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UsingXAMPPforLocalWordPressThemeDevelopment

Using XAMPP for Local WordPress Theme Development

By Jacob Gube

In this tutorial, youll learn how to install and con gure XAMPP for the desktop. Once thats out of the
way, well install WordPress so that you can have your very own professional, light-weight PHP and
WordPress development environment.

Introduction
To sum it up in one sentence: XAMPP, which stands for Cross-Platform (X) Apache, MySQL, PHP
and Perl, is a popular, free and open source web server package that you can use to install a web
server onto your desktop.

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XAMPP allows you to develop PHP and Perl-based server-side scripting applications without
the need for a remote web server, offering you the opportunity to work faster, develop stuff
more securely, and work on your apps without an internet connection.
In this tutorial youll see exactly how XAMPP can do splendid things to your development
cycles.
Were going to use a simple xampple (sorry, I had to get that out of the way, been thinking about
saying that for a long time): were going to install XAMPP and WordPress with some test data to
have WordPress right on our desktop.
This tutorial is for Windows Vista, so youll have to tweak the steps involved depending on your
operating system. Heres what youll be doing in this tutorial:

Objectives
Downloading and Installing XAMPP
Starting up your Apache and MySQL services
Installing and con guring WordPress locally
Creating a MySQL database for WordPress
Creating a MySQL database user for WordPress in phpMyAdmin
Importing some test data for WordPress using an XML le
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This tutorial covers installing XAMPP in Windows Vista, so youll have to tweak the steps a little
bit if youre using a different operating system.

Obtaining XAMPP and choosing a version

1 Obtain a copy of XAMPP for Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X at the apache friends XAMPP web
page.

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

2 Choose the package you want: for normal web development, just go with the Basic Package.
The Basic Package comes with a host of useful applications, libraries, and extensions such as
phpMyAdmin (which well use to set up WordPress later on) and eAccelerator (a popular PHP
caching application to optimize and improve PHP script performance). For this tutorial, choose
the Installer version.
Download it (Save File) onto your computer.
3 Open up the executable (for Windows users, its called xampp-win32-1.7.1-installer.exe).

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The following gure shows the rst dialog box; it asks you to select which language you want to
use.

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The next dialog youll see is the rst page of the XAMPP Setup Wizard.

4 Pick a destination for the installation.

Note: XAMPP suggests not to install it in the Program Files folder (i.e. C:\Program
Files\xampp), so just install it in the root of your drive (C:\xampp)
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5 Con gure your options in the XAMPP Options dialog box. For this tutorial, just go with the
default installation options.

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Thats it for the installation, quick and painless wasnt it? Lets re up Apache and MySQL.

Starting up your Apache and MySQL services

6 After the installation, you shouldve been presented with an option that asks you to open the
XAMPP Control Panel. If you didnt get that option, do one of the following:

Option 1: Navigate to it using the Windows interface

Start > All Programs > Apache Friends > XAMPP > XAMPP Control Panel

Option 2: Open the XAMPP Control Panel directly

If you didnt select the "Create Shortcut" option in the installation, then navigate to the XAMPP
installation folder and open the le called xampp-control.exe.

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7 The XAMPP Control Panel should look like the following gure:

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8 Click the Start button beside Apache. If youre on Windows, youll get a Windows Firewall
warning: choose Unblock.

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9 If all goes well, you should see the XAMPP Control Panel log updated with "Apache Started",
and "Running" with a green background right beside the Apache service.

10 Start the MySQL service using the same method as step 8.

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Testing to see if it works

11 With your Apache and MySQL services started, open up a web browser and navigate to
localhost using the following path:

http://localhost

12 You should see the following screen:

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Congratulations, you now have your very own locally hosted (localhost) web server!
Depending on your operating system, youre now the proud owner of a WAMP (Windows
users), MAMP (Mac OS X users) or LAMP (badass Linux users) server right there inside your
computer.
Now lets move onto installing WordPress on your machine. First, were going to set up your
WordPress MySQL database and create a MySQL database user for it. Thats the topic for the
next section.

Setting up your MySQL database for WordPress

The easiest way to create a MySQL database using XAMPP would be to use phpMyAdmin,
which comes with the Basic Package that we installed.
13 Navigate to phpMyAdmin through your web browser. The URL is:

http://localhost/phpmyadmin/

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14 Create your WordPress database by entering in a name and pressing the Create button.
In this tutorial, well call it wordpress_db. Youll need to remember this value for a later step
when we con gure WordPress.

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This is what the following screen will look like:

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Creating a WordPress database user

In real-world scenarios, you should never use the default root user because it has all privileges
and you dont want a simple WordPress bug or vulnerability taking down your entire MySQL
service.
This isnt necessary if youre only testing locally, but were going to do this right to promote best
practices.
15 Go to phpMyAdmin home by either clicking on the logo on the top left or clicking on the
home icon.

16 Click on the Privileges tab.

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17 Click on "Add a New User"

18 For the User name eld, type in any name, this tutorial uses wordpress_user for simplicity.
For Host, select Local.
For Password, type in a value, but its highly recommended that you use the Generate
Password button to randomly generate a password for better security.
Once you hit the Generate Password button, click on Copy button right beside it to copy it
automatically in the Password and Re-type elds.
Important: take a note of the User name and Password you used, well be using it later on.

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19 Set the Global Privileges of wordpress_user. Typically, you should try to limit the privileges
of your database users to a minimum to improve security.
For this example, since its a local installation just check all of them. When you go into
production, pare down the privileges!
Hit the Go button to create the database user.

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20 If everything went well, youll see a con rmation that youve created the user successfully.

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Adding your newly created user to your database

21 In the next screen, in the Database-speci c privileges eldset, in the Add privileges on the
following database eld, select wordpress\_db.
This will add wordpress_user as a database user of your wordpress table, wordpress_db.

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22 Check that wordpress_user has been added to the database by entering your database.
To enter your database, click on wordpress_db in the left-hand navigation.
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23 Click the Privilege tab to see all users that have access to your WordPress database. You
should see wordpress_user listed in the Privilege section.

Alright, youve just learned how to create a MySQL database user using phpMyAdmin. Give
yourself a pat in the back before moving on!
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Installing WordPress on your computer

If youre not familiar with the process of installing WordPress, you should take a look at the
following guide on the of cial WordPress.org site rst:
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Installing WordPress
This guide will get you up and running with the general process that well be taking. Please take
a moment and read it I promise, itll be quick and painless.
24 Download the latest version of WordPress, save it on your computer.
25 Open your xampp folder. Navigate to the htdocs folder.
If you used the default installation destination, the le path is:

C:\xampp\htdocs

26 Open up the WordPress ZIP le you downloaded. Extract the entire contents in the htdocs
folder.

Con guring WordPress: entering your MySQL database information

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27 Inside the wordpress folder, open wp-con g-sample.php le using your favorite text editor.
Fill in the information with your database information. If you followed along and used the same
values as this tutorial, you can use these values:
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/** The name of the database for WordPress */

define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress_db');
/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', 'wordpress_user');
/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'typeyourpasswordhere');
/** MySQL hostname */
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');

28 Once youre done with the con guration le, save it as wp-con g.php in the same folder.
Note: You have to save it as wp-con g.php and not wp-con g-sample.php.

Running the WordPress install script

29 To nish the installation of WordPress, navigate to the install script. Heres the le path:

http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php

30 If you did everything correctly, you should be greeted by the following screen:

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31 Just hit the Install WordPress button, and follow the steps. If this is your rst WordPress
installation, read the steps of the installation dialog carefully as we wont be covering it here in
detail.

Testing to see if your WordPress installation works

32 Navigate to the home page of your WordPress installation. The le path is:

http://localhost/wordpress/

If everything went well, you should see the default WordPress home page:

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Important: take a note of the auto-generated password or else you wont be able to log into
WordPress.

WordPress local installation completed!

Woot, you just installed WordPress on your computer! No more FTPing or live web
development! You can now test your themes or test site updates before going live.
At this stage, you can log into the WordPress administration section:

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http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin

Alternatively, you can continue in the tutorial (because were not done yet).
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Next, were going to import some test data which you should do when youre developing
WordPress themes to be released to the public.

Importing WordPress test data

33 Download the WordPress XML le from the of cial WordPress.org site. You can get it
through the Theme Development Checklist (which is a great guide by the way), under the
Theme Unit Test section.
Heres the direct download link:

http://svn.automattic.com/wpcom-themes/test-data.2008-12-22.xml

34 Log into the WordPress administration section:

http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin

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35 In the WordPress admin section, go to Tools > Import (using the sidebar navigation on
version 2.7).

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36 In the Import page, click on WordPress.

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37 Browse to the XML le we downloaded (test-data.xxxx-xx-xx.xml).

Hit the Upload le and Import button.

38 Assign the authors of the post. The XML le created a testing author named Noel Jackson
for you.
If
youREVISIONS
dont want to assign Menu
the test posts to Noel Jackson, use the or map to existing eld and
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select the author you want. For this tutorial, assign it to admin.

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Click the Submit button.

39 Youll be presented with a log of all the changes made by the import process. Examine it if
you want to see exactly what happened.

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40 Check to see if the import went according to plan. Easiest way is to go to the home page of
your WordPress installation (http://localhost/wordpress).
41 In the home page, youll see that theres now content for your WordPress installation. This
way you can easily check and test your theme for public release.

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Youre done, you professional PHP/WordPress developer!

Now you can develop WordPress themes and test changes locally on your computer, just like
the pros, not only speeding up your development cycles, but also being able to securely test
updates to your existing themes.

Where to go from here

Here are things you should try and do to explore XAMPP:

Try to install a free WordPress theme

Go toREVISIONS
the WordPress
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Menu
Themes
section for themes youd like to try out. Alternatively, check out
our lists of free WordPress themes: Excellent Free WordPress Themes and Beautiful Free
WordPress Themes.

Create a new site

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Create a folder under the xampp > htdocs and put some test PHP scripts in it. As you can see,
you dont need a web server anymore, you have a fully-featured MySQL and PHP server right
there in your computer. Go develop some cool web applications!

Explore additional XAMPP add-ons

There are a good number of XAMPP add-ons for you to extend your local web server. Check
them out and install the ones you need. Go to either the Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X
download pages to see a list of add-ons you can install.

Summary
In this tutorial, you just learned how easy it is to install XAMPP to the desktop so that you can
have your very own PHP web development testing server. More speci cally, this is what we did
together:
Installed XAMPP
Started the Apache and MySQL Services
Created a MySQL database
Created a MySQL database user
Installed and con gured WordPress
Imported some test data

Further resources
Install WordPress On Your Mac Using MAMP on Free Mac Blog.
Installing XAMPP on Linux called Install XAMPP for easy, integrated development.
Learn more about XAMPP in the apache friends xampp home page.
Discover phpMyAdmin and how to use it in the phpMyAdmin of cial site.

Report a bug or provide some feedback, why dont you?

Feel free to provide feedback and ask questions (lots of them!) in the comments. Mistakes
happen so please let us know if we made a mistake or you see an error.

Related content
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30 Excellent WordPress Video Tutorials

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6 Tips to Help You Get the Most Out of Google Docs
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Related categories: Tutorials, Web Development, WordPress
This was published on Apr 26, 2009

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464 Comments

Raymond Selda Apr 26 2009

Great article. Very detailed and clear instructions. Learned a lot on the WordPress part. I prefer
to use wampserver though. Thank you

Jan Seidl Apr 26 2009

Nice tutorial, very well detailed.
Keep up!

Jacob Gube Apr 26 2009

Let me know how I can improve these tutorials. Were still just starting out with this new stepby-step tutorial format here on Six Revisions, and any feedback, good or bad, would help us
improve this format and get it to where its perfect.
@Raymond Selda: Heard good things about wampserver, but I thought Id do a tutorial on
something I use and something thats cross-platform (Mac OS, Windows, Linux).

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Callum Chapman Apr 26 2009

very detailed tutorial, cant quite think of anything that could improve it! must have taken a
while to put together! thanks :)
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cah cepu Apr 26 2009

wow, very detailed tutorial
XAMPP is easy to use for me as newbie web designer
thanks for share Mr. Gube :-)

Jacob Gube Apr 26 2009

@Callum Chapman: It did take a while, for the amount of time I spent on this, I could have
written 4 regular articles instead. But, Ive committed to providing useful information about
web development and design and that involves publishing, step-by-step tutorials.
Its great that Im getting help from some of the top tutorial writers out there though Tyler
Denis, from Denis Designs just sent me a preview of the layout tutorial that hes working on and
we should be posting that sometime in the next week; Ill be following that up with a Photoshop
to XHTML/JavaScript tutorial so that you can see the process from mocking up a design to
actually getting a template up and running. In the meantime, I already have his rst tutorial
(graphic design related) scheduled for this week.
Matthew Heidenreich from PSDVIBE sent me tutorial #2, another awesome web layout in
Photoshop tutorial to follow-up his rst tutorial: How to Create a Sleek and Textured Web
Layout in Photoshop.
Im working hard to garner these talented tutorial writers for you guys, and its an uphill battle
to nd quality writers that t the style of Six Revisions but Im really excited to be moving in
this direction, and I hope you are too!
@cah cepu: Yep, the name is intimidating (XAMPP an acronym, which turns off web designers)
but if you follow along, youll see that theres really nothing to it. Glad you liked it!

Kawsar Ali Apr 26 2009

Wow , jacob very nice detailed tutorial. Thanks for sharing

James Robertsib Apr 26 2009

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Wow thats got me up and running very fast thank you very much :)

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Jacob Gube Apr 26 2009

By the way, 4 (in my previous comment) is an exaggeration not to be taken literally, what I
meant to say was like 4 articles, just to emphasize how the tutorial format really does take a
while to write. My time log says this took 6 hours to write; screenshots are a pain any tips for
a Windows user is appreciated; And no, I wont accept switch to a Mac/Linux! :)
@James Robertsib: Awesome, the tutorials only been up for a few hours! Let us know how it
goes as you explore XAMPP a bit more, alright?

Azad Apr 26 2009

That is exactly how I set up my development server. I have been using XAMPP for 4 years now
and it is really good for setting up personal dev servers.

Michael Mogill Apr 26 2009

Excellent tutorial! Ive been using XAMPP for Web Development for quite some times. It was
interesting to learn how to use it in conjunction with WordPress. Thanks Jacob!

Matt Apr 26 2009

Im a wampserver user as well, but I think I might move over to XAMPP to have the perl
functionality. And the control panel appears more user-friendly than the wampservers list that
appears when you click the tray icon.
Thanks for sharing, coincidentally has just downloaded WordPress prior to reading to take a
crack at hosting through localhost, so it was well timed. Well written and explained, too.

