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User Guide - WordPress

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User Guide – WordPress User Guide

Overview

“WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.” - from wordpress.org

The eApps Hosting service is designed to make it easy to use WordPress in your Virtual Private Server (VPS). This User Guide is not intended as a reference source for WordPress.. See the Links to other information at the end of this document if you need detailed information about WordPress, including links to the official WordPress documentation.

Installing WordPress
Activating WordPress for your sites
Logging in to WordPress as the Admin user
Changing the Default WordPress URL

WordPress Plugins and Themes
Upgrading WordPress
Links to other information

Installing WordPress

To install WordPress, log in to the Control Panel, and click on the System Tab. If necessary, click the Select Another System (Subscription) link on the left and choose the correct Virtuozzo container.

If you are not sure if WordPress is installed, go to Applications, and click on All Applications. If you see WordPress on the list, then the application is already installed.

If you do not see WordPress installed, click on Add Application, and click the box next to WordPress, and then scroll down and click the Next button.

This takes you back to the All Applications screen. Wait for five minutes, then click on the Refresh link at the upper right, just under the word Parallels. The application should now show as installed. If it is still in a Scheduled state, wait another five minutes, and click Refresh again. If you see it in Error state, or it still shows as Scheduled, please contact eApps Technical Support.

Tech Tip Along with WordPress, you will need to install PHP and MySQL if they are not already installed.

If you wish to take advantage of the new WordPress upgrade and plugin/theme installation features from the WordPress Admin console, you will also need to have Proftpd and phpMyAdmin installed.

Activating WordPress for your sites

WordPress has to be activated on a per-site basis after installation. This is done so that you can control which sites have WordPress blogs and which do not. This helps reduce file system overhead and also helps to keep your resource usage down.

To activate WordPress for a site, click on the Site tab. If necessary, click on Select Another Site and select the correct site from the list.

Once the correct site shows in the Site tab, click on Applications. Then click on WordPress. Click the Disable button, which will take you back to the main Application view for the site. This will show WordPress as Disabled. Click on WordPress again, and click Enable. This creates the file structure for WordPress in the DocumentRoot for the site, and also creates the MySQL database for the WordPress blog.

Note The Disable/Enable step only has to be done once, for each site you want to run WordPress on. If you Disable/Enable a working WordPress installation, you will wipe out the existing configuration and database, basically wiping out any entries for that WordPress blog and setting it back to its default state.

Logging in to WordPress as the Admin user
Note If you are going to change the default URL for WordPress, do that before setting up the Admin user. See the section titled Changing the Default WordPress URL for more information.

After WordPress is installed, you will need to log in as the Admin User to set the password. Do this as soon as possible, so that someone else does not find your new WordPress installation and hijack it. While this is a remote possibility, it is still a possibility to be aware of.

In your browser, go to http://example.com/wordpress – making sure to substitute your actual domain name for example.com, and also making sure to use the new default URL if you have changed that.

This takes you to the WordPress Welcome screen. Enter your Blog Title and Your E-mail, and if you want your blog to appear in search engines like Google and Technorati, leave the check box checked. Then, click Install WordPress.

WP Install Welcome

This will do the final installation of WordPress on your VPS. This step writes the database tables and sets up the file system for WordPress in the DocumentRoot of the site.
The Success! screen shows you that WordPress is successfully installed. This screen also shows the Username for the admin user (which is admin by default) and the Password, which was randomly generated. If for some reason you do not copy the password, or make some note of it, and try to log in, the only recourse is to Disable WordPress for that site and start over. COPY THAT PASSWORD!

WP Admin User/Pass


Copy the password, and then click Log In.

In the Username field, type in admin. In the Password field, paste the randomly generated password. Note that Remember Me is unchecked by default. Unless you are on a computer that absolutely no one else will use, leave this unchecked. Click on Log In to login to the WordPress Dashboard.

