Early on, I decided to install both TNG and WordPress online. I decided to allow both packages to do what they do best: TNG to host my family’s genealogy and WordPress to compliment TNG with useful articles, tips, and tutorials to help others with their own genealogies.

I use WampServer to test, develop, and maintain TNG and WordPress on my PC. With WampServer, I was able to learn about installing and styling TNG and WordPress quickly and easily—before putting them online. When new versions of the software are released, I can try them out first on WampServer to insure that they will work properly online. WampServer also enables me to test WordPress plugins before activating them online. For backup purposes, I can mirror all of my online data on the testbed.

In this article, I will show how to install WampServer and, once installed, how to install TNG and WordPress on the testbed—and, finally, how to link TNG and WordPress together. Links to web sites and additional information are provided in the “Resources” section at the end of the article.

If you work through this tutorial, you will not only end up with a great testbed for TNG and WordPress but you will also learn the skills necessary to install other software packages. For example, if you ever wanted to try out a PHP and MySQL forum, such as Phorum, or explore a different Content Management System (CMS), you will have the skills and the development platform to do so.

As stated on the WampServer website,

“WampServer is a Windows web development environment. It allows you to create web applications with Apache2, PHP and a MySQL database. Alongside, PhpMyAdmin allows you to manage easily your databases.”

WampServer is very easy to install, although there are a couple of after-installation fixes that need to be done. These fixes will maximize the software’s security and usefulness.

After downloading and starting the installation file, it is only a matter of clicking through a few screens for a successful install. For my installation, I downloaded the latest 64-bit version of WampServer. My installation choices differed from the defaults only once: I chose Firefox for my browser. When the installation completed, there was a new icon in the system tray and also on the desktop. I “pinned” the desktop icon to the task bar for one click availability.

Left clicking the system-tray icon brings up the main WampServer menu (Figure 1). Since I only use WampServer as a testbed for local use, I never click the “Put Online” menu item. Selecting “Localhost” from the main menu brings up the WampServer default web page (Figure 2).

Figure 1: WampServer Main Menu

Figure 2: WampServer Default Web Page

In preparation for WordPress, I activated one additional Apache module. From the quick-start menu, I selected Apache/Apache modules/ and checked the rewrite_module. You may have to “Start All Services” for this to take effect. When the module has been activated, a check mark will be in front of the option. The rewrite_module is needed for “pretty URLs,” or permalinks. For my WordPress sites, I use a permalink of /%postname%/.

Figure 2a: Activate the Apache Rewrite Module for Permalinks

To exit WampServer, right click the server-tray icon and select “Exit” from the menu (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Exit WampServer

MySQL is used to store the TNG database. The data is stored in tables. The database is managed using phpMyAdmin. After clicking phpMyAdmin from the WampServer main menu, the administrative screen appeared and displayed two information messages and one security warning at the bottom of the page (Figure 4).

Figure 4: MySQL Information Messages

I cleared the most critical security message first by setting a password for the “root” user. To clear this message, click the phpMyAdmin “Users” tab to display the current MySQL users (Figure 5). As shown in the figure, there is no password assigned to the user root.

Figure 5: No MySQL Password for User Root

Here’s the procedure for assigning a password to the root user:

1. Click the “Edit Privileges” icon (Figure 5) for user root to display a pop-up screen which will allow the creation of a password.
2. Click the “Generate” button to generate and automatically enter a strong password (Figure 6).
3. Copy and save the generated password.
4. Click the “Go” button.

Figure 6: Set Password for User Root

Once the password has been created, a refresh of the phpMyAdmin page will display a couple of nasty looking error messages (Figure 7). These will clear when the phpMyAdmin configuration file is edited to include the new root-user password.

Figure 7: Access Error Messages

The WampServer installation placed the phpMyAdmin configuration file at C:wamp/apps/phpmyadmin3.5.1/config.inc.php. Using a basic text editor, the saved root password has to be added—between the single quote marks—to this file as shown (Figure 8) and the file saved.

