Wordpress Novice Build From Scratch Can It Be Done Lets See
Discussion
I know nothing about Wordpress and thought it a good challenge to attempt building a website using it
This could be fun yet I suspect it will be a very frustrating experience and will all end in tears
I will post things when or if I make some progress
At this point I have installed Wordpress at my web-host and that was not idiot proof which was dissapointing
There were settings to be adjusted from the defaults, I feel there should have been an idiot button for the best installation that would automate backups and updates
Having completed the above task I then had a selection of themes to choose from, I spent 5 minutes looking through a few and thought it best to move on and perhaps look through them all again in the future if I managed to succeed with this attempt
20 Minutes work on this up to now and I was given this following link on completion Administrative URL : http://*********.com/wp/wp-admin/ (Domain hidden to protect the innocent)
I typed my domain http://*********.com into the address bar and the following appeared in my browser window
I expected to see the theme I had selected appear in my browser window, as mentioned above, this could be very frustrating and will no doubt require many Google searches
Time for a drink
This could be fun yet I suspect it will be a very frustrating experience and will all end in tears
I will post things when or if I make some progress
At this point I have installed Wordpress at my web-host and that was not idiot proof which was dissapointing
There were settings to be adjusted from the defaults, I feel there should have been an idiot button for the best installation that would automate backups and updates
Having completed the above task I then had a selection of themes to choose from, I spent 5 minutes looking through a few and thought it best to move on and perhaps look through them all again in the future if I managed to succeed with this attempt
20 Minutes work on this up to now and I was given this following link on completion Administrative URL : http://*********.com/wp/wp-admin/ (Domain hidden to protect the innocent)
I typed my domain http://*********.com into the address bar and the following appeared in my browser window
I expected to see the theme I had selected appear in my browser window, as mentioned above, this could be very frustrating and will no doubt require many Google searches
Time for a drink
ecs said:
Your WordPress installation is in a directory called `wp` - you need to move all of the files from up a level from `wp` into `public` or `public_html` (or whatever it's called on your host).
Thank you for this, I was about to login to http://*******.com/wp/wp-admin/ with a Wordpress user/password I was givenI will follow your instructions and login to my host and move the files over
I'll be back
Hoofy said:
I thought you were a web developer.
Anyway, you're kindly proving my point that it's not quick if you've not done it before.
(By quick, I mean about 1 hour.)
No i'm no web developer. What I have done is build plenty of HTML websites from what I have learnt from internet sites, I have got my head around Forms and capture/ Re-captcha and also managed to get Mysql databases installed and up and running, installing an Ajax search engine is another thing I am now able to do plus I can alter how a website appears using CSS and know how to add scroll and things like thatAnyway, you're kindly proving my point that it's not quick if you've not done it before.
(By quick, I mean about 1 hour.)I am just me that am always prepaired to educate myself and listen to those that are able to help me
Your comment about the process not being quick for me to achieve has given me some motivation and I thank you for this as I do lose patience after a while
I will slowly attempt to move forward with this and not expect too much to happen in the near future
HappyMidget said:
Lookup modrewrite to get it sorted. Else just set it up on word press.com and add your hostname.
Thanks, I couldn't find anything at my host to do with modrewrite and have never used it so I moved on and used your second methodI still have no access to file manager at my host so will probably have another go later
Before I logged into Wordpress I clicked on the folder that shows when I type in my Domain name in the browser address bar and ended up at http://*******.com/wp/
that showed the following
Having logged into Wordpress I ended up at http://*******.com/wp/wp-admin/index.php that suggested I needed some plugins installing and then activating for the theme I had selected when first installing Wordpress, I installed them, see below
The following plugins were activated successfully: Breadcrumb NavXT, Contact Form 7 and WP-PageNavi..
I now can see lots of options and below are a couple of images showing where I am up to
Thats my lot for today, I need to get my host sorted out so that I can move the Wordpress files into htdocs as was posted above by ecs
20 Minutes more spent making some progress Total = 40 Mins
Thank you to all for the help
Edited by Penelope Stopit on Thursday 1st December 21:00
I have not been on the internet today until 1 hour ago
Hoofy Commented
So you took 40 minutes to set up WP? Not bad. Impossible for someone who is not technically minded.
