also spracht martad

Once you have set up and organised local and remote directories, you can now create and store the WordPress configuration file for the first test blog, which, in the example I am using for this tutorial, is called martad7 and will be installed at

This is how you set up the configuration file:

A.    Locate your local copy of the wp-config-sample.php file, which is inside your local wordpress directory.
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It is a horribly gloomy day in this Sunny [Gateway-to-Heaven] location in between NSW’s [Million-Dollar-Views] Central Coast and [Fantastic-Lifestyle] Mid-North Coast. One of us wants to start painting the living room and needs help taking the heavy curtains down. I help, but the job is heavier than both of us expected. We struggle and laugh. And James comments:

It is either a fool or a wise person who can laugh in the face of such adversities.

‘Who said it?’, I ask. He can’t remember, so I guess we can quote him for that - for now, at least.

After transferring the WP tar.gz file to the correct directory on your Web server, the archive needs to be uncompressed to extract the program (WordPress).

If you have followed my instructions at Step 6, your WordPress compressed archive will be located at /usr/WWW/users/replaceusername/sboxcrnr/wordpress-2.1.3.tar.gz.

Decompressing the archive requires that you access your Web server through Telnet or SSH, where you can issue commands to interact with your remote directories and files. Both Telnet and SSH are available through Mac OS X’s Terminal utility. To decompress the wordpress-2.1.3.tar.gz archive and extract the WordPress program,
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In Step 2: Drafting an installation plan, you would have noted down the Web address (URI) you want your first blog to have. This first blog is the one you’ll be using to perform your first WP installation with this tutorial, and also to get familiar with the way WordPress blogs are managed and used.

Your sample test blog can be anywhere you like on the virtual Web server pair.com provides for your account. For the sake of this exercise, I will make references to the test blog I set up to test this tutorial, and leave it to you to edit as needed the details for your test blog, its URI and location.
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Before attempting to install your first blog, you must activate and set up the MySQL database that will hold the data, i.e. the actual contents of all your blogs. This is simply done on pair.com through the ACC (Account Control Center) [ 1 ]:

A.    Login to the ACC.

B.    In the Main Menu, choose Advanced Features, then Database Administration.
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This Step is sometimes referred to as “Downloading the source code”. Now because I’m no computer geek-wiz (and never had any aspiration to becoming a programmer, as previously stated), anything called or referred to as “source code” makes me fear I might have ended up in the wrong place.

So please pretend you’ve never heard of this “source code” bit, and just follow these simple instructions for obtaining a copy of the WordPress program:

A.    Use Safari to go to the WordPress download page.
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Because I am describing the installation procedure for getting multiple WP blogs up and running on a remote host, the following requirements need to be ascertained for your Web host, not your local computer. (It is of course possible to install WordPress locally, that is, on your own computer - however, this is a completely different scenario, and I’ll be adding instructions on how to install WP on Mac OSX Panther and Tiger in some future article….. not here!)

For WordPress (up to version 2.1.3) to run smoothly on your hosted Web servers,

A.    Your host must provide the following:
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I think the reason why my first attempts at installing WP did not succeed, was that I did not take the time to stop and think long enough to lay down a decent installation plan. So before moving on, I suggest that you take the time to identify the following elements and make notes that will help you through the installation process:

A.    Expected number of blog users

B.    Expected number of blogs per user

C.    Domain mapping and URI of blogs
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Identifying one’s requirements can greatly help in choosing the right solution. Before moving on, I believe it’s worth for you to compare your requirements and expectations with mine. The next steps will obviously make more sense, the more similar our situations are.

Requirement #1

I maintain a number of personal and business Websites. Some of our clients and ourselves wanted a way to make topical or time-sensitive information available on the Web, without having to meet any of the following conditions:

1. having to depend on myself (as the Webmaster) to create a new or update an existing Website, or
2. having to learn HTML, FTP, nor any other basic Web publishing skills.

Requirement No. 1 is therefore that final users do not need to have any knowledge of Web design, HTML, file transfer procedures, server access etc.
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