Jacob Gube Apr 26 2009

@Matt: Good deal, let us know how that goes. Its great for messing around with WordPress
themes since youre not editing live, you dont have to worry about password-protecting your
development
site and robots.txt
Menu and FTPing and well, you get the picture (though you can do
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that as well with wampserver).

Rizal Apr 27 2009

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yes, i love to use XAMPP .

but, there is some differences between using internet and local server in case you use
WordPress.
I dont know but I can edit my permalink in my localhost server if I install WordPress on it.
is there any ideas?

cookoo Apr 27 2009

Other than this 1 guy in the #xampp irc channel I havent been able to nd much xampp speci c
help forums in the 4 months Ive been using it. But its not like I had any deal-breaking problems
with it.

Artem Russakovskii Apr 27 2009

@Jacob
re: screenshots are a pain in Windows. I encourage you to try TechSmiths SnagIt. Absolutely
amazing tool for screenshots, plus it has a small very useful inline editor for quick edits or
adding things like arrows, boxes, highlights, etc.
http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp
Im not af liated with them in any way I just love the tool.
Artem

Roderick Apr 27 2009

Nice and detailed tut for those scared of XAMPP, good job.
It might be bene cial if you also mention XAMPP Lite, that is the same thing but, well
lighter It doesnt need installation, just copy to a directory, and not only is smaller in size but
you can use it in a ash drive. Developer Server whatever you are.
Ive been using XAMPP for a while now, but since I found WampServer I stopped with it,
because (at least in my opinion) WS is smaller, has less les, loads faster and the speed of PHP
and MySQL is better. So try both before you start making too many changes.
Cheers.
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Usman Apr 27 2009

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Really detailed tutorialz, this is exactly what i am looking for websites offering guidance /
lessons. Keep posting and i make sure that i keep on reading it :D.

PelFusion Apr 27 2009

yes! this is very quick to deal with
thanks

Francesco Giossi Apr 27 2009

Excellent tutorial!
I use something like this!
Even if Im an old-school-windows-dude, I prefer to develop wordpress websites on a Linux
machine, so I use:
vmware server (which is free)
ubuntu 8.04 (running in vmware server)
xampp running over ubuntu
I connect to phpmyadmin using http://192.168.221.128 (which is a subnet created by vmware),
managing the les using a ftp client (like lezilla or similar).
I still have to nd something more usefull to manage the MySql database, but so far Im happy
wth this con guration.
Why do I do that? First, because wordpress runs better on a plinux-php scenario. Second, I dont
want to introduce garbage on a windows con guration.
Dont get me wrong, I dont consider linux and apache as garbage! Its just that I prefer to work
as I described :p

Catuira Apr 27 2009

wow this the answer to my long time problem! thanks!

Tao Apr 27 2009

You can also point the MySQL database con g in the local XAMPP wordpress at your live
database on the web too!

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That means that if you work with custom elds or a certain way of working in WordPress that
will all be available to you in XAMPP

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Jacob Gube Apr 27 2009

@Francesco Giossi: Theres no such thing as an old-school Windows dude, Windows is alive and
well. Though I cant say anything positive about Internet Explorer, I think Windows is well done
and provides you with the least headaches in terms of software/hardware compatibility, has the
best price vs. performance (well that goes for both Linux-based and Windows-based machines),
and mimics a set-up that your client most probably has (Windows/PC).
Great tip and thank you for sharing your process with us a virtual machine is a good idea if
youre production server is a LAMP server.
@Tao: You de nitely can, especially if youre just doing site update testing so that you can
simulate your current content in your local machine.

Sam G. Daniel Apr 27 2009

Great tutorial. Are you planning on writing one for the Mac using XAMPP or MAMP?

joyologo design shop 2.0 Apr 27 2009

i like to use XAMPP for wordpress theme designs. thanks for the helpful article..

Jacob Gube Apr 27 2009

@Sam G. Daniel: Possibly in the future but the general steps in this tutorial is still applicable
to Macs using XAMPP; installing it, starting up your Apache/MySQL services, creating your
WordPress database and database user, etc.

Dan Apr 27 2009

I have found that XAMPP to be dif cult to make con g changes to the PHP,MySQL and Apache
installs, especially to do things like con gure mod_rewrite.
I prefer WAMP Server if Im using a Windows box. (http://www.wampserver.com/en/), which is
a lot easier to use and allows you to change con guration on the y through an easy system tray
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Omar Apr 27 2009

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You should do a follow up on migrating to a online host. It can be a real headache sometimes.

True George Apr 27 2009

Thats a nice detailed tutorial even non-techies understand!

Binny V A Apr 27 2009

I am using Linux I prefer installing the LAMP stack myself instead of using a prebuilt solution
like XAMPP.
Also, XAMPP may be the recommended software but there are a few alternatives

Jacob Gube Apr 27 2009

@Dan: WAMP Server is a very popular choice no doubt. I do, however, wanted to do a tutorial
on a (x)AMP stack so that people who use other operating systems can still bene t from the
tutorial. But yeah, WAMP Servers awesome.
@True George: Great to hear!
@Omar: Theres so many variables to that, that it would be hard to come up with a silver-bullet
solution to local host->remote host migration. I guess I could do the general steps (db export,
import, etc.) and maybe do it speci cally for WordPress to make it a bit more speci c.
@Binny V A: Great resource youve shared there, people should check out that page if theyre
still deciding on an option.

Tanchuvt Apr 27 2009

Thanks for the helpful tut. im use XAMPP right now

Madhav Parashar Apr 28 2009

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Hi,

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Very detailed tutorial but I think its more easy to use on WAMP. I am using XAMPP and WAMP
both. WAMP is more user friendly than XAMPP.
Madhav
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sagara Apr 28 2009

thx man. u save my life =)

Jonny W Apr 29 2009

what a fantastic tutorial, thank you!!

Adeyeye Apr 29 2009

thanks. the article came right on time. I been hearing a lot about wordpress and this got me
started.

Jeff Apr 30 2009

hello.. i was able to install everything on my pc now.. i was wondering if you have a tutorial how
to install it in LAN>?? thnaks so much

Rob jaudon Apr 30 2009

Jacob,
Thank you so much for putting in the time for this guide. I am a Pixelpost user and I have been
thinking about moving to something new. I have looked at WordPress before but never ran into
a step by step guide like this. This ROCKS!!!!!! You rock!!!!!! Your site rocks!!!!
I am no designer by any stretch of your imagination but I love to get behind the scenes and play
around. With your guide and a little virtual development environment I will be on my way to
creating my new photoblog! Thanks again.
Question: not sure how to do this but whenever I am done developing the new site how would I
transfer it to my webserver? Is that a simple process?

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adam16ster Apr 30 2009

i second omars suggestion for a quick tut on taking a xampp setup live.

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@tao: right on
great tutlove the content you publish.

mang Apr 30 2009

Hi,
Thanks very much for the tutorial! I agree with Omar Id appreciate some advice on migrating
from local to hosted, and hosted to local too.
Regards,
mang.
PS: I look forward to browsing the rest of this site :)

Jacob Gube Apr 30 2009

@Rob jaudon: Its a simple process. If youre talking about WordPress speci cally, its a basic
export and import. Check this guide out: WordPress Migration in 5 Minutes
@adam16ster and @mangIll see what I can do about that tutorial; If its a WordPress localhost
-> WordPress web server migration, I should be able to do it. Is that what you guys would like to
see?

mang May 01 2009

Hi Jacob,
Yes please! I think there are three things that someone like me who wants to develop a
WordPress site on a localhost needs to know:
1: How to copy localhost to server
2: How to copy server to localhost so that I can safely experiment locally with a copy of the
live site.
3: Key to all that is guidance on how to work safely so that I can make and restore a backup.
I appreciate thats a lot to ask for, but making major changes (eg: a version update) to a live site
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scariest thing when I dont know if anything will break, and even more so when I dont
know how to backup and restore.
Lets see what adam16ster adds to the mix here
Thank you :)
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Luc May 01 2009

Good overview but steps 14 23 can be simpli ed (although probably not without security
implications Im not a server admin =] );
From #14 dont create a database rst when youre in phpmyadmin, go to Priviledges, and
create a user as youve described in #17, but make sure you check Create database with same
name and grant all privileges.
When I rst strated out with XAMPP I ran in to no end of problems with user permissions, and
this seemed the easiest way to deal with it.

Chris May 01 2009

Just a quick note to say this is brilliant I hate trying to set up local versions of sites for testing
and managed to follow your tutorial through very quickly.
Well done, and thanks.

Jacob Gube May 01 2009

@mang: De nitely will use your ideas when I get that tutorial written, thanks for taking the
time to share your feedback!
@Luc: This tutorial can be simpli ed for sure, but I chose to set the process of creating a mySQL
database and mySQL user as one of the learning objectives. Im sure many people whore just
starting out are still confused with regards to creating mySQL users (as I was when I rst
started). If youre just testing locally, you dont even need to set up a database user, you can use
root/no password (as I noted in the tutorial).
As a security precaution: I would name my WordPress user some obscure and random name
(like: oihj32awsj) which will reduce the chances of you getting hacked by brute force. Ive seen
mySQL db users using the site admins email address, or very easy to guess usernames such as
wordpress, and even worse still: root. Thats one reason I dont like using phpMyAdmins
Create database with same name and grant all privileges option.
Thanks for the feedback and
for sharing your method I should have at least mentioned that
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option though.
@Chris: Glad you liked the tutorial and that it helped!

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Suds May 01 2009

Great Tutorial.. Everythings working ne at my end except importing the /test-data.2008-1222.xml le
Imported data working ne with IE but not working well in Firefox (version 3.0.1).. not showing
Description.. only Titles are there..
Do you know wts the problem..
Thanks for the tutorial again.

Prescott Linux May 02 2009

Linux is the way to roll, WordPress is also a great blogging platform!

Alvaris Falcon May 04 2009

This is so far the best tutorial for absolute WordPress beginner like me, thanks for the sharing!

Leo May 08 2009

Just like to say that this was an informative post, more of these kind of posts would help the
greater audience in my opinion.
By the way i would like to suggest the issue of UPGRADING WORDPRESS. At present there is
not step by step so to speak regarding it.
Thanks again for the post.

Kakasab May 09 2009

Fantastic tutorial, was lookin XAMPP and SQL since last few days. thanks again dear.

Chris May 09 2009

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Excellent article. I rst looked at the steps and thought oh thats too much. Then I said F it, just
do it. It seriously went awless thanks to your screen shots. It took me less than 30 minutes. Im
using XP and didnt have any issues. Thanks.
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Jacob Gube May 10 2009

@Chris: Awesome! I thought I made it obvious that this shouldnt take you a while, I should have
put a number on it like (will take you 30 minutes). The instructions here are lengthy only
because I want to be very thorough. You can de nitely make shortcuts too, such as not setting
up a WordPress user and using root as your database user. But that whole process seriously
takes like 5 minutes which will make migration later on a bit quicker.

Keith D May 10 2009

Thanks Jacob
Im determined to understand and set up a WordPress site.
Tutotials of this quality give me hope that I can actually do it.
The rst question is XAMPP or WAMP?
Ill go with the XAMPP, which you recommend.
It may be some time, but Ill let you know when my rst WordPress site is up and running.
Many thanks
Keith D

Jacob Gube May 10 2009

@Keith D: Are you using Windows? I did a tutorial on XAMPP because its cross-platform. If
youre lucky enough to be a Windows user (were a dwindling group), I would use WAMP.
Theres really not a whole lot of difference though, so if youve set up XAMPP already, use it. I
use XAMPP now (though I did use WAMP), and I would have to say they do equally well at what
theyre supposed to do.
Yes, please do shoot me an email or leave a comment here when you get your rst WP site up
and running, would love to see your progress!

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Keith D May 10 2009

Thanks for your quick response Jacob.

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I havent set up XAMPP but I probably will because it will allow me to follow your screenshots.
Thanks
Keith D

Jacob Gube May 10 2009

@Keith D: Strictly speaking from experience you cant go wrong with either WAMP or
XAMPP. Check back here if you run into trouble or if there are any confusing parts to the
tutorial. Good luck Keith!

onelargeprawn May 12 2009

This is excellent, thanks indeed. I used the instructions at
http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/06/installing-wordpress-locally-under.html in the
beginning but yours explains it really well.
Ive passed this link onto a friend.

emmei May 13 2009

Hi Mr Gube,
Im at a complete loss as to what Im doing, but Im thankful I found your article. After 6
attempts on 6 different tutorials, this is the only one that actually gave the clearest instructions.
I just have a tiny problem with the nal bit, the importing. WordPress gives me this message:
Unable to create directory /Applications/XAMPP/xampp les/htdocs/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2009/05. Is its parent directory writable by the server?
Did I do something wrong with the creation of my account, like not giving it enough permissions
or something? Im sorry for the trouble, thanks for your time!

Jacob
Gube May 13 2009
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@emmei: Its no trouble emmei, lets work through this together. First: what operating system
are you on?

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Joe May 14 2009

Nice job Jacob!
Thanks a lot!!!!!!

Many May 16 2009

Ive been using xampp lite to install a local web server on my usb drive stick but for an install on
my desktop Ive always been using wampserver. I guess Im gonna give xampp a try.

PTK May 18 2009

Great tutorial!
Im running into the same error message as emmei when trying to upload the test-data.200812-22.xml le:
Unable to create directory /Applications/XAMPP/xampp les/htdocs/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2009/05. Is its parent directory writable by the server?
I am working in Mac OS X. Everything was going great until that point. Where did I go wrong?
-pk

Bryan May 20 2009

Wow, thats a great tutorial. I wish I would have had it ve months ago!
I have a question that perhaps you could make into part 2. I want to take an existing WordPress
database where I have a blog running on the Internet and download it to my local computer in
order to conduct an extensive re-design while leaving the current site up.
Ive tried several tutorials for this but could never make it work.
Thanks.

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Vivekanand May 20 2009

Hi All,

I have written the article, loading wordpress locally in a WAMP Server and Customizing it!,
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please have a look and let me know your feedback.

Test and Customize your WordPress CMS themes locally before launching it
http://www.developersnippets.com/2009/04/15/test-and-customize-your-wordpress-cmsthemes-locally-before-launching-it/

Erik Teichmann May 21 2009

Note to people having Apache start errors:
If you are running Skype, go to Tools->Options->Advanced->Connection and disable the
checkbox to use port 80. Apache wouldnt start, and it was driving me nuts, because Skype was
bogarting the port 80! Hope this helps somebody!
Thanks for the great tutorial!

Barb May 29 2009

Great tutorial, Jacob! Very easy to followI am a total newcomer to WordPress. I followed all
of your directions to a T. I imported the test data to my WP installation; now I want to go back
to the default install and get rid of all the test data. How do I do that? Thanks for the help!