40 Minutes with little to show for it
twoblacklines Commented
Just move the whole site up a level in FTP, and if required you can edit one of the files to point to your new directory.
Most people bypass this with one click installs.
Can't quite understand why you are trying to FTP to your server through a browser though.
I can do WP in my sleep, which is ironic because I recently applied to do volunteer work. They wanted to update their old html site to a new WP site. But they would only let people apply if they had a Bsc in Computer Science or similar.
To install and setup Wordpress. And copy and paste content. For a charity. Madness.
Thanks ecs posted earlier about moving the site up a level
Last night I wanted to view with my browser what was going on at the host and use the control panel file manager to move everything up one level, I later tried using an FTP client and that also would not login
The folks that run the charity where probably mislead by Google or someone, stupid isn't it
MrOrange Commented
You could just go to WPEngine, put in your credit card details and press start. That's WP up and running in 2 mins flat, with SSL. All this FTP and faffing with hosting and modrewrite is so 1998.
Thanks but that is not what this is about
Derek Smith Commented
Let YouTube be your guide. A couple of hours listening to overacting self absorbed children is a high price, but it worked for me. I went from 15 years of html to WP in a couple of weeks.
It may come to that, that couple of weeks - Was it worth it or could you have stuck to HTML?
TonyRPH Commented
For a basic package at that.
$99 for Professional and $249 for Business.
I note the upper end packages are POA.
Not cheap, is it?
And why is a supposedly UK (well, a UK domain at least) company quoting prices in dollars?
Where theres **** theres money but those prices you quote are obscene, that's like taking money from the blind
Bikerjon Commented
As mentioned, Wordpress.com is a good place to start just for focussing on Wordpress itself rather than all the faff that surrounds self-hosting. Most places do seem to offer 1-click installs these days, so it's not difficult. I've found Siteground to be good Wordpress hosts
My host was offering a simple install using Softaculous, I didn't ask Softaculous to put the files in the wrong place. Thanks I will take a look at Siteground later
silobass Commented
Do your hosts not have a cpanel thing where you can do a one click install?
The host only had Softaculous Wordpress installer, there was no Wordpress button staring me in the face
Graham Commented
once you've got WP up and running, you need to research all the security hacks and tweeks you need to do, otherwise you'll probably get hacked as soon as they find your online.
its fairly straight forward to harden it but you do need to look at that. also make sure you put the updates in as they appear
I am not convinced I will get this up and running, should I succeed I will look into security, thank you
That's the replies out of the way, I didn't want to look an ignorant **** by not replying to posters helpful comments, I do need all the help I can get
I wont be able to constantly reply to posts but will do as and when I can
My partner has had a go at this in the past and spent 12 hours trying to get an image into a new Wordpress site with no joy, then gave up
This is where I am now up to, I logged into my host before posting here and all FTP functions are now working correctly, I moved all the Wordpress files out of the folder they were in and they are now in htdocs
When I type my Domain name into my browser address bar I get
I will take a break and have a go later in trying to do something with the above, I don't know if I should log into Wordpress or my host to work on this
Hoofy Commented
So you took 40 minutes to set up WP? Not bad. Impossible for someone who is not technically minded.
40 Minutes with little to show for it
twoblacklines Commented
Just move the whole site up a level in FTP, and if required you can edit one of the files to point to your new directory.
Most people bypass this with one click installs.
Can't quite understand why you are trying to FTP to your server through a browser though.
I can do WP in my sleep, which is ironic because I recently applied to do volunteer work. They wanted to update their old html site to a new WP site. But they would only let people apply if they had a Bsc in Computer Science or similar.
To install and setup Wordpress. And copy and paste content. For a charity. Madness.
Thanks ecs posted earlier about moving the site up a level
Last night I wanted to view with my browser what was going on at the host and use the control panel file manager to move everything up one level, I later tried using an FTP client and that also would not login
The folks that run the charity where probably mislead by Google or someone, stupid isn't it
MrOrange Commented
You could just go to WPEngine, put in your credit card details and press start. That's WP up and running in 2 mins flat, with SSL. All this FTP and faffing with hosting and modrewrite is so 1998.
