Geeks are Sexy have a useful post on Installing WordPress Locally Under Windows XP for those of you who might like to do so (and those who have a PC). As Kiltak comments in the posts, having a local version can be ‘useful because it lets you fool around with themes and plugins to your heart’s desire without having to risk breaking your live blog.’
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Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
It’s a good idea…personally I just grabbed a 1.00 .info domain and copied my site there as a test site. More realisic testing since it runs on the same server as my real site.
Odd. When I want to mess with WP (or any software) I just install it into another directory on my host’s server. I prefer to do it in a live and known environment than on my PC that is definitely not a realistic environment.
I have being testing WordPress themes and plugins offline for months now. It is much better as I can save my bandwidth as well as save my blog from many problems.
Those of you interested in setting up WordPress in EasyPHP,take a look at this article posted 2 weeks before.
It maybe a good idea, however I don’t like messing my local PC. Hence I’d agree with both Jon and A.B.
There are few alternatives of going about it, one example is
#1. Set up a subdomain and name it zz or whatever that stands out of your root folder.
#2 Install WP at that folder.
#3 put this User-agent: * Disallow: /zz on your .htaccess, so spider won’t crawl that subdomain. (optional)
#4 Install this firefox plugin http://chrispederick.com/work/webdeveloper/ to edit your template and whatever you fancy live.
I used to edit my templates via Dreamweaver but when I discover this plugin, my workload cut down by 80%. And along the way, I learn more neat tricks. ;p
Along with Jon, I also like installing WP on another directory within my site. Not only does it provide me with a “live” blog to test features on, it also allows other readers to see what various tests have done (since I blog about the changes as well).
“It maybe a good idea, however I don’t like messing my local PC. Hence I’d agree with both Jon and A.B.”
The procedure doesn’t really “mess up your PC”, it install a stand-alone version of apache and myphp that is independant to windows. If you configure it properly, it doesnt even integrate itself to the services, and you have to start them manually when you want to fool around with them. When you are finished, just ininstall and boom, there’s nothing left.
Working that way is
A- Faster for browsing, editing and testing
B- Doesn’t leave any traces on the surf filters logs at your employer (so you can work on your WP installation in peace)
Not wishing to be picky, but it looks pretty much like the article I used from http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/xampp/ a few weeks back to install wordpress on my local machine – I wanted to duplicate my live site and then work out how to upgrade to the latest wordpress release without doing any damage on the live system.
Nothing New, I’ve been testing WordPress Locally using WAMP since a year Now.
Checkout
http://www.urbangiraffe.com/2005/05/22/installing-wordpress-on-your-own-windows-computer/
It’s may useful sometimes. You can browse blog offline.
Darren, can you recommend Windows based blog platforms? I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a list of those.
I remember Cowboy/JOAB wrote about doing this long ago but I think it got lost in the archives. It just all seems complicated to me at the time, but he was talking about great local applications of using a local blog on your computer that has potential. (to do lists, practice posts)
Can someone Please tell me .. e.g. On my PetLvr site, I have almost 1500 posts. Can I create a dummy subdomain or a local installation and SHARE the “real” MySql database and transactions? So – if I put a new post on the live blog, it will automatically appear in the dummy blog simultaneously? IF IT DOES THAT .. then I would try this in a heartbeat, and could be perfect for testing new template designs.
Even Better if I can create a local or dummy blog that accesses a real blog’s data and just switch wp-config.php file and two seconds later, this dummy blog would be my other blog, say 1800HART for testing. Usually, when I do ‘house renovations’ with my blogs I do the rounds and and upgrade more than one.
Installing on a local machine has it’s advantages, especially if you are on a shared hosting account with limited mysql databases. I use my local install to test plugins that play with the tables before trusting them on my live sites.
The tutorial from UrbanGiraffe Thilak linked to is what I used and it works great.