Figure 8: Configuring the phpMyAdmin Root Password

Refresh the browser (to refresh the phpMyAdmin screen) and return to the phpMyAdmin Users overview. The user root should now show that a password has been assigned (Figure 9). The error message about the configuration file should no longer appear. Exit WampServer.

Figure 9: phpMyAdmin Root Password Has Been Set

To update phpMyAdmin to the latest version and clear another information message, first download the latest version. I downloaded the latest version, phpMyAdmin-3.5.3-english.zip, and unzipped it to the C:\wamp\apps\ directory. Next, with a text editor, open the file “phpmyadmin.conf” at C:\wamp\alias\phpmyadmin.conf. Two lines need to be changed in order to point to the new version (Figure 10).

Figure 10: phpmyadmin.conf Changes for New Version

One more step to go for this fix. Copy the config.inc.php file from your old version of phpMyAdmin to your new version: copy C:\wamp\apps\phpmyadmin3.5.1\config.inc.php to the C:\wamp\apps\phpmyadmin-3.5.3-english\ directory.

After completing this last step, restart wampServer. Select phpMyAdmin from the main menu. The phpMyAdmin information box on the right side of the screen should indicate that the new version is running (Figure 11) and the update information message should no longer appear. Note: you might not see the information as shown in the figure or clear the information message until after a system restart.

Figure 11: New phpMyAdmin Version Up and Running

Now, for the last fix. This fix configures the phpMyAdmin storage to enable some MySQL extended features. To begin, select “phpMyAdmin” from the WampServer main menu to bring up phpMyAdmin. Select the “Databases” tab. Enter “phpmyadmin” (without the quote marks) into the “Create database” text box and then click the “Create” button. This creates a phpmyadmin database. Next, create a user for this database and a password for the user. To do this, click the “Check Privileges” link for the new phpmyadmin database (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Database phpMyAdmin has been created

Click on the “Add user” link and add the new user as shown below (Figures 13). Note that I used the “Generate” button to generate and automatically add the password. Be sure to copy and save the password for a later step. Click the “Add user” button.

Figure 13: Add New MySQL Database User and Password

Now that the phpmyadmin database has been created, we need to create the database tables. In phpMyAdmin, click on the “Databases” tab and then the phpmyadmin (Jump to database) link (shown in Figure 12). Next, click on the “Import” tab and browse to the “create_tables.sql” file, which is located at C:\wamp\apps\phpmyadmin-3.5.3-english\examples\create_tables.sql (Figure 14). An information message will report a successful import and table creation (Figure 15).

Figure 14: Importing the phpmyadmin Tables

Figure 15: phmyadmin Database Import and Table Creation Successful

Open the C:\wamp\apps\phpmyadmin-3.5.3-english\config.inc.php file with your text editor. Copy the code shown below to the end of the existing code but before the PHP closing tag (?>). Note: the code was originally copied from C:\wamp\apps\phpmyadmin-3.5.3-english\config.sample.inc.php.

/*
* phpMyAdmin configuration storage settings.
*/

/* User used to manipulate with storage */
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlhost'] = '';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser'] = 'pma';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlpass'] = 'pmapass';

/* Storage database and tables */
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['pmadb'] = 'phpmyadmin';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['bookmarktable'] = 'pma_bookmark';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['relation'] = 'pma_relation';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_info'] = 'pma_table_info';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_coords'] = 'pma_table_coords';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['pdf_pages'] = 'pma_pdf_pages';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['column_info'] = 'pma_column_info';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['history'] = 'pma_history';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_uiprefs'] = 'pma_table_uiprefs';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['tracking'] = 'pma_tracking';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['designer_coords'] = 'pma_designer_coords';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['userconfig'] = 'pma_userconfig';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['recent'] = 'pma_recent';
/* Contrib / Swekey authentication */
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_swekey_config'] = '/etc/swekey-pma.conf';

/*
* End of servers configuration
*/

Enter “localhost” for the controlhost and replace “pmapass” with the pma password you saved earlier (Figure 16). Save the file. Exit WampServer and any other open applications and restart the system. When the system is reloaded, start WampServer and go to phpMyAdmin. All information and security messages should now be cleared.