Jacob Gube May 29 2009

@Barb: The best way would be to go into phpMyAdmin, go into your new database (click on the
right hand side navigation, it should be called wordpress_db if you followed the tutorial in full),
then delete all the tables in there. And then run the install script again (Step 29).
Let me know if this was successful or not.

DemoGeek May 29 2009

Any issues with running XAMPP and IIS side-by-side on Windows machines?

Jacob
Gube May 29 2009
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@DemoGeek: Not sure, but theres de nitely an issue with running an IIS server, in general. :)
Im just teasing, Ive been having problems today with Drupal on an IIS server (PHP mail()
function, quite obviously).
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solja May 29 2009

Sweet! Nice tutorial. Thanks for sharing.

Barb May 30 2009

Jacob,
Thanks for the directions on clearing out the test data! I deleted the tables, which actually
deleted the wp_database. So I had to go in and create the database again (step 14). Then I
skipped to step 29 and ran the install. Worked like a charm! Thanks for your help!
Barb

Jacob Gube May 30 2009

@Barb: Oh no, sorry about that maybe my instructions werent clear. You can just delete the
tables inside the database without actually deleting the entire database. For future reference:
this is how you delete tables in phpMyAdmin:
1) Select the database with the tables in the left-hand navigation.
2) Select the table/s that you want to delete by checking the checkbox eld on the tables leftside (right by its name).
3) In the With Selected: drop down, select Drop. If you just want to delete the data inside
the tables, but still keep the tables structure, choose: Empty.
4) Press the Go button on the right of the web page.

Matt Jun 02 2009

This was beautiful Jacob, thank you very much.
I installed this on a VPC running Windows XP. That way I can make changes and save the setup
just in case I make any critical mistakes.
Would you recommend using this as a production evironment? I am having a little trouble
guring out how to secure XAMPP and make my test server available to view on the net.
Thanks again, Matt

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Jacob Gube Jun 02 2009

@Matt: Your VPC running Windows XP as a production environment or the set-up I used in this
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tutorial as a production environment? With regards to the former Ive never encountered that
set-up (VPCs are fairly new and I still use Vista), so I couldnt say for sure.

Anton Jun 04 2009

Cool!

Matt Jun 05 2009

@Jacob: OK, sorry. I mean using the XAMPP/Wordpress as a production environment. Or at
least, how can you make the XAMPP viewable remotely, through the Internet? What do you do?
Thanks!

Sparky Teaching Jun 10 2009

This article helped me out of a x. Thanks. Its a real pain to have to rely on being online to check
the design side of my website and now I dont have to.
Thanks for taking the time to put it all together.

Josh Jun 12 2009

Thanks for a great article. I am now successfully running XAMPP(LITE). There is a problem
around the corner. I am getting VERIZON FIOS installed in a couple of days, and have read that
port 80 will be blocked by VERIZON, hence no local host for me with the present settings.
There is a workaround I believe, but I am not very smart at all this stuff so have not been able to
really understand. Could you please guide in a simple and clear way just like this article? Many
thanks.

Ber2 Jun 14 2009

Great article. Thanks for the
sharing.
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Vikas Jun 16 2009

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This is my rst time i read this article which i just stumpled upon..
I have never seen such a detailed article on anything till now.
YOU ARE THE BEST
I am goin to try and build it now.
I have a small question.
Can u write an article on how to upload wordpress them on free web hosting site like 110mb or
anything. so that some bloggers can use .co.cc domain and have their independent domain
without a single penny.
Many will love it.
and follow the comments via email link plzzzz

Atarki Jun 17 2009

Great article i love it. Thanks alot

ognjen Jun 19 2009

Hi,
good article indeed, very pro i must say!
I have just one question and i would appreciate your feedback.
I just Installed everything ne and im using this for a local wikipedia for a client of mine.
My Problem is: it should to be accessible via the local LAN i can access the URL
server/wordpress and i can see the word press page but as soon as i click on anything on the
page i end up on the Welcome to XAMPP for Windows Version 1.7.1 ! page. I have the same
issue on the local server, i can access the word press admin and start page but as soon as i click
on the header or any other link i get routed to the XAMMP page!
The idea is 5-10 to have 5-10 PCs access this and update there knowledge onto it, but i have
dif culties nding out why the access is not working properly.
Maybe you have an idea!?

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Thanks a lot

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Dler Jun 19 2009

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thanks jacob for the tutorial

i hope that in the ture you upload more tutorials
as a continuation of the rst one for a beginners like me
pleease!!!!!!!

Jacob Gube Jun 19 2009

@Dler: Yes, and in fact there are more and more tutorials on here now. Check out the Tutorials
section, it lists all tutorials for designers and developers. Thanks Dler and I am grateful that you
nd all our efforts useful!

Keith D Jun 21 2009

Hi Jacob
Finally sat down and followed your tutorial went like a dream.
Stopped at Importing WordPress test data and will do that next week.
I now have a local server and can play around with the WordPress Dashboard, I feel like a pro.
Couldnt have done it without your great tutorial and am more interested than ever in
WordPress real content management system.
Now the cheeky part
Any chance that you will be showing us how to turn the default blog into a custom blog and
upload it to a host?
Cant thank you enough.

MH Jun 27 2009
Very nice tutorial Jacob.. really helpful!

RM Jun 30 2009
Dear Jacob:
Menu simple step by step instructions with screen shots that made
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you for your very detailed
installing wordpress locally go smooth. I used xamp lite. I had reached an stage where the
tutorials seemed too technical or are written in such a way that leaves out steps or as if the user
is supposed to know things they dont. Im now on the search for a tutorial as simple to
understand for actually uploading live. Thanks again
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Fadango Jul 01 2009

Unable to create directory /Applications/XAMPP/xampp les/htdocs/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2009/07. Is its parent directory writable by the server?
Using Xampp on the Mac. Any suggestions?

Tia Jul 02 2009

Amazing tutorial! I cant believe you took the time to get so detailed step-by-step like that, but I
appreciate it! Thanks a lot.

Keith D Jul 04 2009

Im with @RM Im now on the search for a tutorial as simple to understand for actually
uploading live.
And I also agree with @Tia I cant believe you took the time to get so detailed step-by-step like
that
The detailed steps are what made it for me but I would like to take the site live.

Keith D Jul 04 2009

Sorry forgot to add this in last comment.
I found this on the webdesignerwall site
http://www.webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/exporting-and-importing-wordpress/
The information is not as detailed as Jacobs, but it is a start.
Ive read through a couple of times and might give it a go.
Or I might wait for Jacobs info always the optomist.

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EvilMammoth Jul 07 2009

This is a great tutorial. Id had a few kinks with a previous install and decided to wipe away
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everything and follow your tutorial from scratch.

As far as I can tell, everything is running great. Thanks again for taking the time to provide a
thorough explanation.

Bobby B Jul 07 2009

Jacob, thanks for the tutorial; this is exactly what I have been looking for to do some WordPress
experimenting.
I got XAMPP and WordPress installed just ne, but I get an error when I try to upload/import
any content:
Unable to create directory /Applications/XAMPP/xampp les/htdocs/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2009/07. Is its parent directory writable by the server?
Can you advise? Ive searched some forums about port con icts, etc to no avail. Thanks so much
for your help.

Jacob Gube Jul 08 2009

@Keith D: Thanks for that comment it took a while to write this out even though the process
itself takes like 20 minutes!
@Bobby B: It looks like several people are having problems with this but I cant seem to
recreate the error. What operating system and version are you using? Vista can be tricky with
permissions sometimes (even though this tutorial did use a Windows Vista machine).

v Jul 10 2009
this explanation saved my week. i cant believe how much trouble i was having setting up a
simple wordpress install. THANK YOU!!

andreas Jul 11 2009

Hi Jacob
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Im yet another one having problem uploading images.

Just like Bobby B I was getting
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content/uploads/2009/07. Is its parent directory writable by the server?

I created the uploads directory and set the permission to 777. The only thing this did was to
change the error text to :
The uploaded le could not be moved to
/Applications/XAMPP/xampp les/htdocs/wordpress/wp-content/uploads.
Im using xampp for mac. Thanks

Dave G Jul 11 2009

I was doinf ok up until the point where I had to log into wordpress. Im using the user name we
set up in the xampp, and then pass word generated from word press but it says invalid user
name. The only thing is I can think of is that im running word press through my webserver with
the same user name, is that perhaps the problem? Thanks!

Dave G Jul 11 2009

oops log in with adminmore coffeealot more

andreas Jul 18 2009

Installed MAMP insted of Xampp for mac and everything works great.

Joel Jul 22 2009

Hey, great info, Im a newbie have no idea what Im doing and been to heaps of other tutorials
but yours has been the best and easiest to follow. I just have one problem, I followed the
tutorial to a t, but when trying to install wordpress at the link http://localhost/wordpress/wpadmin/install.php it comes up saying that it cant select the database. That the username and
password is ok, but that it just cant select the database. I cant gure it out, any help is greatly
appreciated, and keep up the excellent work!

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meenakshi Jul 24 2009

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Hi,
Thanks a lot for writing such an amazing tutorial. It really helped me a lot and saved my time to
understand the entire installation and con guration procedure.
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coder Jul 25 2009

how to delete the wordpress and the database? can give a guideline

Amey Jul 26 2009

For all those that are getting this error and you are on Mac
(Unable to create directory /Applications/XAMPP/xampp les/htdocs/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2009/07. Is its parent directory writable by the server?)
Use Mamp. I was having the problem with Xampp, but now it all works with Mamp.

billyk2373 Jul 27 2009

Hi Jacob
Thanks for taking the time to write such a great, detailed, useful tutorial. Ive been using
wordpress for a few years now and I still have no idea what I did in this installation, but it works!
I had problems running apache during the rst install, but I just uninstalled xampp and
reinstalled it from download.com it worked then.
Thanks again for your help and may the great Buddha of wealth grant you all you wish.
Cheers
Bill

Jacob Gube Jul 27 2009

@billyk2373: A lot of times, re-installing and starting over solves it, thanks for the kind
comments and I hope XAMPP helps you accomplish your tasks quicker.

Keith D Jul 27 2009

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Im up and running with XAMPP and wordpress 2.8.

WordPress 2.8 has an automatic upgrade facility (for upgrading to 2.8.1 or the latest version)
but it doesnt work on my local setup does anyone have any idea why not.
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Or how I can get the automatic upgrade to work.

Andrew Jul 27 2009

Apache wouldnt run for me. The green bar would appear for a second, then disappear. My error
message left nothing.
If youre having this problem, youre probably running Skype. If so, in Skype, go to Tools ->
Options -> Advanced -> Connection and uncheck Use port 80 and 443. If that doesnt help,
this page has some more suggestions. I didnt read them because, obviously, my problem was
xed.

Jacob Gube Jul 28 2009

@Keith D: Off the top of my head, I dont know. I usually upgrade the old way by copy and
pasting the les into the directory, overwriting the old les. I just dont feel comfortable with
3rd party apps being able to write les on my server.
@Andrew: Thank you for sharing your tip, that is very helpful to those who cant get Apache
working!

Aakash Chakravarthy Aug 04 2009

Amazing tutorial! I cant believe you took the time to get so detailed step-by-step like that, but I
appreciate it! Thanks a lot.

Shawn Aug 06 2009

Excellent tutorial! Followed it step-by-step and I am now running WordPress on my computer.
Thanks.

Jacob Gube Aug 06 2009

@Shawn:
Woot! :) Now you
can safely mess around with WordPress all you wish, to re-install,
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just copy a fresh new version of WP in the htdocs folder!

Trunkneck Aug 09 2009

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Thank you a million times over. Worked like a charm. I had tried this once before with no
success, until this one!

MIke Aug 10 2009

Followed your XAMP instructions to the T. All went well till #30 WP cant nd my localhost.
WP has a new version. That the problem?

Jessica Aug 10 2009

How can I make my xampp secure?

Caroline Aug 18 2009

Just to say many thanks for the tutorial, I already had Xampp, but was getting unstuck installing
WordPress to the right place. Reading the rest of the tutorial then saved me a whole load of
groping around in the dark; and it is up and running like a dream. Excellent!

Luis Lopez Aug 18 2009

Hello Jacob and thanks for this excellent tutorial, I just did everything and it looked ok until I
installed wp, I have and error maybe is stupid maybe not, can you help me.
the error:
strtotime() [function.strtotime]: It is not safe to rely on the systems timezone settings. You are
*required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case
you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled
the timezone identi er. We selected Europe/Paris for 2.0/DST instead in
C:\xampp\xampp\htdocs\wordpress\wp-includes\functions.php on line 35
I am using windows vista and Xampp wp 2.8.4 I also have the same error on line 47
Thanks Jacob

Luis
Aug 21 2009Menu
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is ok i found a solution, anyway really thanks for this great tutorial, now I can start really my
wordpress theme development.

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13thREAR Aug 21 2009

Hi, Jacob
Nice Tutorial
BTW, I have problem when using wordpress, i always got warning like this:
Warning: strtotime() [function.strtotime]: It is not safe to rely on the systems timezone
settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the
date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still
getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identi er. We selected
Asia/Krasnoyarsk for 8.0/DST instead in C:\xampp\htdocs\wordpress\wpincludes\functions.php on line 35
Can you tell me where i should x this? This warning is really annoying :( It always showed up
in my post
Thanks before

Edmond Aug 24 2009

Thanksgreat tutorial. I appreciate it a lot since Im getting started on developing. Keep it up.

Cheryl Aug 26 2009

Seriously . . . great tutorial. Clear and easy to understand. Thank you!!!!!!!

Tracy Aug 28 2009

Excellent tutorial for excellent software. Having used xampp on windows and xampp lite on a
portable usb stick, I now use Lampp on Linux Mint. I wrote a tutorial on my site as setting it up
on Linux is a little more akward than on windows.

Carol Aug 29 2009

Wow! This is a great tutorial! My wordpress is already working!

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Phil Dunseath Sep 01 2009

Followed all the steps and it worked perfectly. Ill be dipping into the other resources you
mentioned. Great job. Thanks
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Joel Y. Sep 05 2009

I followed your tutorial exactly and without issue until I loaded the install.php le for
wordpress. Above the form, this error appears:
Warning: Cannot modify header information headers already sent by (output started at
C:\xampp\htdocs\wordpress\wp-admin\install.php on line 36
When I rst encountered this error, I completely re-installed everything (both times using the
latest stable release of xampp and wordpress) and it gave me the exact same error the second
time. If I contine creating the blog, the blog itself words ne, but when I try and login to the
admin it gives me a page full of errors similar to the one above.
Is this a problem with their code, or mine? Is the any way I can x this?
Thanks!
Joel Y.

