Lay My Hat

I know there is a long thread about wordpress, but I am struggling to understand it.

I have been to the site and downloaded. Now I am stuck. the instructions talk about creating a database and a MySQL user. I don't know what this means!

Our website is hosted by oneandone. I also have some other domain names. I want to put a blog onto one of the other domain names.

Our website is looked after by my husband, who is very jumpy at the thought that anything I do might affect our website.

Please can someone talk me through it step by step - or tell me where I can find an idiots guide.

Thanks

Ju

Ju,

This sounds like it could be a very useful topic for many others, so I'm sure everyone who has knowledge of this will jump in and participate.

First, creating the database. I have a few domains registered at 1and1.com, but I don't have any hosting packages, so I don't know if I can talk you through this in the sense of posting screenshots etc. However, creating a database will most likely have to be done through their control panel.

I did just find a PDF guide to hosting at 1and1 that, on page 32, describes how to set up a MySQL database:

To configure your database on the 1&1 database server go to ‘Applications’ > ‘MySQL Administration’.

On the “Setup and Configure a MySQL Database� page click on ‘Set Up’ . After a brief wait, your database is available for further configuration.

You can access the database with any common script language such as PHP, Perl or Python. To manage your database with phpMyAdmin, click on 'phpMyAdmin'. This will launch your 1&1 phpMyAdmin interface.

And that's all the information it has about MySQL database setup, so I suppose after reading that you don't need to download the file!

The key is that you have to set up a new database, which you will probably be able to name (but maybe not, I don't know how 1and1 works). This will likely automatically create a MySQL user.

Once the database is created, you should be able to find the information you need on some sort of database properties page. You need to know the name of the server you use to connect to the database, your MySQL username, password, and the name of the database. You will only have to specify this stuff once for WordPress, and the WordPress setup instructions tell you exactly which file to put it in.

If, after creating the database according to the instructions, you can't find the connection information, I would suggest contacting 1and1's help and getting them to point you in the right direction. I wish I could be more helpful, but as I said, I don't have a hosting package with them, so I can't point you right to it.

Tell your husband not to worry -- creating a database won't do anything to your existing website!

(This is not very helpful I know, but having looked at how to set up WordPress I went with Typepad, which is easier but less flexible).

Once you have set up the database, you will have a MySQL admin icon where you can get all the info, passwords etc. This is as far as I have got with 1and1 too.

Ju,
I too have been struggling to understand the long wordpress thread you are referring to, and I have a HUGE dilemma at the moment. I've created a new "blog", on www.normandycottage.wordpress.com which I am thinking about using as my main website, and embedding my existing blog within it. (Musetta's blog was my inspiration, and I have used the same template).

At the moment, I am hoping to be able to complete this without downloading wordpress and customising it myself, but I'm not too sure if I really can achieve the look and feel that I really want.

But, in the meantime, I've started watching some of the video clips suggested by Mountain Goat, buried on about page 6 of that long thread, and I REALLY RECOMMEND THEM for new wordpress users. I also recommend them for people, like me, who have dabbled in wordpress but are struggling, because I've already learnt quite a few very basic things that I hadn't realised because I had tried to run before I could walk.

So I am posting the link in here, as this is definitely a really useful idiot's guide.
http://www.georgetownprofessor.net/podblog/?page_id=47

(One thing though, I think it is based on an earlier version of Wordpress, as for example I couldn't find the link to the advanced wysiwyg editor plug-in, only to find that you now get to it by clicking an icon on the normal wysiwyg editor. But the point is, I didn't even know that there was an advanced wysiwyg editor in the first place!!!!)

NC,

Did you know that your WP blog seems to be getting some link love? It's appearing in the viral T-Lists that are frequenting travel blogs. Some big hitters too, see this example:

http://tripcart.typepad.com/tripcart_th ... part_.html

Garri like the look of the chalet buzz. Added my name to your list.

Thanks for the tip Garri, I did notice in my blog stats some mention of t-list but I didn't know what it meant! Is this a good thing? You mention "big hitters" - what do you mean?
What is Link Love?
However, although I was getting loads of hits, all on one day last week, I'm back down to very few hits again. I give up!!!!

Link Love ?

I thought he was just being a tad over affectionate!!

NC, by big hitters I mean popular sites such as Tripcart. You're also on a number 'industry' sites, some of which are subscribed to by the travel press.

Link love, as I know it, is blogging parlance for non-reciprocal links (and often reciprocal links).

In our cases (as HP is also featured on these T-lists) we haven't reciprocated, or at least I haven't, so in that sense it's pure unadulterated link L-O-V-E.

Nice, eh?

So, Ju, how's the installation going?

Badly!!

I really haven't had the time I need to sit down and concentrate on it. I've managed to get a blog live by using the oneandone blog builder, which is powered by wordpress, but it is very inflexible and you really can't do much with it.

This is where I am so far:

www.vendee-holiday-gites.co.uk

I'm not intending it to replace our website, rather to use to to move the "blog" part off our main site onto something more suitable.

I'll try and look at the link NC put on to see if it helps me.

Ju

TCC, love the Carbonnade recipe, one of my favs, but we do it with a bread topping, spread with mustard, then crisped up in the oven on top of the beef.

Ju, that is why I stopped my 1and1 blog, for the same reason, and my wordpress.com one looked better.

1and1 at www.blog.chamoissiere.co.uk but I haven't done anything to it for ages.

After a bit of a delay (summer holidays and all that - for some reason I haven't had much time lately - can't imagine why - 3 children, 3 properties!!) I'm now back on to wordpress.

I've done the MySQL database bit, and I am now on step 5 of the installation:

Place the WordPress files in the desired location on your web server:

* If you want to integrate WordPress into the root of your domain (e.g. http://example.com/), move or upload all contents of the unzipped WordPress directory (but excluding the directory itself) into the root directory of your web server.

Which to me reads a bit like - "blah blah blah blah blah!"

How do I put wordpress files onto my server??

Ju