Figure 16: Adding Host and pma Password to config.inc.php

Congratulations! Now that the latest version of WampServer is up and running—error free—it’s time to install TNG. But first, you can use your WampServer experience to create a MySQL database for TNG. The steps are similar to those used when the phpmyadmin database and pma user were created. Feel free to use another database name, username, etc., while completing your own installation.

From the WampServer main menu, select “phpMyAdmin” and then select the “Databases” tab. Enter a database name in the “Create database” text box and click the “Create” button. I called the database for this tutorial “family_connections.”

Next, create a user and password for the database by clicking the “Check Privileges” link for the “family_connections” database. Click the “Add user” link and enter a “User name,” “Host,” and a “Password” (Figure 17). I used the “Generate” button to automatically create and enter the password. Be sure to copy and save the username and password. Click the “Add user” button.

Figure 17: Set Username and Password for the TNG Database

Rename the default WampServer home page at C:\wamp\www\index.php to something else, such as “original-index.php.” Otherwise, the file will be replaced when TNG is installed—and you might want to refer to it later. Download TNG and unzip the files to the C:\wamp\www directory.

Open a browser to C:\wamp\www\readme.html. There are two types of installation: an “Express Installation” and a more complex “Regular Installation.” For this installation, I will use a combination of the two to closely simulate an actual online install. Start by clicking the “Express Installation” link. Perform the following steps (Figure 18):

1. 3. set permissions and
2. 6. establish a database connection.

In step 6, you will need to reuse the username and password used to create the MySQL family_connections database.

Figure 18: Set Permissions and Establish a Database Connection

Under the “Regular Installation” at the top left of the readme.html page, select the “Folders” link. Insert a prefix of “fc_” in front of the folder names and rename the folders. Also, from the “Regular Installation,” expand the “Database Tables” link and select number 2, “Create the Database Tables.” Change “tng” to “mfc” for all table names. Save and Create the tables (Figure 19). In an online TNG installation, these simple changes provide extra security against hackers.

Figure 19: Configuring Folders and Tables

Reselect the “Express Installation” link and complete the following steps (Figure 20):

1. 8. create a user,
2. 9. create a tree, and
3. 10. select a template.

Figure 20: Finishing the TNG Installation

TNG is now installed. Enter “localhost” into your browser or select it from the WampServer main menu and the default home page for template 4 should display (Figure 21).

Figure 21: TNG Home Page

You can create your genealogy from scratch or, as I did for this tutorial, import it from an existing GEDCOM file. At the completion of the TNG install, the user is already logged in as “Administrator.” From the TNG sidebar menu, select “Administration.” Select “Import/Export” to import a GEDCOM file (Figure 22).

Figure 22: Import/Export a GEDCOM

Since I already have the GEDCOM file on my computer, I “Browsed” to it and clicked the “Import Data” button for a successful import (Figure 23, 24).

Figure 23: Import GEDCOM

Figure 24: GEDCOM Import Successful

After the conclusion of the import, I selected the “Public Home” link from the top of the page (Figure 25).

Figure 25: Navigation Menu

I clicked on the “Surnames” link (just below the “Search” button, Figure 21) and got a list of surnames in the genealogy. I next put a name in the “LastName” search box and verified that the search returned the expected results.

I customized the TNG home page by

1. removing the graphic header and replacing it with text,
2. changing the default home-page images,
3. simplifying the sidebar menu, and
4. adding a blog link to the sidebar.

Figure 26 (home page) and 27 (other pages) show these changes. The “Welcome, Administrator” message and the menu items “Access Log” and “Administration” only display if the Administrator is logged in.

Figure 26: Customized Home Page

Figure 27: Customized TNG Pages

Some of the changes to the home page were made by modifying code; other changes were made by adding new content to template 4 (Administration >> Setup >> Configuration >> Template Settings, Figure 28) and from the “Histories” menu item.

