How can I view a Wordpress site without hosting?

[RobbieKB]

A client of mine has been having trouble with the company that made his website. They overcharged and under-delivered and he cut all ties and demanded all of his website sent to him. It's a simple Wordpress site and he knows I've built and maintain several of them and asked if I could take a look and help him out.

The problem I'm having is I don't know how to view the database in website format without hosting. I tried setting up a subdomain through my host but I can't seem to get it to use the database. Is there any program (or method) for simply allowing me to check through the site and its functionality without purchasing hosting?

[SystemParanoia]

You need a Lamp server ( any linux distro will do ).

Or if you dont know linux and have no inclination to learn, you need to install a WAMP server

http://www.wampserver.com/en/

and then do lots and lots of reading




or buy hosting, and raise a support ticket

[OllyMo]

You can run it locally.

You need a copy of the wordpress files, a copy of the database, then a local server i.e LAMP/MAMP/WAMP whatever. Anything essentially running Apache, MySQL and PHP which is the AMP in those helpful acronyms.

What operating system are you on?

[RobbieKB]

Thanks guys. I worry I've oversold how techy I am. I can barely code but outside of that I don't usually have problems. Running the site locally just to see how it all works would be ideal. I'm running W10 64. Is it reasonably straight forward to use one of those programs?

[SystemParanoia]

its a group of programs otherwise known as a "stack"

I'd advise installing virtualbox ( https://www.virtualbox.org/ ) and then install windows or linux in a safe contained virtualised environment and mess about getting it to work.

better than potentially nuking your working system ( unlinkely but you never know! )

L.A.M.P ( Linux , Apache, MySQL, PHP )
W.A.M.P ( Windows , Apache, MySQL, PHP )
M.A.M.P ( Mac , Apache, MySQL, PHP )

There are other "stacks" available, but they wont help you with word press as it needs PHP