WP Admin Login

At the top of the WordPress Dashboard screen, there is a red box that says the following:

Notice: you're using the auto-generated password for your account. Would you like to change it to something you'll remember easier?
Yes, Take me to my profile page | No Thanks, Do not remind me again.

WP Passwd Warning

To change the password, click on the link to Take me to my profile page.

At the bottom of the Profile page, enter your new password in the New Password fields. Follow the recommendations given and make sure to use upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols. Try different variations until you have a Strong password. Having a strong Admin password is a critical component to keeping your WordPress blog from being hacked or hijacked. Click Update Profile to save the new password.

WP Change Passwd

Once you are logged in to the WordPress Dashboard, take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with all the available options. This is where you will manage your WordPress blog, so take the time to understand the options available to you here.

Changing the Default WordPress URL

The default URL for WordPress on your eApps VPS is at http://example.com/wordpress (substitute your domain name for example.com).

In the file system, the files are located at /home/webadmin/example.com/html/wordpress (assuming that your site is owned by webadmin – be sure to substitute your site admin user for webadmin if necessary).

If you want your WordPress blog to be available at the default WordPress URL, nothing has to change.

But, if you want your WordPress blog to be available as the default page for your site – http://example.com or at an alias such as http://example.com/blog, you will need to make changes in the Custom Settings tab for the site to change the default URL.

In the Control Panel, click on the Site tab. If necessary, click Select Another Site, and choose the correct site from the list.

Then, click on Website Settings, and then on the Custom Settings tab. Click on Edit, and add this line to change the default URL for your WordPress blog to the default page for your site:

DocumentRoot /home/webadmin/example.com/html/wordpress

Make sure to substitute your site admin user for webadmin (if different) and your domain for example.com.

Click Update to save the changes. Now the WordPress blog is available at http://example.com or http://www.example.com

To set an Alias for your WordPress blog, such as http://example.com/blog , add this line to Custom Settings for the site.

Alias /blog /home/webadmin/example.com/html/wordpress

Make sure to substitute your site admin user for webadmin (if different) and your domain for example.com.
Click Update to save the changes. Now the WordPress blog is available at http://example.com/blog or http://www.example.com/blog.

WordPress Plugins and Themes   

One of the reasons that WordPress is so popular is because there are over 7,000 plugins and over 1,000 themes available on WordPress.org. There are also many sites dedicated to WordPress themes, both free and paid. A search for “wordpress themes” using one of the available search engines will find thousands of results.

The place to find official WordPress plugins and themes is here - http://wordpress.org/extend/

Note Due to the large number of plugins and themes available, it is not possible for eApps to offer support for any plugin or theme. If you are having difficulty with a plugin or theme, you will need to contact the creator of the theme or plugin for assistance.

WordPress  has a very active support forum and community, which can be a valuable resource if you have questions beyond the initial installation of WordPress. The WordPress Forums are found here - http://wordpress.org/support/  

There are two plugins available by default in a new WordPress installation – Akismet and Hello Dolly. The Hello Dolly plugin prints a line from the lyrics to the song Hello Dolly in the upper right side of each Admin page. You can enable this if you wish for some humor in your day.

The Akismet plugin is one that eApps recommends that you do install if you are going to allow comments on your WordPress blog. This plugin looks at the comments on your blog and checks them against the Akismet service to determine if they are spam. You can then review the suspected spam and allow or delete it.

To use Akismet, you will need to get a WordPress API key from here – http://en.wordpress.com/api-keys/ There are keys specifically for Akismet users.

To manage Plugins, log in to the WordPress Admin console, and click on Plugins in the left navigation menu.

There you can see which plugins are installed, and add new plugins.

Adding a Plugin

There are two ways to add a plugin to WordPress. You can Search for a plugin to install from the WordPress site, or you can Upload a plugin that you have downloaded to your local computer. For either method, you will need to have ProFTP installed.