Thanks but that is not what this is about
Derek Smith Commented
Let YouTube be your guide. A couple of hours listening to overacting self absorbed children is a high price, but it worked for me. I went from 15 years of html to WP in a couple of weeks.
It may come to that, that couple of weeks - Was it worth it or could you have stuck to HTML?
TonyRPH Commented
For a basic package at that.
$99 for Professional and $249 for Business.
I note the upper end packages are POA.
Not cheap, is it?
And why is a supposedly UK (well, a UK domain at least) company quoting prices in dollars?
Where theres **** theres money but those prices you quote are obscene, that's like taking money from the blind
Bikerjon Commented
As mentioned, Wordpress.com is a good place to start just for focussing on Wordpress itself rather than all the faff that surrounds self-hosting. Most places do seem to offer 1-click installs these days, so it's not difficult. I've found Siteground to be good Wordpress hosts
My host was offering a simple install using Softaculous, I didn't ask Softaculous to put the files in the wrong place. Thanks I will take a look at Siteground later
silobass Commented
Do your hosts not have a cpanel thing where you can do a one click install?
The host only had Softaculous Wordpress installer, there was no Wordpress button staring me in the face
Graham Commented
once you've got WP up and running, you need to research all the security hacks and tweeks you need to do, otherwise you'll probably get hacked as soon as they find your online.
its fairly straight forward to harden it but you do need to look at that. also make sure you put the updates in as they appear
I am not convinced I will get this up and running, should I succeed I will look into security, thank you
That's the replies out of the way, I didn't want to look an ignorant **** by not replying to posters helpful comments, I do need all the help I can get
I wont be able to constantly reply to posts but will do as and when I can
My partner has had a go at this in the past and spent 12 hours trying to get an image into a new Wordpress site with no joy, then gave up
This is where I am now up to, I logged into my host before posting here and all FTP functions are now working correctly, I moved all the Wordpress files out of the folder they were in and they are now in htdocs
When I type my Domain name into my browser address bar I get
I will take a break and have a go later in trying to do something with the above, I don't know if I should log into Wordpress or my host to work on this
TonyRPH said:
@Penelope - it looks as though you're not getting the theme.
This is likely because you don't have mod_rewrite enabled *OR* you are missing the .htaccess file in the web root.
IIRC, WP call it htaccess.txt 'out of the box' and you have to rename it to .htaccess (yes, that's a leading dot, no extension).
You also need to ensure that your host permits the use of mod_rewrite, otherwise you'll likely end up with an "http 500" error.
This is the standard .htaccess
TonyRPHThank you for the htaccess info,the htaccess file was named correctly (.htaccess) below is what was in itThis is likely because you don't have mod_rewrite enabled *OR* you are missing the .htaccess file in the web root.
IIRC, WP call it htaccess.txt 'out of the box' and you have to rename it to .htaccess (yes, that's a leading dot, no extension).
You also need to ensure that your host permits the use of mod_rewrite, otherwise you'll likely end up with an "http 500" error.
