WordPress Tutorial – Part 1: Installing XAMPP and WordPress

In our WordPress tutorial, you will find all that you need to know to open a website in WordPress.

First thing is to know to get started with WordPress and how it works.

WordPress was founded on May 27, 2003, by the American Developer Matt Mullenweg and English Developer Mike Little. It was created as a Blog Publishing system but now serves as a free and open Content Management System that creates web pages.

WordPress is an application that works alongside a database on your server. We need three things before we start. WordPress itself, a web server, localhost that supports. PHP and MySQL where WordPress can be stored and run, and finally, a database where WordPress can store its data.

Installing XAMPP on Windows

What is XAMPP?

XAMPP is the most popular software package which is used to set up a PHP development environment for web services by providing all the required software components. 

It is a widely used cross-platform web server that serves programs like Apache MySQL,  PHP, and Perl with some additional tools such as PHPMyAdmin (for database access), and FileZilla FTP server. 

The XAMPP server works as a local server that is used to test PHP pages. It has a MySQL database that manages or saves data on a local server.

Why is it important?

It is important to install XAMPP as it allows you to run a website from your computer or a local server.

Benefits:

• Free and easily available for your WINDOWS, LINUX, and MAC OS.
• A user-friendly package for full-stack web development.
• It comes with several different modules like OpenSSL, phpMyAdmin, MediaWiki, Joomla, WordPress, and more.
• Allows creating a setup for development, testing, and deployment.
• A time-saver and provides several ways for managing configuration changes.
• Handles many administrative tasks like checking the status and security
• You can start and stop the whole web server+database stack with one command.

Steps to install XAMPP on Windows

• In the web browser, search for XAMPP or Apache Friends

• Select the required components like MySQL, FileZilla FTP server, PHP, phpMyAdmin or leave the default options and click the Next button. 
• Uncheck the “bitnami option” and click the Next button.
• Choose the root directory path to set up the htdocs folder for our applications. For example ‘C:\xampp’.
• Click the Allow access button to allow the XAMPP modules from the Windows firewall.
• After the installation process, click the Finish button of the XAMPP Setup wizard.
• On the right side of the start menu, you will see the XAMPP icon. You can hide or show using the control panel by clicking on the icon.
• To start Apache and MySql, just click on the Start button on the XAMPP control panel. 

Now to see whether the server request is working or not, we can go to the web browser or chrome and type http://localhost, and enter. If you see a XAMPP default page, your XAMPP has been successfully installed.

Steps to install WordPress on Windows

There are different local server apps where we can download WordPress like WAMP, XAMPP, Local by Flywheel, and Desktop Server.

Step 1: Download WordPress

Just as XAMPP, for WordPress, from the browser, we go to their official website wordpress.org

Step 2: Extract the downloaded folder

You can simply go to the folder where the WordPress folder has been downloaded and then you can extract it from there.

Step 3: Copy the extracted folder to the XAMPP doc 

The actual WordPress files are in the extracted folder. You can now paste it into the right folder C:\xampp\htdocs 

Step 4: Giving a file name

We can simply rename the folder. Let’s give a filename as “test website” for now.

Step 5: Launch the website in the browser

Now we can check by typing “localhost/test website” in the browser. 

What you see next is you have to select a language. We select English and click Next. On the next page, you will see that you need to create a database.

Step 6: Create a Database

We need a database to run WordPress. By signing up you will get a page where you can create a database. 

Before you do this, go back to XAMPP, and in the MySQL, section click Admin. 

The localhost/phpmyadmin page on your browser will open. Click on Databases. Give a database name and create.

Now you go back to the WordPress setup and give the same database name, type any Username, password, or default information for the rest, and then submit. 

Step 7: Run the installation

Now as the database has been created, and mapped, fill in the website information, Site title, username, password, email address, and search engine visibility depending on your requirement.

Note: Do copy the auto-generated password.

After installing WordPress, log in and add your username and paste the password. After you log in, you will get to the WordPress Dashboard screen where you can access all the options on the left-hand side like creating posts, and pages, changing themes, and more. So basically, developing, designing, or testing.

This chapter is explained more in detail in our tutorial videos. 

You can find below, the link to our WordPress Tutorial Part 1:

Installing XAMPP and WordPress

We shall talk more about WordPress in our next tutorials and blogs.

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