Technology | The Probabilist . com

How to Blog - 2/8 Go Online February 16, 2007

Posted by The Probabilist in : [Articles], Productivity, Technology, Blogging , 5 comments

Step 2 is a short and easy step and serves the purpose of providing the basics for those of you who still haven’t had a blog online. That being said, here’s today’s agenda. We’ll look into what you need to be able to run WordPress, what kind of a host you might choose, how to upload your files and how to go from there. Yes, it’s quite a beginner’s tutorial today. But let’s get on with it so we can get to the more advanced details later on.

The first part is easy. Your web host provider must have PHP and MySQL support, or else your WordPress installation won’t work because it uses the MySQL database to function. Remember to check this when you choose your web host provider and service package. If you’re aiming really high and intend to drive lots of traffic to your blog, remember that a cheap alternative on a shared server might not stand up to it. Storage space shouldn’t be an issue unless you’ll be using lots of pictures, audio and video files to spice up your blog.

I have provided a list of web host candidates that you may choose from. I can’t really vouch for any of these except the last one, since it’s the only one I’ve personally used and still using.

Dream Host
Blue Fur - Even the cheapest solution is said to stand Digg front page traffic.
Go Daddy
A Small Orange - Reader recommendation.
midPhase
AN Hosting - Specifically for blogs.
bluehost
Laughing Squid
Planeetta internet - Just in case you live in Finland.

Once you’ve signed up, you should get the necessary login details to be able to start uploading WordPress to your web host. Make the decision if you want your home page to be your blog (insert WordPress files to the root directory) or if you want the url to be yourpage.com/blog for instance instead (upload the wordpress folder to the root and rename it to “blog” or your word of choice.

To do this, you first need an FTP application. My choice is FileZilla, which you can download from SourceForge. Run the installation and place it where you want. Run the program, choose File > Site Manager and enter the following details:

Press the “New Site” button and give the connection any name.
Enter your domain url in the “Host” field.
Choose “SFTP using SSH2″ in the “Servertype” dropdown field.
“Logontype” should be “Normal”.
Enter your username and password in the following fields.
Click “Connect” and you should land on the web host directory.

This is where different web host providers have different category listings. Find out which is your root directory and upload your WordPress files or your wordpress directory there by dragging them from the left window to the right. I suggest clicking on the “Advanced” button and inserting the wordpress folder directory in the “Default remote directory” to save you some time by always landing where the action is when you connect to your web host. Remember now that your wp-config.php file must have the information that works with your web host database. Run the install.php file to install your online WordPress version and pick up the login details.

Here’s a tip. I recommend having a duplicate of both your online and offline wp-config.php files in separate directories. This way you’ve got an easy copy paste solution whenever you’ve done something wrong on either your offline or online WordPress directory and choose to upload or download it all from one host to the other to get it all working back as normal again.

Whenever you upgrade WordPress to a newer version, just copy all the files to your existing wordpress folder. Refresh your admin panel and the few steps are easy to just click through.

Checklist for step 2 - starting offline

Web host - Choose a blogger friendly solution that fits your needs.
FileZilla - Download, install and configure to have a file upload tool.
WP Config - Keep duplicates of your wp-config.php files for easy copying.
Upgrade WordPress - Keep an eye out for upgrades and always install them.

Pretty basic, huh? In the third step of this workshop (Monday, February the 19th), I’m listing the most essential WordPress plugins that you should know about, how to install them, how to use them and why. They may not all suite the context of your specific blog, but there’s bound to be something new to everyone who is following along with this tutorial. I hope I haven’t bored you too much, the rest of the steps provide more value to established bloggers.

Bookmark this page or subscribe to my feed to stay updated.

(No Ratings Yet)

How to Blog - 1/8 Start Offline February 12, 2007

Posted by The Probabilist in : [Articles], Productivity, Technology, Blogging , 12 comments

Step 1 and 2 will be the briefest ones. In the first step of this blogging tutorial we’re going to install and use XAMPP and WordPress on your computer. XAMPP enables you to tweak your blog offline and WordPress is the most used blogging platform.

