Applicable Plans - eApps Cloud Hosting Plans (eApps templates only)

User Guide - WordPress

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 Machine. 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.

32-bit template for WordPress

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

WordPress Plugins and Themes
Adding a Plugin
Adding WordPress Themes

Upgrading WordPress
Manual Upgrade
Automatic Upgrade

Links to other information

32-bit template for WordPress

If you are starting with a small resource footprint (typically, less than 1024 MB of RAM), then you may want to consider using the 32-bit template for WordPress - CentOS 5.x 32bit Wordpress, Control Panel (eApps)

The 32-bit templates require less memory to run the operating system, meaning that more memory is available for your applications. WordPress can be fairly memory intensive, so using the 32-bit template in a smaller plan can improve the performance of your site.

With the 32-bit templates, you can easily upgrade your resources if you find yourself outgrowing your original plan. Please see the User Guide: Upgrade/Downgrade for more information.

If you have already set up a Virtual Machine using a 64-bit template, and want to move to a 32-bit template, please contact Billing for more information. A new VM will be created for you, and you will need to move your site and data to the new VM. If desired, eApps Support can do the move for you as a billable service.

If you have just purchased a Virtual Machine using a 64-bit template, but realize that a 32-bit template would be better suited to your needs, please contact Billing. If you have no data on the Virtual Machine, it is a simple matter to rebuild your VM with the correct template.

Installing WordPress

To run WordPress, you will have to have PHP and MySQL installed.

Instructions on how to install and manage applications are in the User Guide: Installing and Managing Applications in the Control Panel - http://support.eapps.com/control_panel_eapps/app_manager.

You will also need to set up a virtual host in Apache. See the User Guide: Creating Websites - http://support.eapps.com/control_panel_eapps/webserver for more information.

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 Server and PhpMyAdmin installed.

Activating WordPress for your sites

WordPress has to be activated on a per-Virtual Host basis after installation. This is done so that you can control which Virtual Hosts 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 Virtual Host, click on System > Website Management. Then click on Existing virtual hosts. Click on the hand/globe icon for the Virtual Host under which you want to enable WordPress and then click the Applications icon.

You will see the WordPress Application listed here, simply click on the Enable button. This will create the WordPress directory structure under the Document Root for the Virtual Host as well as the associated WordPress database.

If you Disable WordPress after Enabling it, you will wipe out the existing configuration and database, essentially wiping out any entries for the WordPress blog and setting it back to the default state that it was in when it was installed.

Logging in to WordPress as the Admin user

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

This takes you to the WordPress > Installation screen. Enter your Site Title and Username, Password and 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.

This will do the final installation of WordPress on your Virtual Machine. This step writes the database tables and sets up the file system for WordPress in the DocumentRoot of the site. As part of the installation process, you will also receive an e-mail from your new WordPress blog at the e-mail address you provided during the initial setup letting you know that the installation was successful.

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).

In the Username field, type in admin (this value may already be pre-populated). In the Password field, enter your 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.

If you’ve lost or forgotten your password, click on Lost your password? You will need to enter the e-mail address you used when you installed WordPress, and a way to change the password will be sent to you via e-mail.

Once you are logged in to the WordPress Dashboard, take the time to familiarize yourself with all the available options. From the Dashboard, you create new blog posts, manage users, add plugins and themes, and configure all the settings for your blog. Please see the official WordPress Documentation for more information on using the Dashboard.

Changing the Default WordPress URL

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

In the file system, the files are located at /home/webadmin/eapps-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://eapps-example.com or at an alias such as http://eapps-example.com/blog, you will need to make changes in the Control Panel under the System menu > Website Management.

Changing the DocumentRoot

Changing the DocumentRoot will allow the WordPress blog to be available at eapps-example.com instead of eapps-example.com/wordpress.