Brad Sep 08 2009

Jessica
Have a look at:
http://diyws.ath.cx/lesson4.php
And thanks to Jacob for this lesson / tutorial it makes me feel better about what Im doing
(even if you *are* the competition, as it were!)
:)
Cheers
Brad

Brad Sep 08 2009

KeithD
I just installed XAMPP on localhost here (v 2.8.1) and was prompted to upgrade to 2.8.4
clicked the link and it did its thing. All ne for me.
Just let it go it has to download
Menu the entire zip le, extract and upgrade depending on your
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Internet connection, it could take a few minutes.
So go grab a cuppa and come back in ve to ten minutes it should work out ok eventually.
Cheers
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Brad

Simca Sep 10 2009

I often use XAMPP in my development, it save your time to setup Apache, PHP, and MySQL all
together. Thanks for sharing this great tutorial.

Terri Sep 11 2009

Can someone help please, (using windows vista)I installed xampp everything seemed to go thru
ne but here is the problem.I can type in http://localhost/index.html and see my webpage but
when I try to use the outside address http://www.poe2.com I am getting access denied
forbidden 403 error, when I type in just localhost I get the password box that comes up and I
can put my pass info in and bring up the xampp pages that has status and all that stuff, the
forbidden page says I can change this problem in the http-xampp.conf le but not sure what I
need to change, does anyone know what exactly I need to do? any help would be greatly
appreciated.
Thanks
Terri

Robert Nelson Sep 18 2009

Terri
Think the problem is your trying to access a normal(think internet or www)address from your
local server. My understanding is that this isnt possible. www=internet,
localhost(OR127.0.0.1)=local

Robert Nelson Sep 18 2009

Very detailed tutorial on both installing Xampp and WordPress.Dont suppose you would do the
same for using WodPress MU, or would you? Got as far as trying to do the install and then
started running into various database problems,
the latest being the infamous Error Eastablishing a Database. I am right in thinking that one
can create more than one database in XAMPP , right?

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Penstalker Oct 05 2009

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wow! This article blew me away. really helpful and downright east to follow. Thanks so much! :)

Partha Bhattacharya Oct 08 2009

and any feedback, good or bad, would help us improve this format.
Unfortunately Ive nothing bad to say Jacob. The tutorial is so thorough that it shows a very
clear mind working behind. Thanks.
@parthabha

Kim Oct 08 2009

A million, zillion thanks!!! I tried instructions from other people, but had to uninstall. Yours are
the best, most thorough and most importantly, they work!

Keith Davis Oct 21 2009

Ive added the cforms form plugin to my local XAMPP wordpress setup, but cant get it to send
out emails.
Ive found a few tutorials on the web for using sendmail, which comes with XAMPP, but still no
joy.
Any suggestions?

Phil Oct 23 2009

Thanks a lot! This was a lot easier then i thought.

Phillip Oct 26 2009

Great tutorial. Took me through the process, start to nish, without a hitch.

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Thanks!

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Kobe Blount Oct 27 2009

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Honestly, I have spent HOURS both researching this process, reading forums, dealing with tech
support with my hosting company. Minimum 10 hours. Bottom line folks this is your one stop
shop for this process this article is brilliant.
I noticed Jessica asked how to make it secure. Although this article is basically perfect, the
security process was another all nighter for me and would be helpful! If I nd one of the links I
used Ill be sure to post it for refernce!!
Thank you

Jacob Gube Oct 27 2009

@Kobe Blount: Glad you found this tutorial useful. Security is a concern and if you nd links
throughout your research, please share it here.

Barb Oct 30 2009

Great tute, Jacob!
I followed your instructions and developed a WP site locally.
Now I have an additional wp site to develop. Do I have to install a whole new mySQL or can I use
the existing installation and just create another database (any instructions you care to share?)?
Thanks for the help!

johneeds Oct 31 2009

Hi Jacob
Cnt tell you how much I appreciate your work, and that of the other developers, for such a
great piece of software and fantastic tutorial!
Now I can get on and play around with WordPress, and especially themes, without stuf ng up
my online blog. What a Godsend!
John

Hozefa Nov 02 2009

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I have installed xampp server in my winxp sp2 system. directory used is d:/xampp
I have also installed wordpress in htdocs of the xampp and put all the wordpress les in a folder
blog. I had made an index.html le of my own in htdocs folder and made a link there for my
wordpress blog. I also removed the default index.php le that is present in htdocs directory.
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It works perfectly on my local machine. when i type localhost in my browser, the index.html le
created by me appears and when i click on go to my blog link then the wordpress blog page also
open well.
The problem is that when I try to open my wordpress blog globally(means through internet
from some other pc). it doesnt open.My domain name is hozefa.blogsite.org that I am hosting
from my own pc. when I type my domain name in the browser the rst index.html le opens but
when I click on go to my blog link, it doesnt work. An 403 Error message appear. what is the
problem? How we can solve this problem? Please help me!

pearllysun Nov 14 2009

wow ! many thanks .. my local site now works just perfect by doing exactly uve instructed
.good tutorial ..explained everysingle step well..good luck

puzhu Nov 19 2009

wonderful tutorial! Really helpful!
Thanks a lot.

amy Nov 23 2009

Thank you so much for this tutorial. It was just what I was looking for and the instructions were
so clear. Great use of screen shots as well.

Matt Trevino Nov 24 2009

Jason! Thank you for a great tutorial. I learned a lot. Your tutorial was easy to read and was
thought out really well. Looking forward to moving on to your other tutorials.

ANandaVImal Nov 26 2009

Hey man,
For
reason the MyQXL
is already running and when I try to start the apache it starts and
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SIXsome
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just turns off even though I dont even have my rewall turned on. Do u or anybody have an idea
of what the problem could be?

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ANandaVImal Nov 26 2009

You know what? ITs was because Skype was occupying the ports.:s
Whatever that means

sergey Nov 27 2009

And it is possible such to make on joomla 1.5?

Shona Nov 28 2009

Thank you for this tutorial de nitely the clearest idiots guide to installing WP locally I found
on the web.

steve Nov 30 2009

Great tutorial Jacob I followed along and installed XAMPP and wordpress without a hitch.
QUESTION:
How do I add new sites??
I can change the themes on the original tutorial site but how do you work on multiple sites.
Brilliant job on the tutorial though mate one of the best Ive seen.
Thanks
Steve

Jacob Gube Dec 01 2009

@ANandaVImal: Thats odd, but thanks for sharing it here so that people with similar issues can
look at open internet-enabled desktops if theyre having connection issues.
@steve: Just create another folder in the htdocs folder to create another site. to get to it, you
would then just do http://localhost/websitefoldername

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steve Dec 01 2009

Jacob Thanks for the help.

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I am a bit stuck though and cant seem to get my head around something.
I created a new folder under the htdocs sitetwo
It is an empty folder.
I visit http://localhost/sitetwo and get the
Index of/sitetwo Page
My question and this may seem obvious to some but I am bamboozled
What do I put in the empty folder to give me a site
When I visit http://localhost/sitetwo/wp-admin.php
I get Object not found (because the folder is empty right?)
Do I need to install wordpress into that folder.
I appreciate any help and I have been stuck on this for hours other wise I wouldnt bother you.
Thanks
Steve

Jacob Gube Dec 01 2009

@steve: Youd have to do the entire tutorial over (but you can still use the same database if you
are sharing the same exact information as your rst WordPress site, or use WordPress Mu
which is a way to install multiple WordPress sites using one WordPress installation. If you go
with WordPress Mu, youd have to still do this walkthrough over again.
Let me know if this all makes sense, or if youre still having trouble, email me at
jacob[AT]sixrevisions.com

steve Dec 01 2009

Thanks Jacob I nally get it.
I had to install a new database for the new site.
Its obvious when you know how.
Thanks for your help.

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Steve

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JanetC Dec 02 2009

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Jacob, wonderful to provide such good detail. Everything went very smoothly for me running
under XP.
The only problem I have is that although I see the homepage ne:
http://localhost/wordpress/
when I try to navigate to any other page or content, it redirects to the xampp page here:
http://localhost/xampp/
The structure is:
xampp > htdocs > wordpress
In the htdocs folder I just have the main wordpress folder, another xampp folder, and index.php
index.php contains:
Something is wrong with the XAMPP installation :-(
Please any clues here ? Im twisting my hair in knots trying to see what Ive missed !
thanks

JanetC Dec 02 2009

sorry, the index php le wrote the oputput. It is:
if (!empty($_SERVER[HTTPS]) && (on == $_SERVER[HTTPS])) {
$uri = https://';
} else {
$uri = http://';
}
$uri .= $_SERVER[HTTP_HOST];
header(Location: .$uri./xampp/);
exit;

Andy Dec 02 2009

Nice tutorial!
Concerning
the Unable to create
Menu directory problem emmei, PTK, Fandango, Bobby B, and
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andreas were having on the mac version of XAMPP.
I had the same problem and found it was a permissions issue. The workaround I found was to
reset ownership of the WordPress instillation to nobody by running the following command in
the terminal application (Applications>Utilities>Terminal).
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sudo chown -R nobody:staff /applications/xampp/xampp les/htdocs/wordpress

Replace the last lename (wordpress) with the name of the folder for your WordPress
instillation. Terminal will ask for your root user password. You will not be able to see what you
are typing, but type it and hit enter.
The matter is more complicated if you have run the [ /Applications/XAMPP/xampp les/xampp
security ] program in terminal. I think this command changes the user permissions mask for the
user nobody so that WordPress does not have write access to the folders it creates. Im sure
this was done for security reasons. I dont know where this setting is in XAMPP so the only
solutions I can think of is either not to run the security program or set up WordPress as its own
user and reset le ownership accordingly.
I hope that helps a few people. Good luck!

Talal Dec 08 2009

Thanks Andy it worked for mac. :)

Mike Dec 08 2009

Hi Jacob,
Thank you very much for the tutorial. Im new to the development world and your tutorial has
helped me immensely.
I do have a quick question. I set the WP database to my Work PCs localhost. If I wanted to work
on the site/blog from my house, how do I go about doing this?
Thank you for your help!
Best,
Mike

Anne Phillips Dec 11 2009

This unquestionably is the best tutorial for how to install and use XAMPP for WordPress
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development.
I am a patient person and always willing to do a lot of bootstrap learning
reading manuals, checking glossaries, and searching help FAQs and support forums. Until I
found you, I tried at least 4 other tutorials plus the other supplements across 4 days without
success just a lot of error messages and having to do several uninstalls and even one system
restore things got so messy. With your tutorial, things went swiftly and without a hitch!!!!
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Thank you!

JanetC Dec 13 2009

Arghh! Im still stuck :-(
As per my earlier post:
Although I see the homepage ne:
http://localhost/wordpress/
when I try to navigate to any other page or content, it redirects to the xampp page here:
http://localhost/xampp/
P l e a s e any thoughts ?

Doug Dec 13 2009

The only problem I have had with xampp is getting my wordpress and plugins to update
automatically
What might be wrong?

mick Dec 16 2009

Hi Very Nice tutorial thanks a million.
Lets say we have developed a fully functioning w/press site.
What are the steps for getting everything onto the live server for the live site? (linux)
Cheers Mick

ice atline Dec 18 2009

Great post Jacob! I especially appreciate the information on creating a new DB user/privileges,
something
I was scratchingMenu
my head on. Thanks again.
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Gopinathan Dec 23 2009

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Just what I was looking for

Why not follow up with a sequel on wordpress theme development proper?

Neale Dec 23 2009

Im with Mick. Ive got MAMP up and running no problem but Im a little fuzzy about where to
go after Ive got a fully developed/checked site up and running locally
In my case, its not developing an existing site, but launching a brand new one, so I would need to
be creating new databases for the live server that coincide with the local MAMP WordPress
install.

RyoBase Dec 26 2009

thank you very much. Save a lot of my time and very useful.

frances Jan 04 2010

The xampp setup instructions were just what I was looking for and very clearly explained.
Thanks.

crazy blogger Jan 05 2010

I have landed on this page for more then 10 times now because setting up WP in XAMPP is a
really hard task. Thanks for making my job easier.

Carrick Jan 06 2010

Just wanted to thank you for the tutorial.
This is just what I was looking for.
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I wanted
to play around with wordpress development, and I though setting it up locally was

going to be a real pain.

With your instructions I now have my local install, which I did in 10 mins. at.

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Thanks!

James Jan 07 2010

Thank you so much for this tutorial.. it was exactly what I was looking for, and helped me get
this set up in no time. Cheers!

Ivaylo Jan 13 2010

Hi,Jacob.
I use this Article and install my rst blog quickly and easily.
What are the steps if you want to install second blog of another language?

bruno Jan 15 2010

Thanks a lot man, just perfect tutorial

Nadine Jan 18 2010

purrrfect! I love this tutorial!

Kupwa Jan 22 2010

Thanks Jacob ! I got a headache trying to install wordpress on WAMP, getting an error
establishing a database connection no matter what i tried. Found your tutorial on XAMPP and
everything went like a charm.

Apryle Jan 25 2010

Great article very step by step on the installation process for WordPress on XAMPP. I just
installed and am excited to try it for upcoming projects. This should increase security while Im
developing themes. Thank you!

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jhon Jan 25 2010

wooww nice one, Ill try to make my own wordpress template. its great POST.
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YeahLyrics Jan 26 2010

Thanks verymuch. Ive nished my installation. Testing everything in localhost is really great.

pcaWeb Jan 27 2010

Nice tutorial thanks.

moss27 Jan 29 2010

This helped me a lot. I even typed on the wordpress forums without getting any help. Thanks,
keep up the good work :)

avi Jan 30 2010

I get an error #1045 Access denied for user root@localhost (using password: NO) in step
13. Can you please suggest how I x this?
Thanks in advance.

avi Jan 30 2010

Resolved. I put a password for MySql in the passwords le. Huh!

Roger Feb 02 2010

Running Win 2k and WP 2.9.1 on local xampp 1.7.2. Using K2 theme. Go to admin
panel/appearance/editor/styles/ and try to edit sample.css and get this
Sorry, that le cannot be edited
Menu to be a le permission issue. It should not be on my local
On
servers, this is likely
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machine. Any idea whats wrong?

Alvin Tan Feb 03 2010

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Ive just installed WP 2.9.1 with XAMPP Windows 1.7.3 in my Vista PC.
How To Install WordPress Locally With XAMPP

Debs Feb 04 2010

am having exactly the same issue as Janet
I see the homepage ne:
http://localhost/wordpress/
when I try to navigate to any other page or content, it redirects to the xampp page here:
http://localhost/xampp/
anybody ever had this issue?
thanks!