Figure 28: Template4 Settings

To accomplish the code changes, files located in the c:\wamp\www\templates\template4\ directory needed to be customized:

• index.php,
• topmenu.php, and
• css\mytngstyles.css.

Styling the TNG home page is done mainly with the template 4 index.php file. To begin with, I replaced the header image with text for faster page loading (Figure 29):

Figure 29: Changing the TNG Default Graphic Header with Text

Similarly, I modified topmenu.php to change the header on other pages. I styled the header text by adding the following CSS code to the template 4 css\mytngstyles.css file:

/*your custom style goes in this file*/

.header_title { 
font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}
.title_1 {
color:#990000;
font-size:30px;
font-weight:bold;
}
.title_2 {
color:#999966;
font-size: 45px;
font-weight:bold;
}
.tdtitle {
padding-top: 12px;
}
#blog {
text-align: center;
font-size:24px;
}

These changes resulted in a new header (Figure 30).

Figure 30: New Text Header

Replacing the home-page images was just a matter of replacing the old bigphoto.jpg and smallphoto.jpg in the template 4 “img” directory with new images. I sized the new images the same as the old and kept the same image names.

My genealogy database is small and does not include, at this time, much of the data that can be accessed from the sidebar menu. So, in order to help visitors focus on existing data, I removed several of the sidebar menu items. Two template 4 files were modified for this: index.php and topmenu.php. In these files, I commented out the menu items I did not want to appear (Figure 31).

Figure 31: Removing Menu Items from index.php and topmenu.php

Next, I added code to place the “Contact Us” menu item below the others (Figure 32).

Figure 32: Replace the “Contact Us” Menu Item

In order to connect my genealogy site to an associated WampServer WordPress blog, I added a blog link in the sidebar menu by adding code to the template 4 index.php and topmenu.php files (Figure 33).

Figure 33: Add a Sidebar Blog Link

The text for the new link name, “Blog,” needs to be added to the file at c:\wamp\www\languages\English\cust_text.php (Figure 34).

Figure 34: Adding Text for the New Blog Link

I use WordPress as a way to help anyone who is interested in creating his/her own genealogy. I do this through informative articles, tips, tutorials, and resource links on the blog. I will now show you how to install WordPress on WampServer. This will only be a very brief discussion of how to get the latest “out of the box” version of WordPress running on a local PC and linked to the genealogy. The installation will seem very familiar to you after installing TNG.

Use the link in the Resources section to download the latest WordPress version. Unzip the file to C:\wamp\www.

From the WampServer main menu, go to phpMyAdmin. For this tutorial, I created a database called “wordpress.” Next, create a user for this database and a password for the user (Figure 36). To do this, click the “Check Privileges” link for the new wordpress database (Figure 35). Remember to save the username and password—you will need it later.

Figure 35: Check Privileges for the WordPress Database

Figure 36: Create User and Password for WordPress

The WordPress configuration file, wp-config.php, needs to be configured to tell WordPress how to access the database. With your text editor, open the file c:\wamp\www\wordpress\wp-config-sample.php. Fill in the database name, user name, and password used to create the database (Figure 37). While the file is open, replace the “Authentication Unique Keys and Salts” lines with the lines generated from the link in the file (Figure 38); the link is also listed in the “Resources” section. Save the file as c:\wamp\www\wordpress\wp-config.php.

Figure 37: Configuring the WordPress config.php File

Figure 38: Adding the Authentication Unique Keys and Salts

Now, we are ready to install WordPress.

Browse to localhost/wordpress. This opens the WordPress installation “Welcome” page (figure 39). Enter the requested information. Note that if you leave the password blank, the installer will automatically generate and assign a strong password and you will see the password in the log-in screen (Figure 40).  Remember to save the username and password: you will need the username and password each time you log into the WordPress “Dashboard.” I chose to enter my own strong password for this tutorial. Note that there is no need to “Allow search engines to index this site.” After clicking the “Install WordPress” button, the installer will complete the installation, including the creation of the database tables. You can now log into WordPress (Figure 40) for detailed information about what to do next or you can browse to “localhost/wordpress” to bring up the WordPress default web page. Once on the web page, you can log into WordPress from a sidebar link.

