When installing WordPress you will need to have access to at least one database through your website host. The database holds the meat of the WordPress blog. When doing research on a website host, be sure they provide at least one database in so that you can install WordPress on your website.
Setting Up a Database
When signing up with a website host they will provide you with information to log into your client control panel. Most website hosts use what is called Cpanel, and this is where most web masters manage their website files, databases, and email accounts.
We will be using the Cpanel interface as a base for this tutorial.
Step #1 Create a Database – After you log into your Cpanel, find the icon that says “MySQL Databases” and click on it.
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On the next page you will see a box that says “Create New Database.” There you will enter the name of the database that will be used for your new WordPress blog. After you enter the name click create database.
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Step #2 Create a User – In order for the database to work you will need to assign a user and user privileges. On the page you created the database you will find a section that says “Add New User.” Here you will pick out a username, and a password for the new database user.
Please keep write down the password assigned to the user as you will need this information later on when configuring WordPress for installation. It is a good idea to create a strong database password to avoid being hacked.
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Next you will want to add the new user you created to the database you created. This can be done on the same page in the section titled “Add User to Database”:
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On the next page you will need to assign user privileges. Just click “All Privileges” and then click make changes.
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On the page where you created the database you will now see your database, and the user name. Write down the database name, and database user name. Keep this information together with the password you wrote down in a previous step.
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Step #3 Editing Your Wp-Config.php File – The wp-config.php is how you will connect your WordPress blogging script to the database you just created. If you haven’t already downloaded the WordPress script to your computer then now is the time to do so. The latest version of WordPress can be downloaded here: http://wordpress.org/download/
Once you have downloaded the files to your computer you will want to unzip the files. Next open up the wp-config-sample.php file in your text editor. Edit the following fields with the database information you wrote down in the previous step:
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Save this file as wp-config.php within your WordPress folder that holds all the other WordPress script files. In the next tutorial we will work on uploading the WordPress files to the website and finish the process of installing a self hosted WordPress blog on your domain name.