Debs Feb 04 2010

UPDATE! have solved problem!permalinks only seem to work in default mode on local
server. all looking good now!JanetCi hope youre still following this thread!

zeero Feb 05 2010

what the problem? i have error masage under.
/** The name of the database for WordPress */ de ne(DB_NAME, wordpress_db); /** MySQL
database username */ de ne(DB_USER, wordpress_user); /** MySQL database password */
de ne(DB_PASSWORD, n3Z8BRBwSzzZJJex); /** MySQL hostname */ de ne(DB_HOST,
localhost);
Fatal error: Call to unde ned function is_admin() in C:\xampp\htdocs\wordpress\wpadmin\includes\comment.php on line 162

Steve Watson Feb 08 2010

Hi there, does anyone know of a similar detailed tutorial on how to transfer the local install to
server hosting?

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Jacob Gube Feb 08 2010

@Steve Watson: For WordPress speci cally? Is it shared hosting or a Virtual Private Server
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(VPS) or Dedicated Server where you also have to set up your web server?

Akshay Feb 09 2010

you could have easily used root user in wp-con g! To be bit more newb friendly. And moving
that part Advanced section of this same guide. And perhaps add Apache vhost so that
http://wordpress/ opens the local test wp site instead of http://localhost/ etc. This is my fav
tweak.
May be wamp+wordpress also sounds nice post idea. Just in case. And also similar stack for
ubuntu may be.
All in all nice guide. Enjoy!

Dice Feb 10 2010

Perfect tutorial! Very nicely done.

Matt Daly Feb 17 2010

Very useful, Thanks very much!

Thomas Craig Feb 17 2010

Excellent resources, just went through the steps, awless.

Pawel Patyk Feb 17 2010

Hello, i have a problem with XAMPP i dont see subpages of templates and i have error 404.
What is more, i dont see subpages with notes and comments. What is the reaseon of this error?
Please for help. I will be grateful.

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Feb 19 2010

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This is excellent just what I needed. Everything went perfectly.

Thank you very much for doing this for folks like me.
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Marc

srikrishnan Feb 20 2010

This is a very very useful article. Before googling this article, I have no con dent in me that I
able to learn and use WordPress. But this article give me step by step instruction, It full lls
what I expect as a very poor learner like me. There is no word to share my happiness at the time
of I nished this article side by side experimenting the procedures. I successfully created all
those things without any problem.
Once again I thanks you

Sukhjit Feb 21 2010

Thanks but my Apache light just comes and goes off. Why so???

Peter Feb 22 2010

I keep getting this error
Fatal error: Call to unde ned function is_admin() in G:\xampplite\htdocs\wordpress\wpadmin\includes\comment.php on line 162
when I try and run http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php
Have I done something wrong? Can you help?
Thanks

Dimitris Feb 26 2010

hey, i have a problem. i cant download the test data. when i press on this link i go to a page, and i
see a script. it does not open the download window.

Rajeev Feb 28 2010

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Jacob,
It goes all well till step 28, but when i try to open the link given in step 29. it gives following
error.
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Object not found!

The requested URL was not found on this server. If you entered the URL manually please check
your spelling and try again.
If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster.
Error 404
localhost
2/28/2010 12:37:03 PM
Apache/2.2.14 (Win32) DAV/2 mod_ssl/2.2.14 OpenSSL/0.9.8l mod_autoindex_color PHP/5.3.1
mod_apreq2-20090110/2.7.1 mod_perl/2.0.4 Perl/v5.10.1
googled around everywhere, but no solution. hope you will help.
I am running windows 7 ultimate and iis7.5.
i have changed port, stopped iis, but no solution, same thing is coming again and again.

Marni Mar 01 2010

Excellent tutorial.

Rajeev Mar 02 2010

Problem solved:
Problem: If you want to run asp and php together. you have installed xampp and followed the
instructions given above but still could not get the things done.
Solutions: When you want to run xampp, disable the iis services from SERVICES. go to
services.msc and disable world wide web publishing services. voila. you are done.
I am on windows 7 ultimate and running iis7.

Clare Mar 03 2010

I have set up a site using xampp and wordpress, it all looks ne, but all the links are looking for
localhost, so I changed the site url and blog url in the settings to be http://servername/mysite as
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apposed to localhost/mysite and the front end works perfectly now but I was thrown out of the
back end and could only get back in by changing the site url back to http://localhost/mysite in
phpmyadmin, so I am back to square one. Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

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MC Mar 07 2010
Hi,the site url is localhost/wordpress or something similar,and when i go to my actual
wordpress account there is no upload theme button,any ideas?
thank you

Romul Mar 08 2010

I tried to use XAMPP once, but I think Denwer (http://www.denwer.ru/) is simpler and easier to
use.

Esther Mar 10 2010

Nice tutorial but i need help on how to install wordpress mu on obuntu 8.04

Branden Silva Mar 12 2010

Impress tutorial Jacob. Although I know all this information, If I was a newcomer, I would nd
this tutorial priceless in getting xampp, mysql, and word press up and running.

Kerri Mar 17 2010

I cannot thank you enough for this tutorial. I tore my hair out yesterday (here, this clumps for
you) trying to use another tutorial on WAMPP. Now I can see how many steps were left out of
that tutorial and yours has provided me with everything I needed, and shown me some good
resources as well. Good work and many thanks.

Bravepioneer Mar 25 2010

Luis Lopez, do you wanna tell us how you solved your problem. I and 13threar are suffering the
same problem.
All help and advice welcome.

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Keith Mar 27 2010

Soup to nuts, this tutorial rocks. Not to mention all of the other EXTREMELY killer tutorials that
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Six Revisions brings to the table. Cant wait to see some CS5 tutorials!

Debdeep Mar 28 2010

Loads of thanks for such a well written tutorial.

Krzysztof Machocki Mar 28 2010

Thanks a lot mate!

Joe Reichsfeld Mar 31 2010

Still using this tutorial and recommending it to people. Thanks for the hard work.

Isaiah Mar 31 2010

Thanks much! Very thorough and helpful.

davidshaw Apr 02 2010

excellent article easy to follow I made one small error but easily xed.
thank you thank you thank you.
saved me hours/days/weeks :o)

Scott Apr 05 2010

Thanks Jacob,
Got it up and running without a hitch! Ive already given myself a pat on the back lol.
Btw,
your site via themeshaper.com
wp tutorials
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Thanks again!

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Porter Apr 07 2010

Excellent tutorial, very in-depth, helped me out perfectly. This was my rst time doing this all on
a local server setup, Im used to using the web, worked great.

Oolalai Apr 11 2010

THANK YOU SO MUCH! Concise and works ne!

aronimus Apr 14 2010

Awesome!. Thanks man.

Brian Apr 20 2010

Thanks for the tutorial, very useful.
I know this is an old post of yours, however the issue with Is its parent directory writable by
the server? never seems to have been resolved. Im on Mac, like the other people having the
problem, and am attempting to get a local installation going to test development of a wordpress
blog locally, but Ive got a similar problem when attempting to import the test XML le:
Unable to create directory /Users/brian/Sites/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/04. Is its
parent directory writable by the server?
I decided to use the Sites directory on my disk as it allows easy backup of all my user
documents to external disk. As far as I know, putting it in htdocs inside the XAMPP install in
Apps folder will give similar problem, I guess like others have experienced.
Does this require some fancy footwork (or ngerwork, so to speak) to chown all the folders
related to Sites, or something equally painful?
If youre able and wouldnt mind giving some advice here, Id be extremely grateful
Kind regards,
BrianREVISIONS
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Belinda Apr 22 2010

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Youre my hero! Ive been so scared of giving this a go, and looky how easy it is! <3

Toni Deveson Apr 24 2010

That worked! Thanks so much.

Jessica McKelden Apr 25 2010

Thank you so much for this article. I cannot express how helpful this was. It seems to simple
now and SO much less terrifying!

edsamich Apr 27 2010

Heyaa, i installed wordpress on my newly installed xampp 1.7.3 when i log in as an admin or
even on the front page, i get some funny warning and error messages. The samething happens
to Joomla. Any idea where im going wrong??

Jeremy Apr 29 2010

@Brian do a get info on the uploads folder in your wp-content folder and change the
permissions for both staff & everyone to Read & Write. This solved the issue for me after hours
searching online for a solution I gave up and played around with luck. I hope this helps you.

Pulau Tioman May 01 2010

Im using this tutorial and nally made it.
This tutorial de nitely helps beginners like me. Thanks bro

Ross May 02 2010

Ive been through a half dozen tutorials on the net trying to nail this down.

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YoursREVISIONS
was complete, clear Menu
and, best of all, It Worked !
You Rock! Thanks so much. The FTP thing was getting really grim . . .

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girLette May 03 2010

thanks so much for this how-to! this is a great thorough guide for noobs like me. thanks again

Barry May 03 2010

Jacob,
Excellent article, saved me a lot of time and frustration getting XAMPP and WordPress up and
running.
I have a question, though.
In a regular (hosted) WP installation, the WP goes inside the folder of the web site URL. Can I
do the same thing here? I think I need to, otherwise, when I upload the nished WP installation,
I will have to change a lot of internal paths and links. Or am I missing something?
In other words, what should the structure of the directory that holds the WP and my site?
Thanks,
Barry

Linda May 05 2010

This is an amazing guide! Extremely helpful.
To think that I just installed WordPress to my own computer!! How cool is that?!! Couldnt have
done it without your help.
Thank you so much.
Linda

Rashmi May 09 2010

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Hey I too have vista on my lappy,i tried to install Xampp on it bt it is givin me d following error:
Warning :require(C:\xampp\install\xampp_xampp.php:failed to open stream No such le or
directory in C:\xampp\setup_xampp.bat on line 33
Fatal error:require():
failed opening required C:\xampp\install\xampp_xampp.php) in C:\xampp\setup_xampp.bat on
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line 33
Can u help????

Vik May 10 2010

Thanks much for sharing this.
Greatly appreciated.
It took me just 15mins :)
Thanks again
Vik

Tony May 11 2010

Fantastic article! It worked like a charm.

Hannes De Block May 17 2010

Clear and detailed. Easy-to-use tutorial on this complex matter. Thank you very much!

Bruce May 17 2010

So which is better for a local web server? WAMP or XAMPP? Ill mostly be designing stuff using
CSS, X(HTML), etc,.

Richard May 19 2010

Hey I too have vista on my lappy,i tried to install Xampp on it bt it is givin me d following error:
Warning :require(C:\xampp\install\xampp_xampp.php:failed to open stream No such le or
directory in C:\xampp\setup_xampp.bat on line 33
Fatal error:require():
failed opening required C:\xampp\install\xampp_xampp.php) in C:\xampp\setup_xampp.bat on
line 33
Can
help????
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Kurnia May 23 2010

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hii, im a novice, I followed the tutorial, and got stuck when trying to install script, I try
http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php , but it said the object not found. could you
please help me? thx

Michael May 29 2010

Richard
May 19th, 2010
Hey I too have vista on my lappy,i tried to install Xampp on it bt it is givin me d following error:
Warning :require(C:\xampp\install\xampp_xampp.php:failed to open stream No such le or
directory in C:\xampp\setup_xampp.bat on line 33
Fatal error:require():
failed opening required C:\xampp\install\xampp_xampp.php) in C:\xampp\setup_xampp.bat on
line 33
Can u help????

I have the same problem.Then I checked it up,found that I have download the wrong le:
[Upgrade 1.7.2 to 1.7.3],not the whole 1.7.3 install le.
U may be the same reason.

Alison Grif ths May 30 2010

I found that there was a bit missing in the editing of the wp-con g.php le regarding the secret
WordPress key. Once I got that gured I was ne. Now I have my Sandbox WP site on my local
machine I have run into another dif culty installing anything like a new theme requires I give
the name of the host but localhost doesnt work. Stuck.

Erykah Jun 01 2010

Just wanted to add my thanks, this was incredibly helpful!

andrei Jun 06 2010

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thank you so much:)

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Sam Jun 09 2010

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Just to con rm, if anyone is having trouble with the xampp & osx duo causing problems for
uploading sample data, Jeremys solution worked for me.
Just browse to your wp-content folder, select it and use command + i. In the following pop up
box, look down to the sharing & permissions section (may need to expand it) and then set the
privilege option for everyone to Read & Write. That should be it.
Great tutorial btw Jacob!

Shoib Khan Jun 17 2010

Hi,
It was very good step by step tutorial I was using xampp before but wanted to know more about
wordpress so I installed it, now I am looking for how I use wordpress for website not blog

Sunil Jun 18 2010

Hi Jacob,
You are great dude..
But i would like to know how to convert a PSD/DESIGN to WORD PRESS.
Suggest me ne Tutorial. to convert psd 2 wordpress.

WP Developer Jun 19 2010

I have used XAMPP installer , but had tough time with the php con gurations until I read this
article
good work :-)

smhussain Jun 23 2010

Hi im using Xammp almost from three yrs for my lan wordprss blog were i have 50 users now
tht i want to improve on this i want know tht can i create some forms linking to the blog with
this say example i want the user to give their phone no. address, city etc.. can they feed in the
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info and
it has to update inMenu
the database.
Pls help me to update and improve

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Tara Jun 25 2010

Hi I am using XAMPP on a Mac. Ive loaded my rst sample post and here is the error I receive.
Any ideas what this newbie to local hosting is doing wrong?
Object not found!
The requested URL was not found on this server. The link on the referring page seems to be
wrong or outdated. Please inform the author of that page about the error.
If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster.
Error 404
localhost
Fri Jun 25 14:55:05 2010
Apache/2.2.14 (Unix) DAV/2 mod_ssl/2.2.14 OpenSSL/0.9.8l PHP/5.3.1 mod_perl/2.0.4
Perl/v5.10.1

Don Jun 28 2010

Jacob,
Excellent Article!! You did a fabulous job on this. I must share with you my experience in going
through the setup. It was, is, very exasperating.
The rst issue was with the WordPress download. It named the folder wordpress 3 which was
throwing everything for a loop.
The second issue I ran into was starting up FTP from the xampp control panel. The message
continued to come up telling me that another FTP was running (which there wast). After
searching and searching I nally found the problem.
The third issue was with the Theme Development Checklist. This le will not open. It continues
to leave the following message:
Invalid le
Please upload a valid WXR (WordPress eXtended RSS) export le.
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looked at the le andMenu
it is an html le. ??? I have worked out the other problems but this
one still has me stuck. Do you have any idea on what is happening?
Thanks,
Don
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Don Jun 28 2010

Oh, there was another issue, and I see that a few people have had the same problem. I kept
getting the following message:
Unable to create directory /Applications/xampp/xampp les/htdocs/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2010/06. Is its parent directory writable by the server?
The link below solved the problem for me.
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/409313?replies=4#post-1573483
You really did do a great job on this article. All of the problems are glitches with one system or
the other. What shouldve been a 30 minute setup has been 6 or 7 hours and I still need the
problem in my previous post to be solved.
Thanks Again and this site does ROCK!!

rafael Jun 28 2010

extremely simple and useful, thanks a lot.

kimberly Jun 30 2010

Thank you so much for this tutorial! Look, more than a year later, people are still bene ting
from your efforts! (Although it does appear youve stopped commenting, I hope you still get
these comments!)
In case I missed it among the other comments, I am very interested in a development >
deployment tutorial. Is there any reason why xampp cant be used on a web server? My
apologies if that question has already been asked and answered.
Cheers!