Search

To use the Search feature to add a plugin, click on the Add New link under the Plugins menu. Here you can search by keyword, author or tag, or search within a list of popular tags shown in a tag cloud.

Either method takes you to a page listing the plugins and a description of what that plugin does. To the right there is an Install link. Click that link if you want to install this plugin. You will get a popup window describing the plugin, and a link at the top right to Install Now.

Click Install Now – the next screen that appears is Connection Information. On this screen, enter the Hostname of your VPS, the Username and Password.
  • Hostname – the domain name of your VPS, such as example.com
  • Username – this is the admin user for actual site on the VPS, not the WordPress admin user. In most cases, this user is webadmin. To find the actual admin user for your site, go to the Site Tab, and then Website Settings for that site. In the General Settings tab, the admin user is listed in the Admin username field.
  • Password – this is the password for the site admin user, not for the WordPress admin user. If you do not know or remember the password for this user, the password can be changed from the System Tab, Users and Groups, Users – click on the admin user for the site, and there will be a place to change the password. Click Update to save the new password.
Leave the selection for Connection Type as FTP.

Click on Proceed to upload the plugin. If there are any errors, the next screen will report them. Otherwise you will see a screen that shows that the plugin has been installed.

WP Connection Info
 
Note that “installed” does not mean “activated”. You will still need to active each plugin. This can be done from the success screen for the plugin install, or from the main Plugins menu. Click the check box next to the plugin, and click Activate.

Upload

To install a plugin using the upload feature, click the Upload link at the top of the Add New/Install Plugins page. This will allow you to upload a downloaded plugin in .zip format from your local computer.

This method assumes you have downloaded plugins to your local computer.

Click Browse to search for the file on your local computer, and then click Install Now.

WP Upload

The next screen that appears is Connection Information. Use the same Connection Information settings from the Search section.

Note that “installed” does not mean “activated”. You will still need to active each plugin. This can be done from the success screen for the plugin install, or from the main Plugins menu. Click the check box next to the plugin, and click Activate.

Plugins Location

The plugins, once uploaded using either the Search or Upload method, are located at /home/webadmin/example.com/html/wordpress/wp-content/plugins – make sure to substitute your actual site admin user and domain name.

Adding WordPress Themes

Themes are a very important element to WordPress. You can either select a pre-made theme and modify it to your tastes, or create a theme from scratch using various tutorials from the Internet.

To manage your themes, click on the Appearance link in the left navigation menu of the WordPress admin console. This screen shows the currently used theme, and all the currently available themes.

You can activate a theme by clicking on the Activate link below the theme name and description. This switches the currently activated theme for the new theme.

Some themes also have widgets, which can be managed from the Widgets link, and you can edit the theme’s files directly from the browser with the Edit link.

There are two ways to add Themes to WordPress. You can Search for a theme to install from the WordPress site, or you can Upload a theme that you have downloaded to your local computer. For either method, you will need to have ProFTP installed.

Search

To search for a new theme, click on Add New Themes, which takes you to the Install Themes page. Here you can Search for a theme by keyword, author or tag, or use the Feature Filter to help narrow down your search. Be aware that if you use the Feature Filter, you will then have to select a keyword, author or tag on the next screen to be able to search for themes.

Once you have found a theme you like, click on Install. This brings up a small preview image of the theme, with an Install Now link. Click on Install Now, and you are taken to the Connection Information screen.

On this screen, enter the Hostname of your VPS, the Username and Password.
  • Hostname – the domain name of your VPS, such as example.com
  • Username – this is the admin user for actual site on the VPS, not the WordPress admin user. In most cases, this user is webadmin. To find the actual admin user for your site, go to the Site Tab, and then Website Settings for that site. In the General Settings tab, the admin user is listed in the Admin username field.
  • Password – this is the password for the site admin user, not for the WordPress admin user. If you do not know or remember the password for this user, the password can be changed from the System Tab, Users and Groups, Users – click on the admin user for the site, and there will be a place to change the password. Click Update to save the new password.
Leave the selection for Connection Type as FTP.

