Building sites on localhost

Have a look at Moving_WordPress. For obvious reasons, I wouldn’t recommend developing a complete site locally.

Thanks. So I take it that word press was kind of designed to be developed ‘live’ versus on a development machine where it can then be relocated easily as an html website can.

Still though, and aside from a database or widgets, one might think that the files wouldn’t care much what server they reside on and inter-relate just fine with each other. I’m a wordpress newbie and don’t know any better so thanks for your patience… lol

So I take it that word press was kind of designed to be developed ‘live’

Yes.

No that is not true. You need to install a webserver, PHP and MySQL to have it running locally. Every CMS or webbased software you use requires this. Stating you can only use WordPress in a live environment is simply not true.

For beginners it is easier to do it in that way though, so if it is an option, feel free to do so. If you want to really learn on developing websites in WordPress then install it locally. This is explained on the codex:

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/WordPress_Installation_Techniques

Just scroll down to the ‘Install WordPress locally’ section.

No that is not true.

In what way? It is far easier (and always has been) to develop a site online than to develop it on a local server and move the site – wholesale – to a remote server.

That does not make WordPress ‘designed to be developed live’.

The development itself is much quicker/easier when doing locally. It is just that setting it up and moving it takes more time.

It is just that setting it up and moving it takes more time.

Which can be next to impossible for new – or non-technical – users. In that sense, and based on the fact that the orginal comparison was made between WP and a static HTML site, it wouldm be perfectly valid to state that WordPess was kind of designed to be developed ‘live’

Thanks for the replies to this thread. My “preference” has always been to develop on my Apache/MySQL/PHP development machine and then roll it out when completed versus developing ‘live’.

When I downloaded WordPress recently though, to take a serious look, it occurred to me that I wasn’t seeing what I was used to looking at when I looked at folders that should have been housing my work. There WAS NO 5 or 6 html or css files that were the bulk of my work that I could then just upload to a server. And as I write that, I’m referring to just the front end ‘look’ of a website, not the backside and obvious MySQL requirements but then not every page, is or needs to be viewed as a CMS and it’s a CMS that clearly would require some back service in terms of MySQL.

All the humble opinion of a WP newbie… lol

@coverland –

With WP, there are no “pages” as there are with a static HTML site. That is what the MySQL database is for: the text of your pages and posts is stored in and retrieved from that database. WP does not generate any “pages” ?? Any media that you add is stored in the WP file system on the server (local or remote) the reference to which is also stored in that database (via absolute path, btw).

Generally speaking, there are three main parts to a WP install:

1 – the WP installation files – what makes it work
2 – the database – where pages/posts content and settings are kept
3 – the wp-content folder – where your images, media, themes, plugins are kept

Once you get the hang of it, WP is SO much easier than static (IMHO of course ??