One of the first things that you will need to do is expand on your home directory web space.

So far it houses the static HTML files that you have created with Dreamweaver. It’s time to move to the next level and set up one of the most ubiquitous Content Management Systems on the web today. It is a tool called WordPress.

You will notice a number of differences working with WordPress and one of the most significant is that your content is stored in a database while the files that determine the look and feel of your site need to live in your home directory. Special files called PHP files give instructions to the Web server to retrieve particular material from the database and HTML is created on demand as pages are requested by the user. This is very different to what you have experienced creating all of the HTML for yourself. The pages you have created so far in the course are called STATIC pages. When the HTML is created on demand as users click links we say that the page is DYNAMIC. This is very different to what you have done so far. Fortunately, the WordPress software takes care of a lot of this for us.

It also goes into the realms of programming and we don’t want to spend too much time there, as this is not a programming course.

There is an extra layer of complexity for us working inside a school though. Your Web server is not directly connected to the Internet. It connects to the Internet through both a school gateway and an Education Department gateway and that can cause us some issues here inside the classroom.

Fortunately, the database has already been set up for you. The nerdy side of things is that you will need to connect to our Web server in the IT Office and give a few commands at the command line to set up WordPress, specifically in your server home directory. The worksheet for this is available here. (Or in the shop, where today we have a VERY special price for the viewers). It’s actually much easier when you are connected to the Internet directly, or when you run your site on someone else’s commercial server (hosted sites).

We will walk through this installation in class and it should take less than a lesson to have WordPress installed in your web space on the school server. This is additional to the Dreamweaver work you have already done.

It is VERY IMPORTANT that you write down all usernames and passwords that you create and use in this process. I cannot look up passwords (as they are stored in an encrypted format) so there is no way that I’ll be able to look them up for you. In addition, the mail system on your server is not enabled as a security measure for the school. This means that the password and password reset functionality (which sends you links to your email which are used to reset your password) is not available to us here in the course. It also means that some “Leave a Message” functionality will not work, if it requires sending mail from a web form.

I can reset passwords (if you need) to something that we agree upon – but this is quite messy. Please just remember your passwords! To get started you need your Linux username and password from the start of the course. (It’s the one you used in the Dreamweaver’s Site Manager to make Dreamweaver connect to the remote web server and upload your files from the home directory to the server.)

You may wish to copy and paste some of the lines from the text below, or from the Word document, to ensure that you don’t miss any spaces or dots. Computers are not at all intelligent and will do exactly what you tell them to. They insist that instructions are correct to the letter!

~ THESE INSTRUCTIONS ONLY WORK AT SCHOOL! ~

If wordpress.melba.vic.edu.au:8181 does not work, substitute the numbers 10.132.232.96

In WINDOWS Explorer, navigate to 
"StudentShared:\_ICT Support\Software\".

Double Click putty.exe. 
Type in the HOST NAME (10.132.232.96) and 
click the OPEN button.

Accept the server host key, 
(Click the Continue to Website/Add exception options)

Enter your Linux (web server) username, then press ENTER

Enter your Linux (web server) password 
(nothing will appear on screen, just keep typing)

```
Type “cd ./public_html”
```

Type 
cp ../../wordpress-6.6.2-en_AU.tar.gz . 
(include the dot at the end - then press [ENTER].)

Type ls [ENTER] to see the red file you just copied

Type tar xfvz wordpress [TAB], and press [ENTER]

```
su [ENTER]
```
```
qwerty [ENTER[
```
```
Type cd ./wordpress [ENTER]
```

Copy the text below and paste it into your command window, 
preferably one line at a time.:

 chown apache:apache -R *
 find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
 find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
 chgrp apache .
 chmod g+w .

Press [ENTER]

In a new tab on your web browser, go to 
http://wordpress.melba.vic.edu.au:8181/~USER/wordpress 
where USER is your Linux username.

```
Database: tw10-15
```
```
MySQL database username: tw10
```

MySQL database password: is given in class

```
MySQL hostname: 127.0.0.1
```

Add your student ID and an underscore in front of the wp_

 As an example, I might be wal0999_wp_

Continue to follow the prompts and have FUN!

Use your school username and password to be 
the administrator of your site, and also 
TICK BOTH the “Use weak password” 
and “Discourage Search Engines” boxes.

FINALLY copy and paste the following to your 
command prompt, one line at a time.
   chown username:username -R *
   chown apache:apache wp-content

DO NOT alter the “Permalinks” setting in your main dashboard, after logging into your WordPress installation.

That’s it – now the fun begins.