WordPress on XAMPP: A Comprehensive Guide

Have you ever heard of the free and open-source content management system called WordPress? It’s built on PHP and uses MySQL or MariaDB for storing the content. WordPress is popularly known for building websites and blogs due to its user-friendly interface, customizable nature, and vast library of plugins and themes. And one popular way to run WordPress locally is by using XAMPP. XAMPP is an open-source web server solution that bundles Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl. Are you ready to dive into the world of WordPress on XAMPP? Follow these steps!

Step 1: Installing XAMPP

Before giving a shot at XAMPP, make sure your system meets the minimum requirements. XAMPP can run on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. Download the XAMPP package that corresponds to your operating system’s official website. Once downloaded, double-click on the installer file, and follow the onscreen instructions. During the installation process, you will be prompted to select the components you wish to install. Make sure to select the Apache, MySQL, and PHP checkboxes, and you can also choose to install additional components like Perl and phpMyAdmin. After the installation process, launch XAMPP to start the Apache and MySQL services.

Step 2: Downloading WordPress

The next step is to download the latest version of WordPress from the official WordPress website. Extract the zip file and copy the contents to the htdocs folder located in the XAMPP installation directory, which could have any name. By default, the path is C:\xampp\htdocs.

Step 3: Creating a Database

WordPress needs a MySQL or MariaDB database to store its contents. You need to create a database before installing WordPress. To do this, access phpMyAdmin from the XAMPP Control Panel or by typing http://localhost/phpmyadmin in your web browser. Once logged in, click on the Databases tab and enter the name of the database you wish to create. Make sure to select the collation type as utf8_general_ci.

Step 4: Configuring WordPress

After creating the database, WordPress needs to configure it to connect to the specified database. Go to the WordPress folder, locate the wp-config-sample.php file, and rename it to wp-config.php. Open the wp-config.php file and replace the placeholders with the name of the database you created in step 3, your MySQL username, and your MySQL password, respectively. Save the changes and close the file.

Step 5: Installing WordPress

To install WordPress, access http://localhost/wordpress/ in your web browser. If you renamed the WordPress folder, replace the “wordpress” in the URL with the new folder name. Once the installation page loads, select your language and click on the Continue button. Next, enter the database name, username, password, and host as “localhost.” If you created the database with a different name or host, replace the values with the accordingly. Click on the Submit button and wait for WordPress to verify the database connection. If WordPress can connect to the database, you will be prompted to enter your site title, username, password, and email address. After entering the required information, click on the Install WordPress button to complete the installation process.

Step 6: Administering WordPress

To administer WordPress, access http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/ in your web browser. Enter your username and password to access the WordPress dashboard. From here, you can customize your website, create new posts and pages, install plugins and themes, and much more.

Conclusion

Running WordPress on XAMPP is an excellent way to develop and test websites and blogs locally before deploying them to a live server. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can install and configure WordPress on XAMPP in no time. With WordPress being so prevalent, it is a valuable skill to be able to run it on XAMPP. We hope that this guide is helpful and that it helps you take your WordPress knowledge to the next level.