Click on Proceed to upload the theme. If there are any errors, the next screen will report them. Otherwise you will see a screen that shows that the theme has been installed.

WP Connection Info

Note that “installed” does not mean “activated”. You will still need to active the theme. This can be done from the success screen for the theme install, or from the main Appearance menu. Click the check box next to the theme, and click Activate.

Upload

To install a theme using the upload feature, click the Upload link at the top of the Add New/Install Themes page. This will allow you to upload a downloaded theme in .zip format from your local computer.

This method assumes you have downloaded themes to your local computer.

Click Browse to search for the file on your local computer, and then click Install Now.

The next screen that appears is Connection Information.  Use the same Connection Information settings from the Search section.

Note that “installed” does not mean “activated”. You will still need to active the theme. This can be done from the success screen for the theme install, or from the main Appearance menu. Click the check box next to the theme, and click Activate.

Themes Location

The themes, once uploaded, are located at /home/webadmin/example.com/html/wordpress/wp-content/themes  – make sure to substitute your actual site admin user and domain name.

Upgrading WordPress

Starting with WordPress 2.8, eApps will no longer offer point releases for WordPress, such as WordPress 2.8.7. Only major releases will be offered, such as WordPress 3.0. To upgrade WordPress to the latest point release, you will need to either upgrade it manually, or use the Upgrade feature in the Tools menu in the Admin console.

Manual Upgrade

To manually upgrade WordPress, please follow the instructions here – http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrading_WordPress – you may need to use the Extended Upgrade Instructions or the More Detailed Upgrade instructions.

If you have questions or difficulties with manually upgrading WordPress, please follow the Troubleshooting instructions on the Upgrading WordPress page, or seek help on the WordPress Forums – http://wordpress.org/support/

Automatic Upgrade

Recent versions of WordPress have an Automatic Upgrade feature. Click on the Tools link in the left navigation menu, and then on Upgrade.

There is a warning at the top of this page to backup your database and files. Please take this warning seriously. See this page for more information – http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups – the section near the end of the page about Simple Backup using phpMyAdmin is the one relevant to eApps customers.

WP Automagically Upgrade

If you do not backup your database and files, and your upgrade does not work as expected, the files that eApps has on our backup servers may be be 24 hours old, meaning that any blog posts, or comments, or changes made between the time the last backup was made and any restore will not be available.

From this page you can also download the latest version of WordPress to your local computer for a manual upgrade.

To upgrade WordPress automatically, click on the Upgrade Automatically button.

The next screen that appears is Connection Information. On this screen, enter the Hostname of your VPS, the Username and Password.
  • Hostname – the domain name of your VPS, such as example.com
  • Username – this is the admin user for actual site on the VPS, not the WordPress admin user. In most cases, this user is webadmin. To find the actual admin user for your site, go to the Site Tab, and then Website Settings for that site. In the General Settings tab, the admin user is listed in the Admin username field.
  • Password – this is the password for the site admin user, not for the WordPress admin user. If you do not know or remember the password for this user, the password can be changed from the System Tab, Users and Groups, Users – click on the admin user for the site, and there will be a place to change the password. Click Update to save the new password.
Leave the selection for Connection Type as FTP.

Click on Proceed to start the upgrade process. Depending on the size of your WordPress blog and your connection speed, this process could take upwards of 10 minutes or more. During this time, do not refresh or close your browser window.

WP Connection Info

You will know that the upgrade process is complete because the browser window will refresh and you will see a message that the upgrade was successful (or errors if it was not).

WP Successful Upgrade

Click on the Dashboard link, and at the bottom right of the page you should see the new version number for WordPress. Your WordPress blog is now updated.

Links to other information

Official WordPress documentation – http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page
WordPress Support Forums – http://wordpress.org/support/
Google search for WordPress themes – http://www.google.com/search?q=wordpress+themes

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