How to Install Wordpress Manually

This applies to Wordpress on our legacy Minimus, Medius, or Maximus shared hosting plans only. If you want to install Wordpress on a newer Mega, Giga, Tera, or Wordpress plan please see here:

Install Wordpress on newer plans

For the best performance on Wordpress sites we recommend our Wordpressplans. If you are interested in moving to a Wordpress plan from a legacy plan then the following may help:

Moving from legacy shared hosting to a Wordpress plan

For most people, the easiest way to install Wordpress is through our Application Vault, however if you would prefer to perform the installation manually, the following will guide you through the process.

Bear in mind, this process requires that you are comfortable performing the following:

Accessing your server and files via FTP
Modifying text files
Creating and modifying a database

Contents

Downloading Wordpress
Creating the Database
Setting up wp-config.php
Uploading the files
Completing the Installation

Downloading Wordpress

Download and unzip the Wordpress package from https://wordpress.org/download/

The package will extract into a folder called wordpress in the same directory.

Creating the Database

To create a new Database , first sign in to your Blacknight account.

How to sign in to your Control Panel

In the top navigation bar, click on More Services → Databases.
Click Add new Database.
From the drop down box, choose MySQL 5, and click next.
On the next page, fill in the options as follows:
- Database name: wordpress
- Allow Access from External Hosts: Leave this unchecked
- Database username: A username of your own choosing
- Password: A strong password of your choosing, you can also click generate and we will auto-generate a secure password for you.
Make note of the Database name, Username and Password, you will need them again.
Click next, and on the page that loads click on the name of the database you just created.
Under database info, make note of the internal hostname, we will need this later.

Setting up wp-config.php

Next we will configure our new Wordpressinstallation by editing the wp-config.php file.

Open the Wordpress folder we unzipped previously
Rename the file wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php.
Open the newly renamed file in a text editor, and scroll to the section labeled:
```
// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
```

Edit the information in the following sections with the information you made note of during the set up of the MySQL database:

DB_NAME - The name of the database we created

DB_USER - The username we created

DB_PASS - The password for the database

DB_HOST - The internal hostname we made note of

5. Enter your secret key values under the section labeled: Authentication Unique Keys

6. Save the newly edited wp-config.php file.

Uploading the files

Now you will need to decide where on your domain you'd like your WordPress-site to appear.

In the root directory of your website. (For example, http://example.com/)
Or, in a sub directory of your website. (For example, http://example.com/blog/)

In the Root Directory:

Using your FTP client, upload the contents of the Wordpress folder (but not the folder itself) to the root folder of your website

In a Sub Directory:

Rename the Wordpress folder to your desired name
Using your FTP client, upload the entire Wordpress folder to the desired location of your website

Run the Installer Script

To finalize the Wordpress installation, open your web browser, and navigate to the Wordpress Installer Script:

If you placed the WordPress files in the root directory, you should visit: http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php
If you placed the WordPress files in a sub directory called blog, for example, you should visit: http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php

Follow the instructions on screen to complete the manual installation of Wordpress.

During this process, if you run into any issues, Wordpress have put together an extensive step by step, and troubleshooting guide outlining the entire process:

https://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress

Additional Support

As always, should you require more assistance in relation to this issue, please contact our Helpdesk explaining your issue - and what you have done to this point, and we will be happy to assist you further.

Please see our full contact information, on our main website: Contact Us.

Alternatively, email help@blacknight.com for assistance.