Figure 39: WordPress Installation “Welcome” Screen

Figure 40: WordPress is Installed.

WordPress will link to the TNG genealogy by means of a link in the navigation bar. The first step in creating the new link is to log into the WordPress “Dashboard.” From the “Dashboard,” select “Menus” from the “Appearance” sidebar menu (Figure 41).

Figure 41: Selecting “Menus” from “Appearance

Create a new WordPress menu by entering a menu name (Figure 42). I called the new WordPress menu “navbar.” Click the “Create Menu” button to create the menu.

Figure 42: Create the “navbar” Menu

In “Theme Locations,” There is a drop-down box containing all current menus. Click the down arrow and select “navbar” as the “Primary Menu” (Figure 43) and then click the “Save” button.

Figure 43: Select “navbar” as the “Primary Menu”

Now we are going to define what the “navbar” menu items are going to be. From “Pages,” click the “Home” check-box and then click the “Add to Menu” button (Figure 44).

Figure 44: Add the “Home” Menu Item

Next, create the custom link to the genealogy and add this to the menu (Figure 45).

Figure 45: Create a Custom “Genealogy” link

The new “navbar” tab shows that both the “Home” and “Genealogy” menu items have been added to the menu. Click the “Save Menu” to save the menu.

Figure 46: Save the Menu

At the top of the “Dashboard” there is a link to the WordPress home page (Figure 47). Click this to go to the home page (Figure 48). I usually right-click the link and open the home page in a new tab.

Figure 47: Link to Home Page

Figure 48: Home Page Showing “navbar” Menu

The “Genealogy” link will bring up the TNG home page. You can return to WordPress using the “Blog” link that was created earlier in the tutorial.

• http://www.wampserver.com/en/ — WampServer home page
• http://lythgoes.net/genealogy/software.php — TNG home page
• http://wordpress.org/ — WordPress home page
• https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ — WordPress “Authentication Unique Keys and Salts”
• http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/downloads.php — Download the latest phpMyAdmin
• http://blog.tivel.org/wordpress-for-your-genealogy-blog — “WordPress for Your Genealogy Blog”
  

  …discusses some of the main considerations necessary for an effective and stable blog.”

After entering the database name—and unless you are very sure about changing them—use the defaults for both collation and the mySQL connection collation (Figure 2). By default, mySQL will use latin1_swedish_ci for the collation (West European, including english). After clicking the “Create” button, the database is created. That’s all there is to creating the database. The TNG installer will later fill in the tables.

Once the TNG files have been unzipped, browsing to the readme.html file makes installation a snap. During the installation, you are asked about what language and character set you want to use. Again, unless you are sure, use the default: the default is to use English and the ISO-8859-1 (Latin 1) character set. Figure 3 shows the language and character set selection in step 5 of the Express Installation.

Choosing the wrong character set can affect the display of data. The notes display shows this problem. Figure 4 shows notes with special characters, such as “õ” and “ü.” Figure 5 shows what happens when the correct character set is not selected: note the “?” where the character is not part of the character set.

TNG and mySQL have many language and character-set options. However, for West European genealogists (including english speakers), the mySQL and TNG defaults are good choices.

http://lythgoes.net/genealogy/software.php — The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding© (“TNG”)

http://www.wampserver.com/en/ — WampServer

http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_entities.asp — W3Schools HTML ISO-8859-1 Reference

1. Purge or exclude all living family connections from the online genealogy database,
2. Exclude, from the database, all living family connections born on or after a specific date,
3. Mask the names and personal details of living family connections with a "Living" placeholder,
4. Replace first names of living family connections with an initial while displaying the surname,
5. Require a login to see the personal details of living family connections, or
6. A combination of these options.