The reasons for starting with this step are several. Firstly, it’s a safe and free environment for you to try the WordPress platform. Secondly, you won’t annoy your readers with downtime, errors or continuous small tweaks every time you decide to implement a change. Thirdly, this reference comes with lots of suggestions so instead of having to upload new material constantly to your online host through an FTP application, you’re testing things out quickly on your own hard drive. And fourthly, whenever you upgrade WordPress to a new version, you’re better off first doing it on XAMPP to see how your plugins and design performs and what has to be done if everything doesn’t work the way they’re supposed to.

Installing XAMPP

First head over to the Apache friends site where you’ll find XAMPP for download. Choose your operating system, then XAMPP Lite and finally download either the .exe or .zip file. Extract it to your desired location (I’m going to refer to C:/xampplite - the installer will create the xampplite folder if you just choose C:).

Go to the xampplite folder and run setup_xampp.bat (press any key when done)
Run the xampp-control.exe file
Click the start button for both Apache and MySql
minimize the window when they both show ‘running’ on a green background
Open your favourite browser and enter http://localhost/xampp/splash.php
Choose your preferred language and click phpMyAdmin on the sidebar
Enter the following exactly as described in the picture and click create:

Installing WordPress

Go to the download section and get the latest version
Extract the contents of the zip file into the htdocs folder
The folder structure should be C:\xampplite\htdocs\wordpress
Download this wp-config.txt file and put it in the wordpress folder
Open it with notepad and rename it to wp-config.php
Enter http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php in your browser
Follow the guide and save the login details to where you keep your passwords
Go to http://localhost/wordpress/wp-login.php to log in to the platform

If you’ve already been blogging online, download your existing online WordPress folder and replace it with the one in your htdocs folder to have an offline duplicate. The posts and categories will not be copied, you have to activate the plugins and you also need to tweak the sidebar widgets if you have any. Remember that you have to change the wp-config.php file to the one that works on the offline version. The login details for your offline version will stay the same.

If you’re an established blogger, then the rest of the advice in this article as well as part 2 will not be of much interest. Steps 3 to 8 on the other hand are for everyone.

Using WordPress

All right, now we’re all set up to start making the essential stuff that makes your blog efficient. First browse through your user interface and check out the different panels and be sure to go to the options panel and change whatever settings you want. Clicking on the (View site) button next to the title of your blog reveals the basic look of your blog and I bet you’re inclined to start off by applying a new theme (a look or style) to your blog to make it stand out. You’ll find lots of different themes available for download here, here, here, here, here and here. Choose one close to your taste knowing that you can tweak every single detail of the theme that you want later on. Extract the theme folder to the htdocs/wp-content/themes folder. Then just go to the presentation tab in the control panel, choose one from the available themes and view the site.

Here are the most important files you need to do know about. Notice that they are all in the folder for the specific theme you’ve selected, which means that the changes you make only apply to the theme you’ve chosen and using.

style.css - Defines every border, colour, background, font, etc
index.php - Defines what’s displayed when you write a post
sidebar.php - Defines what’s found on the sidebar
header.php - This is where the code starts and defines the head
yourpage.php - You may want to create your own php files for pages

More on how to change and use these files is presented in step 4. For now, just take a look at these files with notepad and how they function, write a post to see how it comes out and visit the WordPress support section to browse through more detailed information.

Checklist for step 1 - starting offline

Install XAMPP - Quicker, easier and more secure environment to tweak a blog
Install WordPress - Self explanatory step
Get a new theme - Take a good look around to find one that stands out
Get familiar with the essential files - You’ll need to tweak these in the future

In the second step of this workshop (Friday, February the 16th), we’re getting a domain and a web host, configuring an ftp software to upload files to your host and putting the blog online. It will be quite a short post since the most essential tweaks and upgrades are presented starting next week.

Bookmark this page or subscribe to my feed to stay updated.