4. Choose and click the software that you want to install (which in my case is WordPress), on any of the items (scripts) that are listed on the left.
5. Now you will see the disk space required and the disk space available on your server. Make sure you meet the required space.
6. Click the link New Installation.
7. In the part Install {SOFTWARE} (1/3):
   
   (Remember that in this blog, the {SOFTWARE} means the name of the software that you've chosen.)
   1. Installation location
      1. Choose in the “Install on domain” selection what domain name do you want to install the software.
      2. Fill up the “Install in directory” if you're going to install the software on a directory of your domain (e.g. "example.com/UNEXIST/"). The directory should not exist, it will be automatically created. Just leave it empty to install in the root directory (e.g. "example.com").

Automated Installation Using Softaculous

Most leading Control Panels like cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, InterWorx and H-Sphere have Softaculous Auto Installer. For more information about Softaculous, please visit What is a Web Application Auto-Installer? To use Softaculous Auto Installer, your web server hosting must have it! Here are the instructions how to automatically install the software that you want, to your website by using Softaculous:

1. Log in to the control panel of your hosting account.
2. Click the application named "Softaculous" on the section such as Software/Services heading for cPanel user.
   
3. Find the exact name of the software you may wish to install. (For this time we choose WordPress.)
4. Check the Space Required and make sure you have enough space and can able to add another database.
5. And click Install for automated installation of the software that you've chosen.
6. And fill out the following form:
   1. Software Setup
      1. “Choose Protocol” that you have wanted. If your site has SSL, I suggest to choose the HTTPS protocol.
      2. “Choose Domain” where you want to install the software.
      3. The directory is relative to your domain and should not exist! For exmple, to install “In Directory” at "example.com/unexist/", just type "unexist". Leave it empty to install only in "example.com".
      4. Type the “Database Name” that you want to be created for the automated installation.
   2. Database Settings
      1. I suggest to leave the “Table Prefix” in its default. It will be the prefix of every table name on the database that will be created, such as "wp_users", "wp_posts" and "wp_comments" if you have "wp_" as your table prefix.
   3. Site Settings
      1. Fill the title of your website in “Site Name”.
      2. Fill the description of your website in “Site Description”.
      3. “Enable Multisite (WPMU)” option for your WordPress blog if you want but your server must support Apache mod_rewrite to use this feature.
   4. Admin Account
      1. Fill your personal username in “Admin Username”.
      2. Fill a strong password in “Admin Password”.
      3. Fill the email of the original administrator, in “Admin Email”.
   5. Choose Language
      1. “Select Language” depends on your dialect and on the language of your site.
   6. Select Plugins
      1. Checking “Limit Login Attempts” will installed and activated the specific plugin that will limit the login attempts, with your installation.
   • If you want more advanced then you would surely fill out Advanced Options also.
     1. If you don't want to receive an email notification for updates available for the installation, then “Disable Update Notifications”.
     2. Check “Auto Upgrade” if you want the installation to be automatically upgraded to the latest version when a new version is available.
     3. Choose the frequency for “Automated backups” to perform, if you want Softaculous to automates the backups via CRON as per the frequency you select.

What is a Web Application Auto-Installer?

An auto installer (also known as web application installer or scripts installer,) automates the installation of web applications such as WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal, to a website or on a server hosting account. Of course there are many auto-installers around the Web and the well-known among those are listed below:

• Softaculous is having 312 great scripts, 1115 PHP Classes and still adding more. It is widely used in the Web Hosting industry and it has helped millions of users to install applications by the click of a button in just ONE STEP. Their Auto Installer easily integrates into leading Control Panels like cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, InterWorx and H-Sphere.
• Fantastico De Luxe is an autoinstaller for cPanel servers with more than 10.000 installations. It provides more than one million end users the ability to quickly install dozens of the leading open source content management systems into their web space.

Get a Domain and Meet the System Requirements

Here are the complete instructions how to ready the things such as domain name and web host or server, that are needed before installing web software such as WordPress, on a website or on a hosting account or before developing an advanced website:

Get a Domain Name

1. Create an account on a domain name registrar or on a web hosting provider that have domain name registration service.
2. Choosing the right domain name for your website isn't that easy. I require you to spend time or even days for just searching an available domain name that matches your business name. Because when it's purchased, there is no way to rename it. But you can still get another domain name if you want!
3. Register your chosen domain name through your domain provider. It's also possible for an unavailable domain name to buy it somewhere, such as by contacting the domain owner or through the link to buy that domain on the page with the URL of the domain if it's for sale.

Check the System Requirements

Your web (hosting) server must meets the system requirements of the software that you're planning to install or to develop. If you're going to develop a web application, your server need to support a database management system (DBMS).

• You can check the WordPress requirements at WordPress › About » Requirements. Your web server must supports the minimum requirements for this software, PHP version 5.2.4 or greater and MySQL version 5.0 or greater.
• The hosting requirements of Joomla! for JVersion 3.1 can be seen at J3.1 Installing Joomla - Joomla! Documentation, its language is PHP 5.3.1+ and it supports databases MySQL 5.1+, MSSQL 10.50.1600.1+ and PostgreSQL 8.3.18+ and web servers Apache 2.x+, Nginx 1.0 and Microsoft IIS 7. And at J2.5 Installing Joomla - Joomla! Documentation for JVersion 2.5, it required PHP v. 5.2+, MySQL 5.04+ and Apache 1.3.
• The system requirements of Drupal can be seen at System requirements | drupal.org. Drupal 6 required PHP 4.4.0+ and MySQL 4.1+ or PostgreSQL 7.1. Drupal 7 required PHP 5.2.5+ and MySQL 5.0.15 or higher with PDO, or PostgreSQL 8.3 or higher with PDO, or SQLite 3.3.7+. Drupal 8 required PHP 5.3.10+.
• The system requirements for other web software can be seen on the requirements of their online documentation or on the requirements' section of their readme.html documentation inside the extracted software package.

A proper web server must supports a relational database management system (RDBMS) such as MySQL and a server-side scripting language such as PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.

Find a Suitable Web Host

1. Now find a web host that allow you to create a hosting account that meets the system requirements. The standard Internet hosting provider is host.duoservers.com.