Why the concern for privacy at tivel.org? Several concerns were pointed out by Kylie H. Veale in "A DOCTORAL STUDY OF THE USE OF THE INTERNET FOR GENEALOGY":

"…concerns over information veracity and quality; fears about intrusions into privacy and even the chance for identities to be stolen…."

These concerns apply particularly to hobbyist who are not constrained by the standards or ethics of the trained and/or professional genealogist.

At tivel.org, we take the privacy of family connections very seriously—and, if there is a doubt, we err on the side of privacy. To begin with, we exclude all living family members born approximately on or after 1940. What this means is that at tivel.org, many living family connections need to know who their grandfather was to locate themselves in the genealogy; the youngest family connections depend on their parents or grand parents to help them locate their place in the genealogy. As time goes by and the older family connections pass away, a later "cutoff" date will be appropriate. Fortunately, The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding© ("TNG") used at tivel.org made implementing our privacy goals easy.

If no birth date is given for an individual in the database, the person can be flagged as either deceased or living (default is deceased). Also, if no death date is given, the default is to consider the person to be deceased if older than 110. This "cutoff" date can be changed by the TNG administrator (Figure 1).

TNG enables the administrator to tailor the database privacy options (Figure 2). The privacy options enable the administrator to

• Require a login to see anything but the home page,
• Protect living data, including hiding both data and names, and
• Define what persons can see and do when logged in.

The job of managing our database at tivel.org to insure the privacy of specific individuals turned out to be relatively easy. The creator of TNG, Darrin Lythgoe, has made finding and maintaining records in the database possible without having to know MySQL. It is easy to query the database and return reports through the administrative report utility (Figure 3a-3c). Once the report has been defined, the administrator can "run" the report(Figure 4). Figure 5 shows the results of running the "Living Family Connections" report.

The report generates the MySQL query (table prefix, xy_, is user defined):

SQL: SELECT xy_people.living, xy_people.private, lnprefix, prefix, suffix, xy_people.branch,lastname, firstname,birthdate, xy_people.personID, xy_people.gedcom, nameorder FROM (xy_people ) WHERE (xy_people.living = 1) ORDER BY lastname

Once a report has been defined and run, the records of identified individuals can then be edited or deleted to insure privacy, where appropriate. For example, the “Living” flag can be turned on or off or the record of a living family member can be deleted. More complex queries and reports can be created using operators and constants. Figure 6 shows the available features for managing "People."

At tivel.org, and using the TNG administrative features, it was easy to accomplish the privacy goals for our genealogy pages. Although we would much rather see a complete genealogy extending to the newest family connection, privacy concerns outweighed our personal preference. However, there is one great advantage to purging the database of "recent" living family connections: we can export a "safe" copy of our .ged file to family connections interested in bringing their own genealogies up-to-date. This can be done on a local PC using *no cost* software, such as PAF. As an alternative, with an easy to install server package called WampServer, it is even possible to install and run TNG on a local PC without a connection to the Internet—thus keeping the resulting genealogy private and complete, if desired, down to the youngest family connection.

http://www.historia-actual.org/Publicaciones/index.php/haol/article/viewFile/89/83 — A DOCTORAL STUDY OF THE USE OF THE INTERNET FOR GENEALOGY by Kylie H. Veale

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/galleries/aboutngs/gssound.pdf — Standards For Sharing Information With Others Recommended by the National Genealogical Society

http://lythgoes.net/genealogy/software.php — The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding© ("TNG")

http://www.wampserver.com/en/ — WampServer

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp — PAF software for a PC can be obtained here.

For building and managing a genealogy offline on a PC, we highly recommend the *no cost* Personal Ancestral File (PAF) software from FamilySearch. PAF is all you need to build and manage your own personal genealogy. You can also import an existing genealogy into this software. You can take advantage of the LDS Family History Centers. These centers are staffed with volunteers who will guide you in building your genealogy. You can find a center near you through the FamilySearch web site.

