Although WordPress will run on Windows/IIS, chances are, your Web hosting will be on a Linux box running Apache. So, the best way to recreate that environment for local development on your desktop or notebook is to install a local Web server package. What I use now to develop new WordPress sites is WampServer 2.

WampServer emulates the Apache Web server with PHP and MySQL installed. All the necessary modules that WordPress needs (e.g., mod rewrite) are present, and it takes just a few minutes to install and run. Do you feel a how-to coming on…?

OK, let’s get started. I’m assuming here that you use Windows. If not, I’m sure you’ll find something similar for your Mac.

Installing WampServer

Download WampServer 2 from the link above, and install it on your local machine. It will do everything in the background for you, including installing PHP and MySQL. What’s more, you’ll even have access to your own phpMyAdmin and, if you prefer the classic approach, a MySQL console.

After installation and initial launch, you’ll get a WampServer icon on your system tray, looking like half a speedometer. Click on it to bring up the menu. If it’s not online, click on Put Online. If you type “localhost” on your browser URL bar, you will see something like this page:

To install WordPress, follow the steps below. But before that, don’t forget to activate Apache’s rewrite module — without this, you won’t be able to make use of WordPress permalinks. Left-click on the WampServer icon on the system tray, and go to Apache » Apache modules. You’ll then get a long list of modules arranged alphabetically. Look for rewrite_module and check it.

Installing WordPress

OK, now for WordPress. Extract the WordPress .zip file onto c:\ — this will create c:\wordpress. You may change the name of the folder to anything that you fancy, but for our purposes, let’s keep it as is.

Bring up the WampServer menu, and create an alias directory: Apache » Alias directories » + Add an alias. This will cause a command-prompt window to open with the following screen:

Enter your alias.
For example,
 
'test'
 
would create an alias for the url
 
http://localhost/test/
:_

Let’s use blog as our alias. The next screen will show this:

Enter the destination of your alias.
For example,
 
'c:/test/'
 
would make http://localhost/blog/ point to
 
c:/test/
:_

Enter c:/wordpress/, the directory we created earlier. When successful, a message saying “Alias created. Please Enter to exit…” will appear. Now you’ve created a website account with the URL, http://localhost/blog/.

Next, let’s create the database and database user in MySQL. Take a look at this page from the WordPress.org codex for step-by-step instructions on creating databases using phpMyAdmin.

Armed with your database name, username and password, you can now go ahead and perform the famous WordPress 5-minute install. Load http://localhost/blog/ on your browser, and you’ll see that WordPress says it will create the configuration file for you. Go to the next screen and enter the database credentials, and voilá! You now have a WordPress site running on your desktop or notebook!

WP2.8’s theme installation / uploading should work, as well as the similar interface for plugins. Everything should look and feel as if you had a live WordPress install, except that this one’s probably much faster and responsive.

To the bat cave!

After you’ve done your design work, template-tweaking and all your customizations, after publishing your new site’s static pages (”About”, “Contact Form”, etc.), and probably a few blog posts as well, you can now deploy your WordPress site onto your production server.

Backup your database by following this excellent procedure written by Automattic.

Use cPanel or FTP to transfer the WordPress folders and files (wp-admin, wp-includes, wp-content & all the .php and other files in the main directory) to your website account on your production server. No need to reinstall WordPress. Simply transfer the entire local site to the live Web.

WP-DBManager options

If you’ve installed plugins (e.g., WP-DBManager) that have settings asking for server paths, make sure to change them to the proper values as soon as you finish transferring your site. Take a look at the screenshot of WP-DBManager, which I installed in my own WampServer-driven local WordPress site. As you will see, the server paths indicated are those of my local machine’s. After deploying this site to the Web, I should change these values to my production server’s paths. (Good thing this plugin has auto-detect buttons!)

Now for your database. Presumably, you already have a .sql file on your local hard drive, generated by the backup procedure above.

On your production server, bring up phpMyAdmin and create a database with the same name as the one you created earlier on your local machine. Specify the same username and password as well. (Otherwise, if you use different database login credentials, change those values in your wp-config.php file.) Now, choose that new database and select Import from one of the horizontal tabs, and follow the instructions.