To change the DocumentRoot, click on the icon for the Virtual Host where you have enabled WordPress, and in the Virtual Server Options screen, click the Edit Directives icon. Find the line for the DocumentRoot (it is usually the first line in the file), which will look like this:

Change the line to look like this:

(Of course, make sure to substitute your site admin user for webadmin if different, and your domain for eapps-example.com)

Click Save to save the changes, and then click on Apply Changes at the top of the screen to restart the Apache web server. Now the WordPress blog is available at http://eapps-example.com or http://www.eapps-example.com

Adding an Alias

To set an Alias for your WordPress blog, such as http://eapps-example.com/blog, click on the Aliases and Redirects icon and configure the option for Document directory aliases with the following:

From /blog    To /home/webadmin/eapps-example.com/html/wordpress

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

Click Save to save the changes, and then click on Apply Changes. Now the WordPress blog is available at http://eapps-example.com/blog or http://www.eapps-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/

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 also 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 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 and configured.

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 Now link. Click that link if you want to install this plugin. You will get a popup window saying Are you sure you want to install this plugin?.

Click OK – the next screen that appears is Connection Information. On this screen, enter the Hostname of your Virtual Host, the Username and Password.

• Hostname – the domain name of your Virtual Host, such as eapps-example.com

• Username – this is the admin user for actual site on the Virtual Machine, not the WordPress admin user. In most cases, this user is webadmin.

• Password – this is the password for the site admin user, not for the WordPress admin user.

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.

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 Choose File 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 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/eapps-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 gives you a link to install all available themes.

You can install a theme by clicking on the Install Themes tab above the Current Theme name and description. Here you can install “Featured” themes, “Newest” themes or themes with specific features. You can also upload a theme from this page.

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 Editor 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 the Install Themes tab. Here you can Search for a theme by Term, 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, you can click Preview to preview the theme or 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 Virtual Machine, the Username and Password.

• Hostname – the domain name of your Virtual Host, such as eapps-example.com

• Username – this is the admin user for actual site on the Virtual Machine, not the WordPress admin user. In most cases, this user is webadmin.

• Password – this is the password for the site admin user, not for the WordPress admin user.

Leave the selection for Connection Type as FTP.

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 Choose File 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

There are several options available to upgrade WordPress: Control Panel, Automatic Upgrade, and Manual Upgrade.

Control Panel

eApps will offer the latest versions of WordPress as an upgrade through the Control Panel > Applications. If there is a new version of WordPress available, there will be an Update Available link to the right of WordPress in the Installed Applications list.

However, please be aware that at times the version available from eApps will lag behind the version available from WordPress for a few days to a week. In other words, if WordPress releases a new version on a Monday, it may be the following Monday (or later) before eApps has this version available for installation.

This is because the new version has to be packaged so that it will install from the Control Panel, and it also has to be tested to verify that the upgrade takes place without any problems. All of this has to be done manually. Once this has been done, the new version will be made available.

Automatic Upgrade

Recent versions of WordPress have an Automatic Upgrade feature. Depending on which version of WordPress that you are on, you can either click on the Tools link in the left navigation menu and then on Upgrade, or click on the main Dashboard navigation link on the left of the page and then on Update.

The newest versions of WordPress will have a yellow bar at the top of the WordPress Admin Dashboard letting you know that an upgrade is available. The yellow bar shows the new version available, and a link to Please update now. If you click on that, you will be taken to the WordPress Updates screen.

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 is the one relevant to eApps customers.

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 Virtual Host, the Username and Password.

• Hostname – the domain name of your Virtual Host, such as eapps-example.com

• Username – this is the admin user for actual site on the Virtual Machine, not the WordPress admin user. In most cases, this user is webadmin.

• Password – this is the password for the site admin user, not for the WordPress admin user.

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.

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).

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.

Manual Upgrade

If you are doing manual upgrades of WordPress, you are working outside of eApps Support, and any assistance required may be considered billable work.

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

Please read the instructions carefully, and read them all the way through before attempting the upgrade. Upgrading WordPress manually is not a trivial process, and is generally only done by very advanced users who are very familiar with the internals of how WordPress works.

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/.

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