For an online genealogy, we at tivel.org highly recommend The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding© (“TNG”). TNG can be quickly installed and has all the administrative tools needed create and manage a serious online genealogy site. TNG also includes several well thought out templates, including the one we use at tivel.org. Although TNG is not freeware, it is well worth its small cost—and the great support is included.

If you want to install TNG on a local PC, you might want to consider WampServer, a *no cost* software solution to installing a complete web server on your PC. I have installed WampServer on my local PC and use it to develop both WordPress and TNG. It’s a real advantage to be able to try out modifications to both WordPress and TNG—before uploading them to my online blog and genealogy sites.

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp — Family Search for PAF software and help with your genealogy.

http://lythgoes.net/genealogy/software.php — The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding© (“TNG”).

http://www.wampserver.com/en/ — WampServer

http://www.blog.selectdigitals.com/wampserver-a-test-bed-for-wordpress/ — Although this article describes installing WampServer as a test-bed for WordPress, the installation would be very similar for TNG.

http://bishir.org/ — Visit this site to see a quality online TNG genealogy site.

For a successful WordPress blog, careful thought must be given to the following:

1. Security,
2. Installation,
3. Theming,
4. Plugins, and
5. Maintenance.

In the past, some of my sites have been hacked—so I treat blog security very seriously. Blog security should be considered—even before the blog is installed. Hackers are very familiar with the basic WordPress file structure and other defaults. You can make your site more secure by changing some of the default settings as you install WordPress.

The default login user name for WordPress is “admin.” This should be changed to something more complex like, “tbyz-168.” Another setting to change is the default data-table: change the prefix from “wp_” to something else, such as “zk_.”

Passwords are another important consideration. I recommend using long, random passwords, such as qR0ZOf3CbPOD2aDs. I typically use 12-16 character passwords. There are many random-password generators available online.

One point of hacker attack is the WordPress wp-admin directory. This directory contains the files necessary to the administration of WordPress (the dashboard). Access to these files can be protected by creating an .htaccess file. Copy and Paste the following code into a basic text editor:

AuthUserFile /dev/null
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "Access Control"
AuthType Basic
order deny,allow
deny from all
# whitelist home IP address
allow from 192.168.1.1

Change the IP address in the code to your own IP address. Don’t know what your IP address is? Just do a Google search for, “my ip address.” There are many online services that will identify and report your specific IP address (such as 98.112.27.86). Save this file as .htaccess. The file will probably be saved as .htaccess.txt and you will need to rename the file to just .htaccess. Upload the file to the wordpress/wp-admin directory. The .htaccess file will prevent dashboard access to any IP address but yours.

As an additional security measure, I assign a file permission of 444 to the .htaccess file so that no one can write to the file (Figure 1).

Figure 1: 444 File Permission

To make changes to the file, I use my FTP client, FileZilla, to change the file permission to 644 (Figure 2), make the change, and then reset the file permissions to 444. My FTP client, FileZilla allows me to easily accomplish all of this. I can accomplish the same thing with the file manager from the control panel at my web host.

Figure 2: 644 File Permission

Sometimes, as with typical DSL service, the IP address changes; and, although your site will still be visible to visitors, you will not see the normal WordPress login screen or be able to log into the admin area. To restore normal access, you would need to edit the .htaccess file to reflect the new IP address.

As another, more global level of security, there are two files at my host to prevent FTP access to my sites from any IP address except my own: ftp.allow and ftp.deny. The content of the two files looks like this:

ftp.allow — ALL: Your IP Address

ftp.deny — ALL: ALL

Your host should be able to help you create and place these files. What this means, though, is that if your IP address changes, you would no longer be able to FTP to your site until the ftp.allow file was changed to reflect the new IP address. One solution to this problem for DSL users is to acquire a static IP address from your service provider.

WordPress requires a MySQL database, so your hosting service must allow you to create and manage a database. Today, there are many hosting choices which allow WordPress to run perfectly. For a more detailed discussion of the characteristics of a good hosting service, see the resource section. Some hosts enable Wordpess to be installed automatically from the control panel.