Omar Jun 30 2010

very
tutorial, easy to Menu
understand and follow, thanks.
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Zach Jul 01 2010

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Just wanted to say thank you!

Ive always been curious about the server-side world
and this tutorial has provided the perfect entry for me,
with the side effect of getting me into CMS nally as well.
I also found [linkremoved]
a similar, but less comprehensive tutorial

Phil Jul 24 2010

Jacob,
Nice guide Ill probably be coming back in
the future as I never bothered with the db stuff much before.
I realize youre a Windows guy but you or the other readers might know
~~ My Question ~~
iMac osx(host)>Parallels>virt machines: XP-ie6, XP-ie7, Win7-ie8
so I can test in native ie environment,
How can I share the same OSX install of XAMPP & WP
with the above 3 machines installed?
spent almost 3 days (& counting) on this & still searching for an answer

rachelia Aug 05 2010

This post is very useful, thank you very much.

Matthew Unsworth Aug 12 2010

Fantastic tutorial, just managed to set it all up on my pc in 15mins max.
I can now learn how to create wordpress themes.
Thanks again! ;)

Patrick Aug 12 2010

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Thanks
very much! Great tutorial.
All set up and worked perfectly.

jr Aug 12 2010
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Great article. Will use again.

AlanP Aug 13 2010

To access other web applications not in htdocs you can add an alias to the end of httpd.conf,
found in apache\conf, like so:
#alias
Alias /MyWebs C:/Documents and Settings/Administrator/My documents/My Webs/
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes
AllowOverride All
#Order allow,deny
Allow from all
#alias
Then to access MyWebs, type http://localhost/MyWebs/

AlanP Aug 13 2010

This line failed to appear in my earlier post. It should be on the next after the Alias
/MyWebs
\

AlanP Aug 13 2010

This line failed to appear in my rst post. It should be on the next after the Alias /MyWebs
Directory C:/Documents and Settings/Administrator/My documents/My Webs
and has a less than sign at the beginning and a greater than sign at the end.

Mersey Aug 15 2010

Fantastic
tutorial! Clear, step-by-step
radically improved my opinion re: WordPress usability!
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hayata dair Aug 16 2010

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Thanks very much! Great tutorial. All set up and worked perfectly.

LauraM62 Aug 17 2010

Thanks for the tutorial, most of it went really good. I am running Windows 7 so ran into trouble
getting the Apache to run, found another user forum that suggested in Windows 7 to change
the UAC (User Account Control), moving the slide all the way to the bottom disables the feature
in Windows 7. Once I found that info I had no problems !! Thanks for all the work, much
appreciated !!

Al Aug 17 2010
One of the few articles that mentions the Theme Unit Test from wordpress.org, which I do
appreciate having d/led it and tried it. Did not know anything about it and it was nice to have it
added to the tutorial. Does help explain more about WP when you can see what others have
done and need to do to produce certain pages, etc?
Now I would like one that would show how to create a static home page and perhaps not even
have a blog page as such. Maybe this is not possible with WP, I dont know, not that far into it,
just getting going with WP.
Al

Sangam Aug 21 2010

Thanks a lot.. this article has been one of my best article ever read online
Keep up the great work

Carley Aug 21 2010

Excellent article; I learned so much about WordPress and XAMPP. Thank you very much!

Chris
Anderson Aug 21Menu
2010
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Thanks so much for the clear tutorial all went very well with the XAMPP install.

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MadRuk Aug 21 2010

Excellent write up, just installed xampp using your tutorial which made it a breeze. This is going
to be very useful. Thanks!

MadRuk Aug 21 2010

Total newb question, can I keep this running w/o having to worry about any security issues or
should the service be stopped when not in use?

GodSpeed23 Aug 23 2010

Brilliant work turned my couple of days of prospective research to 10 minutes!!
do have one tiny suggestion to update the the direct link to test data yep, clutching at
straws here :)

Pierre Aug 24 2010

Hello
What a great job you have done. Detailed, well explained and so on Do you mind being
translated into French ? (and quoted with a link to your website of course)

Pierre Aug 24 2010

Hello,
Am I right in believing that one can make a full website in that way, then copy the WordPress
directory contents via FTP onto the www ? And the only thing left is to change the MySQL login,
database name and password ? If so, what an even more wonderful post you made ! Thanks
again.

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Jacob Gube Aug 24 2010

@Pierre: Yep, thats true! What I do is this: I develop the WordPress site. As a nal step before
FTPing, I will change the settings to the URL of the nal site. This will break your local
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installation, but thats ne, just change it back after. Then FTP your les to your server and
like magic, you have a fully functioning WordPress site.

Pierre Aug 25 2010

Hi Jacob
Thanks for your answer re this ! I started a brand new WP 3.0.1 website yesterday (Im @
GMT+1) with your brilliant advice and man that really does rock, especially when its for a
cheap (and SLOOOOW) web connection.
Would like to make sure I understand well : change the settings to the URL of the nal site.
Does it mean that my permalinks that are now :
http://localhost/wordpress/%category%/%postname%
will all have to be re-written as
http://mywebsite.com/%category%/%postname%
?
BTW, using XAMPP does not allow the permalink manual rewriting due (seemingly) to the lack
of mod_rewrite
Really would like to translate (and link) your tutorials, is it permitted, please ?
Thanks again

Craig Aug 25 2010

Great detail, and easy to follow, excellent tutorial, much appreciated, have used wampserver
but I am going to try XAMPP for a couple of months

ihaveapc Aug 25 2010

Super article.
This was just what I was looking for, I wanted to make a test site for making wordpress themes
and changes that can be used on my site without exposing it to public internet.

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Many thanks again.

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Pierre Aug 26 2010

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Hi Jacob,
Please give me a hand, I think I have seriously mistaken Now both my local and hosted sites
give me a parse error.
Local site redirects to hosted, I have no idea how to undo this.
Hosted site is http://www.e-motion-marketing.com
After reading http://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_The_Site_URL I think I have messed my
local site by changing its location in WordPress Admin, but I cant get back to WP admin
anymore.
Plus I have not backuped my database (too bad).
Please Jacob give me a hint ?
Thanks
Pierre

Chris Aug 26 2010

I want to use XAMPP for my localhost sercer. Thanks for installing XAMPP guide.

Pierre Aug 27 2010

Hello Jacob
I have made a mistake trying to transfer my blog with WordPress 301 from XAMPP to my
hosting.
Actually, I have changed the site and blog urls in the WP global Settings.
Silly and tired, I had not made any bakup whatsoever before that.
Could you give me a hint for changing it back please, I cant seem to be able to access my local
website please ?

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Thanks
!

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Jacob Gube Aug 27 2010

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Did you update the wp-con g.php with the proper settings? Also, you can log into your MySQL
database, go to the options table, and under option_name, look for site_url (it should be the rst
row of that table). Make sure that the option_value is set to the correct URL in your hosted site.

Pierre Aug 27 2010

wp-con g has the right info I think :
wordpress_db
wordpress_user
password : XXX
host : localhost
I have done that site_url change through phpMyAdmin for the local version, and changed both
Blog and site URLs.
I can now see my homepage @ http://localhost/wordpress
But now it appears my links are broken and I land on
http://localhost/ wherever I click and am then redirected to XAMPP
Plus http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin gives me a 404 (not found)
An advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a lot

Pierre Aug 28 2010

Update :
I have restarted from scratch a XAMPP and it failed to display the homepage and wp-admin.
I think I need to nd out more because this solution seems to be really a great one.
Have you any hint re how I could get my post and pages content (text only) back please ?
Thanks
P

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Jacob Gube Aug 28 2010

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@Pierre: Lets continue this conversation via email (check out the Contact page for my info) so
that we can have a better 2-way communication, and then when we sort it out, we can post a
comment on how we were able to x the issue.

meongroup Aug 31 2010

Came across your article while searching for additional information. Wish I had found it earlier.
I have a problem after trying to migrate a website to my XAMMP installation. How about an
article on this?

Sharath kumar Aug 31 2010

Hello Jacob
Followed till Step 10 Start the MySQL service using the same method as step 8., but when i try
http://localhost/ in my browser nothing happens, just blank screen, is there any solution??
Thanks!

Greg Sep 01 2010

If you already have a wordpress blog hosted externally, cant you just import all les and then
the external DB (through either phpmyadmin or the wordpress import option) locally?
I have another problem: i tried to create an alias to my les outside of htdocs but Apache is
giving me an Access Forbidden response Ive looked everywhere for a solution nothing.

zuiko Sep 03 2010

thanks for sharing, this is the answer that i search for along time.
i always limited to custom the wordpress theme on code base, and a lot obstacle involve in that
since i cant fully custom the theme, but thanks for your info now im on progress custom my
wordpress theme on dreamweaver, thanks.

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Tim Sep 04 2010

Firstthanks! This is an awesome article.
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CuriousI wanted to bring my site local so I could play with the CSS and what not. I backed up
my DB and imported it once I had everything set up. Works great, I can see my site locally.
However, when I try to go to wp-admin, it redirects me to the login page online rather than the
one locally. Thoughts?
Thanks again!
Tim

Bryan Sep 04 2010

Thanks SixRevisions! This is an awesome tutorial! Very clear and detailed and I also like how
you summarized the article! Keep it up! Oh, and thanks for my local server! :)

marilynn Sep 04 2010

Thank you very much for making a tutorial that wasnt intimidating. I was able to follow your
tutorial without my head exploding and I was breathing the entire time. The screen captures
were extremely helpful and, because they were up to date, kept me from feeling like I was going
to screw it up. For your good works I hope there is sausage in your future.

Aaron Voreck Sep 08 2010

Hello,
Wondering if you could solve a problem. I am using Xampp and WordPress 3.0 and am trying to
get some plugins working so that I can properly space my web page. I dont seem to be able to
download anything though. Couldanyone tellme how to download widgets and plugins while
using Xampp?
-Aaron

vivek Sep 09 2010

Good Article!
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The Next
step is to sync wordpress
site on local machine from production server and for this,

See Following
http://www.techbrij.com/238/setup-wordpress-on-local-xampp-from-production-server

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Sam Sep 15 2010

Awesome installed wordpress the other day and was looking for a way to learn of ine, a
awless tutorial. Perfect. Many Thanks.

Adrian Sep 15 2010

Nice One
Massive learning curve
Thank You

Nina Sep 16 2010

Spent several hours trying to get Xampp to work with another tutorial when I came across
yours. I wish I had found this rstLOL. This is one of the best tutorials I have read and it
worked! Thank you for you work.

Keren Sep 18 2010

Thank you very much. Your tutorial was very helpful to my.

Wanetta Morson Sep 18 2010

Hey! I love your website! Thanks a lot

Mike T Sep 19 2010

Thank you very much for a fantastic walk-thru on this Xamp/WP of ine installation. I feel that I
am one step closer to setting up my own design themes and websites.

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TracerTong Sep 24 2010

Ive been looking for just this to help me install locally both php/MySQL etc this is damn
perfect! thanks!
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Worked 1st time!

rosani Oct 01 2010

Excellent tutorial, thank you, congratulations, Im your fan!

Mila Oct 01 2010

Hi, this looks like a great step-by-step tutorial! Thank you!
I was wondering if someone would be able to answer my question: I am new to WordPress
development; I installed MAMP/MySQL on my Mac OS X 10.8. I installed WordPress and
started creating a template using the Impact Page Builder plugin. It appears that perhaps
Impact doesnt ran as smoothly on MAMPS and I want to move to XAMPP. Do you have any
suggestions as to what would I need to do for this move? Would I need to uninstall MAMP? Do I
need to reinstall WordPress once XAMPP is in place? Would appreciate your thoughts! (I am
not a programmer but have basic understanding of programming concepts.)

Dai Bee Oct 03 2010

Hi,
Ive installed WordPress using Xampp on MAC OSX. Its all gone great (thanks for the tutorial)
but I cannot seem to add plugins or themes. I get the error message
Could not create directory. /Applications/XAMPP/xampp les/htdocs/wordpress/wpcontent/upgrade
Ive set the permissions on the htdocs folder to read & write but it hasnt helped. Does anyone
out there know what Im doing wrong and what I need to do?
Thanks,
Dai

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Oct 03 2010
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I have the same problem with /htdocs permissions. Cant install my theme (its in .zip format). I
get an error: Unable to create directory
/Applications/XAMPP/xampp les/htdocs/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/10. Is its
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parent directory writable by the server?

I am on Mac PPC OS X 10.5.8
Can anyone help?
Thanks!

Wacha Oct 11 2010

@Gube, I should have come across this tutorial atleast in october Last year! I battled with a new
client who wanted their Site in WordPress and was giving me a weekend to be complete. So I
had to run up and down to setup a quick dev platform , which meant pulling up my wamp from
ground up.
I ended up spending the weekend getting ready. Phew!
All in all, I have followed this tutorial and in less than one Hour, I got two WordPress sites
running locally! thanks to to quick yet precise steps in this tutorial.
I like the screen shots too. next up will be the Photoshop to XHTML/CSS one.
You Rock!

Jalon Oct 11 2010

Hello. Xampp is installed on a PC computer and it is accessible via the internet using DynDNS
services. A wordpress blog was set up locally with some material in it.
I want to use the import/export function of WordPress to export the posts from Xampp to a
web host. When the web host tries to import les from local blog on Xampp, an error message
remote server did not respond appears.
How do I export posts from a wordpress blog on a local Xampp installation to a webhost?

Bryce Wisekal Oct 13 2010

Been awhile since I have worked on a local server and Ive found the setup to be a breeze
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following
this tutorial. Thank you so much for making it available!! Ill be sure to share with
everyone I can!

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Tara Oct 14 2010

This was fabulous and easy to follow.
Unfortunately, I did run into some problems. I followed through 3 times with the same results,
just to make sure I wasnt missing something.
After installing and creating several different databases I am still receiving this message when
trying to install wordpress
Error establishing a database connection
This either means that the username and password information in your wp-con g.php le is
incorrect or we cant contact the database server at localhost. This could mean your hosts
database server is down.
Any idea what could be wrong?
Everything is ne and working in phpmyadmin, and Ive tried creating several different
databases/users, still same message.

