17
1.3.4 The Back End
The back end of WordPress, heretofore known as the Admin area, is the part of
WordPress that is seen only by you, your co-authors, and your site administrators.
You view this area directly through a web browser and it is used to create and
control all of the content and otherwise manage the site. This is essentially a secret
hidden area which normal visitors will never see and likely don’t care about.
1.3.5 The Front End
The end result of these various WordPress components is the part of your site
that visitors actually see and care about: the front end. The front end of your
WordPress-powered site consists of all your site’s publicly available web pages.
Posts, Pages, Archives, everything.
So let’s put it together and see how the front end is generated. First, the content
you create in the Admin area is stored in the database. Then, the core files interact
with the database to render the website for your visitors. The front end is where
WordPress brings the magic together and makes it happen.
1.4.1 Tools of the Trade
You are going to need an internet connection. Shocking, we know. What else?
1.4.2 A Domain Name
Since we are working with the self-hosted version of WordPress, we are going
to need an environment to work. That’s what “self” means – bring your own
environment. The first step is getting a domain name (digwp.com = a domain
name). If you’ve never gone through this process before, don’t worry it’s really not
too big of a deal, despite the often horrendous user-interface of many of the major
retailers. GoDaddy.com is a popular choice for purchasing domains.
Real Estate
Owning your own domain
name is like owning your
own house. You don’t have a
landlord telling you that you
can’t knock down that wall

http://digwp.com/u/234
Both jEdit Free
http://digwp.com/u/235
1.4.5 FTP Program
To connect to your web server and transfer files back and forth from your
computer, you’ll need some FTP software. If the program transfers files, you are
good to go, but some also have swell features you may be interested in. You make
the call.
Mac Transmit $29
http://digwp.com/u/236
Mac Fetch Free
http://digwp.com/u/237
PC WS_FTP $34
http://digwp.com/u/238
PC AutoFTP Free
http://digwp.com/u/239
Both FileZilla Free
http://digwp.com/u/240
Both FireFTP Free
http://digwp.com/u/414
Double Cool
Coda for the Mac is an FTP
client and code editor rolled
into one. It also has a built-in
terminal, reference manuals,
code sharing via Bonjour, and
subversion support.
The code editor may not be as
robust as some of the others,
but the combo functionality is

cong.php file, and go through the online installer which is only a handful of very
simple questions. The more times you do it, the faster you get at it. Five minutes,
ha! You’ll be down to two-and-a-half in no time.
2.1.2 Where To Install?
When you download the core files from wordpress.org, you end up with a .zip file
sitting there on your computer. Unzip it, and you have a folder called “wordpress”
that is full of files. One option is to upload the contents of that folder right to
the root directory of your website and start the installation process. We suggest a
slightly different approach.
Instead, rename that folder something strange and obscure,
like “blackmothsuperrainbow” and upload that folder to the root
directory of your site. Then you say, “But wait! I don’t want my
site’s URL to be http://mydomain.com/blackmothsuperrainbow/!”
Of course not, good sir, that would be strange and obscure. You
definitely want WordPress to control the root of your site. In order
to do that, just move the index.php file and the .htaccess file from
the blackmothsuperrainbow folder back to the root directory. Then
open the index.php file and change this:
Awwwwww.
Isn’t it cute?
The “How”
We didn’t want to waste a
bunch of pages explaining
“how” to install WordPress.
It’s not complicated, and is
covered in detail at the Codex:
http://digwp.com/u/241
24
require('./wp-blog-header.php');
…to this:

quite nice. See Chapter 12.2.2
for more information.
First things first
If you are moving the
WordPress core les after
installation, change the Admin
settings rst, then move the
index and htaccess les.
25
Ninety-nine percent of the time, everything is going to be fine after a fresh
WordPress installation. But even so, now would be the absolute best time to verify
that everything is running properly, smoothly, and as expected. You want to check
everything out now, because fixing things at this point will take much less work
than later on in the game. Once we have verified that, yes, WordPress is operating
beautifully, it’s time to dig in a little deeper.
2.2.1 OK, I’m In. Now What?
First of all, you should probably crack a beer. You’ve successfully installed an
incredibly powerful publishing platform and are well on your way to creating
a killer website.
2.2.2 Just Publish Something!
We have the whole rest of this book to prod and poke at settings and alter code
and nitpick the details. But none of that has any context unless you get your feet
wet a little bit and start getting a feel for how WordPress works and how easy
it makes publishing content. It’s like learning to play the guitar. You can force
yourself to play scales and learn chord voicings all day, but you’ll be bored to tears
and the information won’t stick as well as it would if you have some context (a
song) to attach it to. More fun and more effective, what a concept.
So why don’t you click that “New Post” button right up at the top of your
Dashboard. Then type yourself in a title in that top box, maybe write a few
sentences about your cat, then hit that big blue “Publish” button.

Why is that? Why doesn’t WordPress come with a better default setting? Well it’s
because this setting doesn’t require any special server files or setup at all. The “?p=”
part of the URL references Post and Page IDs (like little secret codes that are unique
to every Post or Page). The value after the equal sign is the value for that particular
parameter. So the link above tells WordPress to “retrieve and display the Post or
Page that has the ID value of 12.” And, like man’s best friend, WordPress will obey.
As practical as these default URLs are, you would rather that your URLs looked
more readable, like “http://mydomain.com/super-big-contest/.” With a URL like
that, the server is by default going to look for a file or subdirectory named “super-
big-contest” and take you there. But, with a dynamic platform like WordPress,
that directory doesn’t actually exist! WordPress doesn’t actually create a physical
directory structure for all of your posts and pages, it just “fakes it” with a little
magic from a special little file called .htaccess.