wordpress checklist - installation and configuration
Having done my third site I am writing more notes to myself to keep track of the whole process and to give myself a tutorial. I have 2 more in the planning stages so I thought it would be useful to have checklist of points just to make sure that I’ve covered all the bases.
I’m not sure if this would be the correct order of doing things or the definitive sequence of events, but here goes.
- Get domain name and hosting
- Install Wordpress
- Install theme
- Install plug-ins
- Edit template pages
It’s worth getting the domain and hosting separately just in case the company goes bust, but if it’s with a reputable company with a good track record then that’s fine. Check that the hosting is Linux, has the latest version of PHP and at least one MySQL database. FTP access of course and has decent bandwidth.
Login via the host control panel and enable everything that’s needed such as creating a FTP username and password. Set up the new e-mail address as well me@mynewdomain.com. The e-mail account will need a username and password too in order to be accessed via webmail or via an e-mail client.
If you registered your domain somewhere else then you need to set up your DNS as well and give some time for your domain to propogate. Can take a couple of days.
I have installed Wordpress on the servers that have the Fantastico one-click installer, so it’s very easy. You just have to fill in a few details such as your main root folder and then your username and password. The database is given a generic prefix according to the ftp username. But what if your server doesn’t have the Fantastico installer? They often have other ways of doing it. Most have pre installed scripts that are pretty much ready to go. But if not then I can’t imagine it’s that hard. Just a question of downloading the latest version of Wordpress and then uploading it onto the server via ftp. More details here:
Wordpress will come with the default theme which is currently K2. The “classic” theme comes bundles along with it as well. And it’s very easy to switch to the other theme using the admin panel.
But what if you want to set yourself apart and have a different look to your blog? There are many free themes and templates available for use with Wordpress or you can create your own. So far what I have done is to modify the K2 theme. That’s how I got the look for this one - arup’s blog. I have updated and modified some of the template files. If you modify the css file then that means testing on various browsers. With another site - mad about baking, I created the theme according to the guidelines set out in the Wordpress codex on how to create a custom theme. That means creating new php files etc. I’ll talk about that in another post.
The other Wordpress driven site that I’ve done, lifearchitect.co.uk uses a ready made theme. There are many people who create Wordpress themes for public use. If the theme has been designed correctly then it’s just a question of placing the theme files into the ‘themes’ folder on your server and then choose that theme from the admin panel. Find a theme that is close to the one you have in mind and then make some small alterations. Easy.
If the site is not going to be straight forward blog, then you may have an idea of features and functionality in mind. So that will give you an idea of which plugins would be useful. For example, if you are a musician, then you would want an events calendar plug in. If you were a photographer then a photo gallery plug in. And so on and so forth.
Some plug ins need to be installed as routine really. Akismet spam filter, db-backup and various other admin tools. As the site or blog takes shape over the coming months any further features and enhancements will become apparent.
So we’re almost ready to roll. But a few more adjustments before the guests arrive and start tucking in. Some of this can be done from the admin panel via the theme editor, but I would advise that you do it in your editor and then upload it. Then you don’t have the problem of versions.
If you edit your template files via the theme editor in the admin panel for one thing, you can’t use the tab button and secondly, the latest version of that file is on the server. So you have to remember to download it first and overwrite your local copy before you edit and upload it again. But I have got into this habit as I tend to work from three different local machines. All I have to remember is that the latest version is on the server. I can of course synchronise using the ftp software, but if it’s just one file it’s a simple case of getting it first. Don’t want to overwrite an hour’s worth of editing do we?
So what would you want to edit? In index.php you would want to add your meta tags. And your link tag for your favicon. You might also want to enable the calendar or change which content is displayed in your sidebar etc. Again, further changes and modifications can be made as the site takes shape and what is required of it becomes clearer.