Louise Oct 18 2010

Thanks for a great article. I had a few glitches along the way with Apache not starting and
discovered Skype was using Port 80, thus stopping it for running. Stopped Skype and started
Apach and it ran no problem. Changed the setting in Skype to stop it using port 80 in future.
Also had an issue with logging into PhpAdmin needing a password Googled to nd a resolution,
although still not sure what I did to solve.
Thanks again for clear and precise instructions

asdf Oct 23 2010

Good tutorial. More straightforward than many books. Straight to the points, without skipping
important parts, and very concise explanations without missing the important details kudos.

Ardee Aram Oct 29 2010

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@ognjen Hey Ognjen, this also happened to me once. The problem is that there are possible
rewrite rule problems in your wordpress. To x this, go to your administration page (I assume
you can access the WordPress admin page?) On the left sidebar, look for the Settings box, and
the Permalinks link. Just click on the Save Changes after that (you dont have to change
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anything). This will regenerate your .htaccess in your wordpress application. This works
wonders for me, tell me if it works for you.
Regards!

Newbie101 Nov 03 2010

Hi there the tutorial was informativemet a couple of hurdles but got over them quick. Well
most of them, thing is, i can login of ine but everytime i click on an icon or link on my
dashboardit takes forever to load(literally)how do i remedy this? is there something i did
wrong?

Ajay Nov 05 2010

Can you tell me what are the sysyem requirements for installing and running XAMPP server

TheAdamJanes Nov 08 2010

That was awesome! Thank you for putting the time in to help me here. I tried wamp and kept
having issues. I couldnt nd a good forum or any article that helped me get wamp to work. I
switched to xampp and your article came up rst in Google. Thank god! Quick and easy.

SabryMN Nov 14 2010

So great. Step by step tutorial. YES! First time i followed this tutorial, i can follow it until
successful. By the way, its so easy. Thank you for the author. Your tutorial make me so happy.
Anyone can do it when you desire to take action
TQ

rera Nov 14 2010

there is not working in my Menu
computer or may be i just make the wrong way to understand it..
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i have wordpress folder and take it to the xampp folder in htdocs then i practice in option 14
until the end but when i test with http://localhost/wordpress/ its just page not found??
whats wrong??
thank you..
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Laurent Nov 15 2010

I get the same error than Peter and zeero :
Fatal error: Call to unde ned function is_admin() in E:\wamp\www\wordpress\wpadmin\includes\comment.php on line 162
Can somebody help me ?

Akshaya Nov 23 2010

I am unable to install to my computer. Please somebody help me for installation?

Glen Mark Nov 23 2010

Great tut, @rera maybe you just didnt make it well. The tut works on almost everybody. Go to
xampp controller, and restart xampp. and try again.

Vernon Nov 24 2010

Thanks so much that was a very useful bit of information. Im on Linux, and have used Xampp
for Linux for some time, but never worked with WordPress at all before. Within minutes I had
everything running. Awesome, thanks.

StickGirl Dec 01 2010

Hi Great tutorial! Have a problem however, how do i x this? See below:
Error establishing a database connection
This either means that the username and password information in your wp-con g.php le is
incorrect or we cant contact the database server at localhost. This could mean your hosts
database server is down.
Are you sure you have the correct username and password?
Are you sure that you have typed the correct hostname?
Are you sure that the database
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David Dec 04 2010

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Thanks for this as it worked unlike the previous two tuts that i tried. I have WordPress installed
on the server but the constant reloading of pages to check the code was starting to drive me
mad.
good job

group music Dec 09 2010

thanks for tutorial,was lookin XAMPP and SQL since last few days.

MyBrainHurts Dec 10 2010

This is an excellent article. Thank you very much for the detail and the screenshots. It made
setting up a local copy of WordPress super easy.
Kudos

Jide Tobun Dec 15 2010

Wonderful post and very helpful too.

Bonewagon Kid Dec 19 2010

After installing WordPress, when would I get the auto-generated password? I dont remember
seeing it and now I cant log in to WordPress. Hope someone can help me out. Thanks :)

Logan Dec 19 2010

When I click Start on Apache, the security thing pops up and I allow it but it wont have the
green start thing next to it, so when I went to the localhost, it said TeamViewer . Help!

slsdoug Dec 31 2010

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Worked
like a champ on Win
7, 64 bits. Thanks for an excellent tutorial.

Joe Jan 01 2011

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Your information is terri c and well written. I had one problem when installing the test data. On
the wp site I found the le contents but no le to import. I copied the code into dreamweaver
and saved it as a xlm le. Then went to wp and imported my new le. It worked. You might want
to look to see if the wp site changed, I also queried the process and wp had similar instructions,
yet I could not nd how to download the le. Now all I have to do is learn how to use it to
change my sites.
Thanks for all your work on this tutorial it is great to see you contributing positive good free
information.
Joe Holmes

Chris Jan 01 2011

Ardee Aram you are a life saver! I was having the permalinks problem reaching any of my post
pages (I had imported my live wp site to work locally using xampp) and was having the page not
found error. Just by going to the permalinks settings page and saving changes like you
suggested worked like a charm.
Jacob thanks for the great tutorial as well congrats on a successful post still going after almost
2 years.

mosleh Jan 04 2011

how i can using wordpress on local lan in windows such as a intranet blog

Mark Jan 04 2011

Thank you! I have made so many errors when modifying my live site. I knew there had to be a
better way to test out changes and I found XAMPP, but didnt have a clue how to get WordPress
working on it. This tutorial was very clear and just what I needed to get a development site
going! Now I can teach myself how to modify CSS, PHP, HTML, etc. without screwing up my live
site! Thanks again for the great instructions!

Diogo Dantas Jan 05 2011

Very very good tutorial.

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I can do the download of WordPress XML le in the step 33.

Can you help me, please?

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Ken Kneringer Jan 06 2011

Well Done!! Woeks Great

BillT Jan 08 2011

Glad I found this article. I was already working on loading XAMP, and got some great help from
their website. One of the issues is how to have several site projects at the same time.
@JanetC and Debs Look at xampp/apache/conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf for the le to setup up
a hosting situation. I now have two sites and XAMPP still operating just as they wold on a
production website. I actually have two xampp setups. One is on a machine at home, and the
other is on a ash drive. It is a 4Gb ash drive and has a full xampp setup as well as two sites.
@Jacob I just found something called Greenshot to take screen shots. I have not tested it, but I
will be writing a manual for those that follow me at my day job.

mua Jan 10 2011

iam pretty sure php.ini is something to x before even thinkering with using this as production
server, what else?

A u d e e Jan 14 2011
great tutorial Jacob :)
Ive been using xampp for couple of years and never had any problem until today I have the
Apache start errors.
Erik Teichmann, youve been a great help noting on your comment that Skype uses the port 80
that causing Apache not to start. :D
Thank you very much!

Lisa Jan 17 2011

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Is there
a tutorial for this on
a mac. Every time I search google for a mac tutorial of this it brings

me to this page. I cant get past the installation because it is showing how to install on windows.
Please help.

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Loay Jan 20 2011

thanks for this article I have been searching for this article for a while.

asen Jan 22 2011

thanks works great

Jack Jan 26 2011

Hi there, thanks for this great article. I, like many others, am having problems deploying my
development les/db to my live server. Did Pierre ever nd a solution to his problem?
Ive realised my problem is that I have loads of URLs pointing to http://localhost in my DB,
which obviously dont work on the live site. Ive seen people talking about actually playing with
the dump le and doing a nd/replace type operation before deploying it. This seems really
hacky, but is it the only way?
Many Thanks,
Jack

Philip Leighton Jan 27 2011

great article its set me on my way !!

SaoNunca Jan 29 2011

Hi Jacob,
grat job. Really. Never saw anything like that. But i dont know what im doing wrong.
This picture in my picasa is whay i see after step 23:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/n6Eg9N9Q0AMwk341fjTvcdp_BZgEYvGvI4CtDUWW-A?feat=directlink
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so, o receive the following answer from instalation: Fatal error: Call to unde ned function
is_admin() in C:\xampp\htdocs\wordpress\wp-admin\includes\comment.php on line 162
Here is an SS from my phpMyAdmin home:
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https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/stDKDG5wATvcm2Lqqu0V9dp_BZgEYvGvI4CtDUWW-A?feat=directlink
By the way, im stalling it on a local machine using Windows XP SP3.

Lisa Feb 01 2011

JacobVery nice tutorialand even though there is an upgrade to WordPress 3.0, almost all steps are
identical.
Suggest some steps indicating how to import an existing database on the localhost. I found out
about local WordPress development after creating on a hosted site. :-/
Can you point me to any tutorials? Possibly something that shows how to synchronize dbs
between localhost and website host?
Thanks so much!
Lisa

Nina Feb 05 2011

Thank you so much for this really great article. Finally I have my own XAMP up en running
locally plus WordPress locally!!
I already wrote a theme in XHTML and CSS. The rest of your tutorial will make me go. Thanks
again!

Quanni E. Feb 06 2011

Very good. This is very helpful. I liked it. =D

Jeff (with a J) Feb 08 2011

Looked around for information on WordPress as a favour for a friend; astounded that your
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tutorial
enabled me to set up
a local webserver, with WordPress and example pages, with such
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ease and in such a short time.
Tutorial is concise without being over simpli ed or overbearing. Fantastic resource.

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Well done to all concerned.

Raymond Feb 09 2011

Following your detailed instructions, I was able to set up WordPress without a single hitch. This
is great information and I will de nitely recommend your site.

Raheel Feb 10 2011

Lovely tutorial, I have struggled for ages.. Thankyou sooo much!! May GOD bless u!

MadRuk Feb 10 2011

This was super useful and easy great step by step instructions. Since they have a new version so
how about a how to update to the newest version tutorial?

WP Beginner :) Feb 17 2011

I searched tutorials about this and this one is de nitely the best. Thank you ;)

Gracey Feb 17 2011

Thanks for this great tutorial! Im really pissed off to see other tutorials that are not for
beginners. Thanks again!

Richard Feb 19 2011

Thanks a lot, bud! Tons of help and very thorough :)

syafree Feb 21 2011

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Thanks a lot for the complete tutorial! I can use wp on my local computer now. :)

Peter Feb 21 2011

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Fantastic tutorial, thanks alot. Nice sense of humor too, enjoyed it!

Buzz Feb 25 2011

Excellent, just what I was looking for im actually doing my rst local set-up right now, thanks
for sharing.

waaaaaaaa Feb 25 2011

I keep getting wordpress error:Parse error: syntax error, unexpected * in
C:\xampp\htdocs\wordpress\wp-con g.php on line 36 when doing
http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php in the browser.

waaaaaaaa Feb 25 2011

NOW I KEEP GETTING WORD PRESS ERROR AND NOTHING ELSE WAAAAAAAAAA

waaaaaaaa( xed) Feb 25 2011

YAY IT WORKS NOW

Joe Kalange Mar 01 2011

Optional extra section on mirroring your live WP install with XAMMP?

gbsquared Mar 02 2011

Ughhh..I wish I had found this sooner.
I have been running xampp on my localserver for a while now and the tut that I used wasnt
nearly as good.

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yeah Mar 03 2011

Im also wondering just like Jack. What happened to pierre?!?! Not cool. Only reason Im on this
article was for those comments. =/
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Ling Mar 06 2011

aw, this is so cool. by far, the most detail and clear instructions.
I got stuck at the stage where Im @
http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php the screen was just simply blank. no response
at all.
Ling
Would appreciate advise on how to troubleshoot and proceed. thanks!

Ed Mar 07 2011
Kinda weird that I hadnt seen this post before. Its a great and comprehensive post. Tie this in
with Tortoise SVN and youre in business.

markleob Mar 13 2011

hmm i dont know why but i got an error.. i followed the instructions but it says,
Object not found!
The requested URL was not found on this server. The link on the referring page seems to be
wrong or outdated. Please inform the author of that page about the error.
If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster.
Error 404
localhost
3/14/2011 3:52:08 AM
Apache/2.2.17 (Win32) mod_ssl/2.2.17 OpenSSL/0.9.8o PHP/5.3.4 mod_perl/2.0.4 Perl/v5.10.1

Diana Mar 16 2011

I have a problem when I try to run http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php.
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I get the
message:
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Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in C:\xampp\htdocs\wordpress\wp-con g.php on
line 91
I searched this and according to the WP site it seems to be a quite common problem but no
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clear solution seems to have been posted. I know no php and am just following the tutorials.
Can anyone help me out?
Thanks

Diana Mar 16 2011

Ok I added single quotes to the password area of con g.php
/** MySQL database password */
de ne(DB_PASSWORD,');
and I added what appeared to be missing ?> at line 91.
Now I no longer get the $end error but I get a totally blank page instead.
Any suggestions?
Thanks

Diana Mar 16 2011

Its OK gured it out. Turned on debugging in con g.php

ali Mar 18 2011

Its good tutorial. but I get problem when open http://localhost/wordpress/wpadmin/install.php. its always blank page.
Anyone can help me??

markleob Mar 18 2011

hey, please help me. i followed all the instructions but when i installed wordpress and as
supposed to activate it, it says, Error: PHP is not running
WordPress requires that your web server is running PHP. Your server does not have PHP
installed,
or PHP is turned Menu
off.
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>
please help

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Elli Vizcaino Mar 23 2011

Would be nice if this post was updated to re ect installing Xampp on Windows 7, since there
are a lot of issues. Worked great for me when I had XP but cant get Xampp to run
Apache/MySQL on Windows 7. If any one has a solution would greatly appreciate it!

SDnole Mar 23 2011

I am having the same problem as markleob Error: PHP is not running
Since this step #30 is to install PHP, how do I get PHP to install?
Thank you
SDnole

Thuso Mar 26 2011

I had given trying to install any php based cms and e voila, this tutorial swooped into view! Now
am on my way to exercising my ngers tweaking and playing with wp themes! Thanks!

RTIQLIT Mar 31 2011

AWESOME! Works like a charm! Thank you so much!

rachel Mar 31 2011

Okay! After 2 days of trying to do this and dozens of tutorials, it is your tutorial that nally did
the trick.
For those of you out there who cant seem to get it to work-keep trying! Just follow the
instructions EXACTLY, down to using the same names for the database and user name, and
youll get it.
If I did it anyone can

Steve
Apr 10 2011
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Ive had XAMPP on a number of computers for sometime now. Used it as a testing server for
small projects I have done for others. This is a very good example of installing XAMPP as well as
WordPress.
Thanks
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Steve Apr 10 2011

For those running windows 7 and have issues, sorry. I use Windows 7, however, XAMPP and
wordpress are installed on a drive that used to be in my old XP computer. The drive is
connecetd to my computer via USB. I read about installing XAMPP on an external drive when
using windows 7 somewhere back in 2009. Never had an issue. My only fear is that the drive
will die before I backup all the projects I have.