And that’s it! Your new WordPress-powered site’s live!

There are, however, a few things that I’d like to see added to this plugin’s features. My wish list:

• Image uploader and corresponding settings for display of uploaded images; or, integration with WordPress’ media library
• Improved html/php parser — when inserting event details text in the sidebar widget, html code is not parsed properly, which results in unterminated html containers
• Google Maps integration

Two seminars on WordPress will be held this month in Davao City. One is for bloggers, and the other one is for Web developers who are looking into using WordPress as a content management system (CMS).

Here are the schedules:

Lane Systems locator map

Seminar 1: WordPress as CMS

Date: 3 July 2009 (Friday)

Time: 5:00 – 8:00 P.M.

Venue: Lane Systems conference room, Wheels n’ More Drive, J.P. Laurel Ave., Bajada, Davao City (in the compound where Urban Club & AutoShop are located)

Fee: ₱450 per person

This seminar will tackle the fundamentals of the WordPress engine: the templating system; built-in PHP functions for delivering & manipulating content; design elements; introduction to theme & plugin design. Installation and maintenance best practices will also be included. Prerequisites: PHP, XHTML & CSS.

PhilNITS locator map

Seminar 2: WordPress for Bloggers

Date: 4 July 2009 (Saturday)

Time: 2:00 – 6:00 P.M.

Venue: PhilNITS Lab, 5/F Mintrade Bldg, Monteverde cor. Sales Sts. (this is the building where DTI-11 is located; at the ground floor is PNB)

Fee: ₱300 per person  |  Student rate: ₱150

The seminar for bloggers will feature advanced coverage on WordPress deployment & utilization: how to make the most out of your self-hosted WordPress installation. Important topics: theme management; plugin management; SEO basics; introduction to the world of server hosting. Bonus topic: AdSense integration and optimization, c/o Lyle Santos.

The seminar fees will go towards renting of the venue and cost of materials. Payment will be collected at the door.

To join either of the seminars (or both), please register by fillling out this form.

Sponsored By: 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit - 27 Oct 2007, Davao City

Ever since I discovered the Woo rockstars, I’ve made over all my blogs with premium WordPress themes from their fantastic collection. They have themes for straightforward blogs, for magazine-type sites, online news, portfolio sites, even e-commerce webs. WooThemes are designed with function and form in mind. And as if it weren’t enough to give us professionally-crafted theme packages, each theme ships with several color schemes. Talk about major giveaways!

What’s more, WooThemes are avidly supported by their designers, as well as by a large community of “Woo ninjas” and users. Their support forum is an excellent resource that can help you explore how you can extend the functionality of your WordPress themes. And, problems do crop up once in a while — good thing is, chances are, you’ll find the solution in the forum.

Hurry! Their 4-for-1 deal lasts only up to 24 June 2009. But just in case you miss that one, there’s still the 2-for-1 perpetual promo at WooThemes.com.

(This is NOT a paid post.)

Sponsored By: DVO Bloggers Network - the Davao blogosphere

It displays your code in its own space, and there’s even syntax highlighting! The plugin author’s site doesn’t say so, but it actually works with the <pre> HTML container. No need to use those curly braces thingies as detailed in the plugin homepage. Also, it works just fine on WordPress 2.8.

In fact, that’s what they’re calling their launch: TV is dead.

If you think that’s hilarious, you should check out Kring’s blog! Anyway, here’s the press release for the launching party of this brave venture. (I wish I could say “See you there!” but — alas! — I’m all the way down south and probably won’t have the opportunity to visit the capital in July.)

FLIPPISH is a play on the word Filipino. It means anything that has Filipino flavor or could also mean something that is odd, crazy or weird. Flippish.com is the first Pinoy online video channel that produces original online shows that are of broadcast quality. The people behind flippish believe that it is about time that we Filipinos take on the challenge of coming up with online entertainment that is of international standards.

THE SHOWS

Flippish.com pushes the creative boundaries by creating a variety of bite-sized (5-8 minutes) videos that appeal to Filipinos of all shapes and sizes!