This is the standard .htaccess
.htaccess said:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
A security enhancement you can also add:RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
add_to_.htaccess said:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^wp-admin/includes/ - [F,L]
RewriteRule !^wp-includes/ - [S=3]
RewriteRule ^wp-includes/[^/]+\.php$ - [F,L]
RewriteRule ^wp-includes/js/tinymce/langs/.+\.php - [F,L]
RewriteRule ^wp-includes/theme-compat/ - [F,L]
</IfModule>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^wp-admin/includes/ - [F,L]
RewriteRule !^wp-includes/ - [S=3]
RewriteRule ^wp-includes/[^/]+\.php$ - [F,L]
RewriteRule ^wp-includes/js/tinymce/langs/.+\.php - [F,L]
RewriteRule ^wp-includes/theme-compat/ - [F,L]
</IfModule>
Edited by TonyRPH on Friday 2nd December 19:00
- BEGIN WordPress
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /wp/
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /wp/index.php [L]
</IfModule>
- END WordPress
RewriteBase /wp/ and this line RewriteRule . /wp/index.php [L] and saved it as below
- BEGIN WordPress
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
- END WordPress
1 Hour spent on this. Total 1Hr 40 Mins
Today the webpage was exactly the same as last night
I have now deleted everything including all Databases and Directories from my host, the only directory that wont delete is a logs directory and that is not an issue, this makes sense that logs remain
Using Softaculous Wordpress installer found in my hosts Cpanel that is the same method I used for my first install, I spent more time looking and thinking before clicking the install button, I noticed that there was one line amongst several for Directory and the form was already filled in with the letters dir
Alarms started sounding in my head and I figured that the dir would end up as an installation of Wordpress files in a wp directory in htdocs
I removed the dir from the form and left it blank and moved on to selecting the same theme as selected in my first attempt
Having now installed Wordpress with the above setting I see the below in my browser when using my DOTCOM domain, at least everything is now in the correct htdocs directory and the whole process installed with this as the target (no /wp directory after domain), I have had no need to alter anything in htdocs to get this far
Should I now be seeing more than in the above image?
0.5 Hr spent on this. Total time spent 2Hrs 40 Mins
jammy-git said:
If the theme was working fine whilst Wordpress was in the /wp/ folder then I would suggest that modrewrite is working fine.
I'd suggest that this is either a case of the .htaccess file still being in the /wp/ folder or that the siteurl needs to be changed in the database. Failing that, double check that the htaccess file does not contain a reference to the /wp/ folder either (just delete the .htaccess file and replace with the one above.
Thanks for this, see above, I have started from scratchI'd suggest that this is either a case of the .htaccess file still being in the /wp/ folder or that the siteurl needs to be changed in the database. Failing that, double check that the htaccess file does not contain a reference to the /wp/ folder either (just delete the .htaccess file and replace with the one above.
Approx 8 Hrs spent today
Total = 26Hrs 40 Mins
Thank you for all the help, I couldn't reply sooner as I was on a learning curve and still am
I had a big problem attempting to do anything, it would have helped if I read a few tutorials or watched them at youtube
What I ended up doing was trying out a few themes that came with some plugins to assist with a build, having tried out a few things today and learnt how to build a menu with dropdown and add pages that linked up to the menu, I have ended up with a 25 page very messy website as it needs much tweaking
If I had read up on the core things needed to get started I could have done this in Approx 10 Hrs
I am not sure I will ever use Wordpress for a serious website and will post my reasons later as my partner is calling me for food
Total = 26Hrs 40 Mins
Thank you for all the help, I couldn't reply sooner as I was on a learning curve and still am
I had a big problem attempting to do anything, it would have helped if I read a few tutorials or watched them at youtube
What I ended up doing was trying out a few themes that came with some plugins to assist with a build, having tried out a few things today and learnt how to build a menu with dropdown and add pages that linked up to the menu, I have ended up with a 25 page very messy website as it needs much tweaking
If I had read up on the core things needed to get started I could have done this in Approx 10 Hrs
I am not sure I will ever use Wordpress for a serious website and will post my reasons later as my partner is calling me for food
Thank you to all for the advice/security info and thoughts
I would now be wasting my time posting my opinion of Wordpress, there has been a big update and something that should have been done a long time ago has just taken place
I have now completed a fresh install and will start experimenting/learning/educating myself
If only this had happened a few days earlier
I am now looking forward to the opinions of experienced Wordpress Website Builders regarding this new Wordpress
Thanks again for everyones posts and efforts in getting me started. Time to start again
I would now be wasting my time posting my opinion of Wordpress, there has been a big update and something that should have been done a long time ago has just taken place
I have now completed a fresh install and will start experimenting/learning/educating myself
If only this had happened a few days earlier
I am now looking forward to the opinions of experienced Wordpress Website Builders regarding this new Wordpress
Thanks again for everyones posts and efforts in getting me started. Time to start again
Tonsko said:
Penelope Stopit said:
If only this had happened a few days earlier
You've never wasted time as far as gaining knowledge is concerned. This time around will take half the time and cement techniques and skills.I will take a look at the security info with Linux in the future, I wonder if any of that will change
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