Ozie Apr 12 2011

THANKS for ths tutorial. I just installed XAMPP and the tutorial made it easier than I thought it
would be. Especially sinc the tutorial is 2 years old. I am a newbie and had a problem with the
Apache install because Skype was using Port 80. I was able to gure it out and everything else
went smoothly.

neets Apr 19 2011

Thanks so much. This is an excellent tutorial. I got this going on my Window 7 64 bit system
with a just a few hiccups on my part. In my case the Skype port setting needed to be changed
and I also tweaked the localhost entry in my host le from 0.0.0.0 to 127.0.0.1.

Mike Apr 19 2011

I refer to this everytime someone asks me to install XAMPP and WordPress even though I
have done it many times I still follow this because one step in the wrong order and the database
connection fails I tip my hat to you Sir

Jillian K Apr 30 2011

Really helpful guide youre good at what you do!

LUIS RIVERA ALMEYDA

Apr 30 2011
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Thanks, very complete, much people who are begining will enjoy this tutorial.
Keep on !!

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Gret May 04 2011

2 years later I still come here for the tutorial everytime i create a new local development
environment, thank you so much!!

Lydia May 04 2011

So far, GREAT tutorial. Theres only one part Im confused on.
At this part:
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
de ne(DB_NAME, wordpress_db);
/** MySQL database username */
de ne(DB_USER, wordpress_user);
/** MySQL database password */
de ne(DB_PASSWORD, typeyourpasswordhere);
/** MySQL hostname */
de ne(DB_HOST, localhost);
What do you put at the rst two places? I know this is screaming Dumb. But Im a beginner!
Lydia ~

Gret May 04 2011

BTW, for those having issues installing Xampp with Windows 7 64-bit, try disabling the use of
port 80 in Skype settings, and make sure your hosts le (under
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc) includes this on the list:
127.0.0.1. localhost

shan May 05 2011

The title says WordPress Theme Development and you didnt talk anything about Theme
development.. Anyways nice tutorial..

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Pausey May 05 2011

For anyone that having trouble installing with the

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http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php
check if wordpress_user is under Local
go phpMyAdmin > Privileges > edit(action) wordpress_user > under Change Login Information /
Copy User
under Host dropbox, select Local, it should change the host name from local to localhost
go back to the link and it should work now :P good luck!

Stefan May 13 2011

Absolutely golden. Thanks!

Diogo May 15 2011

Thank you so much for posting! Your post help me to create my blog!!!!
Regards
Diogo.

one9ooh6 May 19 2011

@Pausey, I checked everything twice in this tutorial and I still am getting an error message
connected to the http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.phpplease anyone help me.

sarankumar May 23 2011

keep rocking. :)

John May 25 2011

i just want to say thank you for the tutorial. it easy, and it work. that is all a good tutorial should
be. Thanks!

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Jhanell_17 May 26 2011

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Nice tutorial.It help me a lot, Ihanks

Michelle May 29 2011

Thanks for the tutorial!!!!!!!!!!! I heart Six Revisions!

Anand Singh Nathawat Jun 06 2011

this nice

armoros Jun 08 2011

congrats Great Tutorial

Jesse Jun 10 2011

Thank you so much. I know these tutorials take a long time (especially screenshots etc) so I
thank you for your time. I now have a building block to work from. Genius. Thanks brother.

Derek Jun 13 2011

Phenomenal tutorial. Youve done a great job of providing the depth of detail (and screenshots)
that make a tutorial useful. Thanks for putting so much time into it.

Ankit Jindal Jun 21 2011

Thanks for the great tutorial. U made it quite easy to install xampp and publish the blog..

Simon Jun 22 2011

Perfect tutorial. Exactly what
I needed. Cheers!
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Rae Jun 22 2011

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For newbies like me having issues with the tutorial at the point of OBJECT NOT FOUND
make sure that you do not create a folder called wordpress when you unzip the wordpress
lesthat extra folder throws everything offor at least it did for me

Amy Jun 24 2011

Brilliant! Thanks. Its useful to test wordpress development locally and Ive learnt a bit on the
way. Fab tutorial.

Bright Jun 24 2011

Im using XAMPP too my work with appserv of xammp run quite good.

Johan Kinshasa Jun 27 2011

Great tutorial! All went very welluntil the last step. During steps 39-40, all media failed to
import. Following messages appear:
Failed to import Media xxxxxxx
I can see on my homepage that all content is there except images
Anyone any ideas on what might have gone wrong and how to x it?
Many thanks!

Netrun Jun 28 2011

thank you very much .
most useful.

Rasyid Jun 28 2011

Firstly I didnt know how to use XAMPP, but after I read your articlewoww you can open my
mind..many thanks

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Barry Harmon Jun 29 2011

Good tutorial, but either Im missing something or there is something missing.

I cant get at the WordPress installation at http://localhost/wordpress. I can get at the
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c:/xampp/htdocs/wordpress.
However, I can work only with the localhost version and can ftp only the htdocs version.
What have I done wrong? Is there a link that I should have done? How do I set up the installation
so it will be both workable (editable) and uploadable?
Thanks.

Barry Harmon Jun 29 2011

Have you seen this?
http://grafo.graftek.net/tutorials/using-xampp-for-local-wordpress-theme-development
Cheers,
Barry Harmon

doi Jul 03 2011

Hi, I followed the instructions starting at step 16 since i got lost from the other sites
instructions and was able to install WordPress successfully! Thanks so much for the very
detailed instructions.
Just a quick suggestion, you might want to update the link on Step 33 when importing a test
data. Other than that, Kudos to this site! THANK YOU!!!

MrSmith Jul 04 2011

This may be an oldish how to on wordpress and xampp. Still works to this day with the topic of
installing wordpress locally. Thanks to the author, you de nitely did provide detailed and step
by step.

moon Jul 07 2011

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it is very very good.

Yasse Jul 08 2011

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Hey. Im sorry for my bad english! butit can not be bothered to work. There when I open
http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php hmm .

Michael Jul 11 2011

Thank you for this tutorial absolute life saver!!!!!

John Jul 12 2011

Awesome tutorial. One question: After nishing the site on localhost, what would be the most
ef cient way to transfer everything, say to a clients server?

lek Jul 15 2011

thumbsup!!
was having prob with wamp and wordpress. luckily found your blog about xampp. solved all my
prob. thanks for the helpful tutorial.

Bill Stevens Jul 16 2011

thankyou very much. this newbie had no problem following easy instructions that also inspire
to learn more.

Ole Jul 16 2011

Great help for the rst timers with XAMPP + WordPress! Thanks!

John Jul 18 2011

I was getting so excited about how all this was falling into place until I got here.
http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php

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I have gone and checked what I have done and all appears to be do as per the guide.
I have looked at the root directory for install.php and it reads
xampp/htdocs/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php
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Could you help me where I have gone wrong.

Walker Jul 24 2011

Thank you. Very helpful and useful! Great job.

Jesse Jul 28 2011

Nice tutorial. Used this tutorial to develop my rst WordPress theme. Now all I need to gure
out is how to access my local server from other computers on my network. Can someone please
help me with this or point in me in the right direction? Contact me at [EMAIL REMOVED FOR
PRIVACY], Thanks!

Lionel Aug 05 2011

Just a really minor update, the new link for test data is https://wpcomthemes.svn.automattic.com/demo/test-data.2011-01-17.xml. Awesome tutorial though, not a
bit of dif culty to it.

Joojo Blaze Aug 10 2011

how do i publish the site i have created to my actual online wordpress account?

Michael Aug 14 2011

When I go to the link https://wpcom-themes.svn.automattic.com/demo/test-data.2011-0117.xml all I get is a long string of code. How do I doanload that, and where do I put it?
Great tutorial. Thanks so much.

Michael Aug 14 2011

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Oh, I see
I should have readMenu
that

rst bit of code. Its the directions. Duh!

Laura Aug 15 2011

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Jacob, thank you so much for this very useful and easy to follow tutorial I could NEVER have
gured this out on my own! Did you end up writing that follow up post that @mang requested?
He wrote:
Yes please! I think there are three things that someone like me who wants to develop a
WordPress site on a localhost needs to know:
1: How to copy localhost to server
2: How to copy server to localhost so that I can safely experiment locally with a copy of the
live site.
3: Key to all that is guidance on how to work safely so that I can make and restore a backup.
I appreciate thats a lot to ask for, but making major changes (eg: a version update) to a live site
is the scariest thing when I dont know if anything will break, and even more so when I dont
know how to backup and restore.

callltb Aug 19 2011

Excellent tutorial. It save lot of my time. Thumbs up.

Scott Aug 21 2011

@ANDY Thank You!!!

Sharatkumar Aug 22 2011

Great post. it is very help full to install the wordpress.. thanks a lot :)

Mitesh Aug 26 2011

I have created the wordpress_user as stated in this post. Also generated the password
automatically. Now my problem is i have not noted down that password. It requires to be
entered at wp-con g.php le
Please help how can i retreave that password

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Mitesh Aug 26 2011

sorry found the sollution changed the password clicking on PRIVILEGES It worked
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Ben Aug 27 2011

Thank you. As old as this tutorial is, it is still very current and useful. I was able to set everything
up within just a few minutes. :)

Joshua Howard Sep 02 2011

Jacob,
Thank you, I could not for the life of me get WordPress to work on XAMPPI wasted all say
yesterday messing with it!!; thanks for ending hours of pain and toil! :)

Ewa Matejska Sep 02 2011

Thank you for this article. I was easily able to follow it and setup a local development env.

Joshua Howard Sep 15 2011

Jacob,
Thanks again for this awesome tutorial! It helped me reinstall it easily!
And @Andy THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!
My computer crashed (dead HD), and I had to reinstall WP on XAMPP and kept having the
permissions issue.

Will Sep 20 2011

Thanks Debs, I had the same problem as you and JanetC changing the permalink settings in
wp-admin to default solved the problem.

Maverick Sep 22 2011

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Thank you sooooooo much. this tutorial has been superb very well written!
thanks a ton!

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crgo Sep 23 2011

Is there a way to use this for education purposes. Such as installing at school xammp and then
kids can use their theme development in their mac or pc at thome?
Such as if one student has a mac and needs to work on it but at school we have pcs.

Mike Sep 27 2011

This was super helpful! Thanks a ton for the time spent on this.

Rattandeep Sep 29 2011

Wonderful tutorials .. Many many Thanks :)

Shamim Oct 01 2011

Hey, thanks buddy, nice work and very useful for beginner like me. God bless you.

Shannon Oct 02 2011

Thank you so much for this article. I spent hours trying to gure this out before nding your
wonderful tutorial.

Krista Dior Oct 02 2011

Thanks VERY MUCH for this tutorial. Helped me do my job much, much better!

Ugoh Oct 07 2011

Wow! This article is great, and well detailed.
Thank you immensely, ive really tried to gure this out without success. I very satis ed, now,
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am gonna
give it a try.
However, hope the installation le wont be deleted as in the case of Joomla.

Gerard van Beek Oct 12 2011

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I have followed your instructions to install until step 29.Installing WordPress. I copied the URL
http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php
But the localhost was unknown. I changed it in localhost:8080 that didnt work either.
Also 127.0.0.1:8080 didnt work.
How can I change the con guration needed to use port 8080 voor the localhost.
Port 80 is bussy, occupied bij an MS Windows service.
Best regards,

Brent Oct 15 2011

Ive noticed that this tutorial leads to the admin panel becoming available here:
http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin
What changes would I make if I wanted the admin panel in a different directory, such as:
http://localhost/folder_name/wordpress/wp-admin
Thanks!

Liz Oct 19 2011

Hi, I have by wordpress site set up on my localhost using these instructions but when i go to
the site localhost/mysite i see the home page all is good and when i try to click through the
site to other pages I get an object not found 404 error.
what did I miss?

Samadara G. Oct 20 2011

Nicely written article. Well detailed. Cant be more simpli ed for a beginner. Keep up the great
work!

Juni Oct 21 2011

I am a beginner and I really like it. Very detailed that can be understood by all beginners. Please
Menu like this. A step-by-step from beginner to expert.
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continue
to have more tutorials

Austin Oct 22 2011

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THANK YOU SO MUCH. This was the most helpful tutorial ever! Now I can nally develop
wordpress themes locally. Thanks for the help.

Wamiq Ali Oct 26 2011

Yeah! indeed much helpful for all newbies around ;)

herlan Oct 27 2011

nice article friend. Thank you for your share.

Sinfullysweet Oct 28 2011

Awesome tutorial! I didnt think I could do that on my home computer, but it was a breeze. Your
article helped me out so much, now I can test out my wordpress themes from my computer
rather than online!

Con Nov 09 2011

Great tutorial and I gotta say Andy, champion for the chown -R x for the WordPress le
permissions issue!

Mithun Nov 16 2011

Great article for local host installation i am really grateful to author of this site. I hope
you will publish this kind of articles in future and help the visitors
thanks.

fu Nov 20 2011
Thank you sooooooo much. this tutorial has been superb very well written!

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thanks
a ton!

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Lalit Mali Nov 26 2011

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Just Awesome! Everything step-by-step and with screenshots explains everything so good.
Thx a ton sixrevisions :)

Arwen Taylor Nov 26 2011

Thank you so much for this tutorial. Now I can edit templates without needing a live site. Yay!

Monique Dec 12 2011

Great tutorial! Not hard to understand for a newbie like me.
I was doing very well while following your instructions until i got to the wordpress installation
part. It shows an error instead of the wordpress welcome page. I looked up everything from the
beginning if i did something wrong but i could not nd any. Maybe you can help me out
Keep up the great job!

Nick Jun 17 2012

I cannot gure out how to download the test data, I know someone said the page was directions
but I dont understand them, I downloaded dreamweaver to convert the les if needed, please
help ! I wanna continue with the blog design set up

Ward Oct 08 2012

Hi! Do you use Twitter? Id like to follow you if that would be okay. Im absolutely
enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.

Muhammad Imran Jun 02 2013

Excellent tutorial

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Mike Jun 20 2013

Hi Jacob
Superb step by step with clear instructions and visual screenshots to take away any
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misunderstanding.
Brilliant and any person who follows your instructions can set this up.
Thanks again for a great tool for testing sites before they go live or for creating sites to sell!
Cheers
Mike

aan Sep 18 2013

thanks :)

triforce7 Dec 05 2013

thank you for the helpful tutorial

This comment section is closed. Please contact us if you have important new information
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