Shows that cover diverse genres such as Direk, a comedy about a hot-headed, emotional and over-the-top director who allows you to see what goes on in the world of production when the cameras stop rolling and LSS, which showcases some of the most talented, unsigned Filipino artists, whose songs might be the next big hit playing in your head. Another show is Flippish Specials, which is a collection of featured videos, event coverages, and documentaries made by the team.
Flippish.com will tickle your funny bone, get you up to speed on the latest hotspots and goings-on around and outside the Metro, stimulate you brain cells with thought-provoking reality shows and most importantly, entertain you until it becomes an essential part of your daily internet habit!

BEHIND THE SCENES

Flippish.com is spearheaded by Chris Tan, the Co-Founder and the Managing Director of Ideal Minds and Kring Elenzano, the Creative Director of Ideal Minds and Flippish.com. Chris is also currently the director for the Asian Poker Tour Series and was recognized as one of the Top 10 Entrepreneurs of the Year by Entrepreneur Magazine in 2005. Kring, on the other hand, is one of the hottest young TV directors in the industry with several projects under her belt such as the reality TV show RIVERMAYA: BAGONG LIWANAG! In the blogosphere, she is known by her handle, FunnySexy.

R.I.P., TV

Flippish.com will finally be officially launched on July 2, 2009 at Fiamma at Jupiter St., Makati. With the availability of the internet and increasing broadband speed, more people spend more time online nowadays and for these reasons, the people behind Flippish.com believe that “Television is Dead.” and that online entertainment is the wave of the future. Appropriately, this, too, is the theme of the launch party. New shows and talents will be introduced that night and viewers and fans may register on the site to receive special invites for the party.

For more information about the website, its shows and the launch party, do check out www.flippish.com.

For about a year — because I really had no plans of taking up photography on any serious level — Foodnography.com was relegated to the backburner. I just put up a definition page with a Google search engine on it. But that all changed last May 2009 when I decided to transform it into a WordPress photo blog dedicated to food. And hopefully populate it with orgasmic shots of gustatory photography.

Today, I have decided to open the blog up to contributors. For the growth of Foodnography.com, I welcome submissions of high-quality photographs of food and beverages from all over the world. Naturally, there’ll be lots of link-love to go around for those generous enough to help make the site a success!

Foodnography.com is currently running on WordPress 2.8, and sports the über-cool premium theme, Aperture, from WooThemes.com. Important plugins used: WP-PostRatings and cforms. As with my other blogs, you can also view Foodnography.com on your iPhone or iPod touch, thanks to another plugin, WPtouch iPhone Theme.

Sponsored By: 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit - 27 Oct 2007, Davao City

The WordCamp Philippines online store will be open very soon! Please bookmark the official site or subscribe to the RSS feed to keep tabs.

T-shirts? Of course we’ll still have t-shirts! Watch out for ‘em!

Sponsored By: DVO Bloggers Network - the Davao blogosphere

AyosDito.ph

AyosDito.ph is a fairly new online service that lets anybody who has access to the Internet buy and sell stuff. There are a number of other similar sites, but AyosDito.ph is unique in that it’s very straightforward and it’s not built on top of a bulletin board.

Their no-frills interface immediately makes online buyers aware of what’s important: “what’s available?” No more need for user registration or lengthy sign-up processes — although, this might pose a problem in the future… but I’m sure the people behind AyosDito.ph have already considered the implications.

Items for sale — even job openings, land for lease, services, etc. — are conveniently organized by Philippine region. If you’re in Davao City, just click on the Region XI area on the map and you’re good to go! On that next screen, you’ll be presented with a list of new items.

Searching for stuff is also quite simple. Looking for shoes & accessories? Their powerful on-site search engine is your best bet to find them and more!

The entry of AyosDito.ph — “It’s great here” — is a breath of fresh air in the otherwise crowded and often confusing online buy-and-sell space. It’s not yet a full-fledged e-commerce Web site, however, because actual transactions take place offline. I suppose their objective at this juncture is to provide a hassle-free venue for buyers and sellers to find each other. Hopefully, in the near future, AyosDito.ph will evolve into a robust e-commerce hub for Filipinos.