A Web Developer’s Process
While there are simple single-click installation options on most servers nowadays for installing WordPress, these obfuscate important details of the installation process that you should understand.Using single-click installations without knowing how the application really works is dangerous if you become dependent upon a site and later cannot properly maintain, backup, restore, and repair it when it breaks.
It is incumbent upon you as a designer-developer and webmaster to truly understand all the ins-and-outs of how WordPress works, troubleshooting WP, managing the files and database, and ensuring that you always have full backups at all times and know how to restore them.
That being said, below are tutorials laid out in distinct phases that will help you understand all of the important steps in installing and backing up a WordPress site….
Video Tutorial Outline
- Setting Up the File System (11:32 min)
- Downloading current WP version
- Uploading to server via cPanel’s File Manager
- Uploading via FTP client
- Renaming ‘wordpress’ folder
- Creating the Database and it’s Database User Account via cPanel (16:22 min)
- Creating a database (DB) using cPanel MySQL tools
- Creating a DB User account using cPanel MySQL tools
- Assigning DB User privileges to DB using cPanel MySQL tools
- Viewing DB in phpMyAdmin
- Navigating phpMyAdmin
- Difference between your ‘localhost’ computer vs. cloud database server’s ‘localhost’
- Walking Through the WordPress Automated Installation Process (35:00 min)
- Starting the process…generation of wp-config.php file
- Collecting your credentials and applying them
- Setting the table prefix and security concerns
- Looking at phpMyAdmin to understand stages of the installation
- Creating the first WordPress Administrator account and how it’s different from DB User
- Seeing how phpMyAdmin can help you learn MySQL queries
- Setting up ‘WP Example Content’ plugin
- Changing site name and permalink settings
- Changing and recovering passwords
- Administratively resetting user passwords via phpMyAdmin in case of emergency recovery
- Understanding Core vs. Unique Files in WP and Backing Everything Up (33:00 min)
- wp-config.php
- .htaccess
- wp-content folder
- core files = everything else (never modify!)
- Backing up files in file system via cPanel File Manager
- Date stamping files
- Limitations of FTP and File Manager
- Backing up database via cPanel and phpMyAdmin
- Basic understanding of .sql backup file
- Backing up ENTIRE cPanel home directory (including DBs)