For a manual installation, you should be able to access to your host’s control panel in order to create the database. You should also be able to upload and unzip files through the control panel’s file manager. However, I prefer to use FileZilla, a no cost FTP manager, for transferring files to and from the host. I have included a link to instructions for manually installing WordPress in the resource section.

WordPress.org has a forum for help if you have installation difficulties and a good hosting service should also be ready and able to assist you with the installation.

The newest WordPress theme, Twenty Eleven (2011) has many features for today’s web sites—”out of the box.” These advanced features include CSS for a mobile friendly design. WordPress themes can be customized for a unique look and feel. My personal preference is to stay away from excessive glitz and to create a blog that is quick to load, easy to navigate, and does not distract visitors from the content.

The best way to customize a WordPress theme is to use a “child theme.” When using a child theme, customized files are kept in a separate theme directory. WordPress uses the unchanged theme files from the original, “parent” directory, as needed. For example, this blog’s theme is based on the 2010 theme and exists as a child theme in its own directory. The customized look of the blog is the result of modifications to a few files located in the “child” directory. Most of the necessary files for the theme are still accessed through the original 2010 directory.

The advantage of keeping the customized files in a separate directory rather than changing the original files is that the customized files will not be overwritten during an (automatic) WordPress version update: no files are changed in the child directory during a version update. This also applies to using any of the many themes available at wordpress.org or elsewhere. If you install and activate another theme, it will not be overwritten during a WordPress update.

If you are not comfortable with WordPress theming, my advice is to work with an “out of the box” theme and develop your site’s content. You can customize your site later as you acquire the necessary knowledge and skills. Always remember that it is the content—and not the theme—that is going to bring visitors to your site.

Check the resource section for a complete list of the plugins I am now using on this site.

I consider it essential to keep a copy of my WordPress sites on my local PC. I do this as a backup measure. Once the site is installed, and when I modify or create new files, I make sure that the backup reflects the changes. Of course, if I have uploaded huge numbers of images to an online folder, I would not make it a practice of downloading these during a backup: I would, however, make sure I had a copy of the images on my local PC or on CDs/DVDs. Certainly, I would want a good backup before a version upgrade of the WordPress files—just in case.

Along with backing up the core WordPress files, it is also important to backup the database. This is done from phpMyAdmin from the control panel at your host. I have included a link to a tutorial about how to do this. As you add posts and pages to your blog, be sure to backup the database—where the post and pages are stored—from time to time.

WordPress now makes updating the core WordPress files and plugins a snap. When new versions are available, you are notified of this when you login to the WordPress dashboard. You can then choose to do your updates automatically. Be sure you have a good backup before you upgrade the core WordPress files. This is particularly important if you have modified any of the core files (such as files in the 2010 theme folder) as they will be overwritten.

If you are new to WordPress, I recommend taking your time with the initial installation. For new installations, and keeping in mind the security issues I discussed above, I follow the steps below.

1. Create an empty database at the host. WordPress will fill in the tables during installation.
2. Upload and unzip WordPress.
3. Modify the WordPress configuration file (wp-config-sample.php which you rename to wp-config.php) to tell WordPress how to access the database.
4. Run the WordPress installer.
5. Activate Akismet. This will require you to create an account at akismet.com to get an API key.
6. Upload and unzip the Bad Behavior plugin. This will require a “BL Access Key” from projecthoneypot.org and you will have to create an account there to do this.

At this point, your site should be installed and secure. You can now add other plugins and/or content to your site.

If you want to develop your WordPress site on your local PC, I can highly recommend installing WampServer.

“WampServer is a Windows web development environment. It allows you to create web applications with Apache, PHP and the MySQL database. It also comes with phpMyAdmin to easily manage your databases.”

The software is easy to install and I use it on my local PC to develop web pages (including WordPress). I have included a link in the resource section for a tutorial about how to use WampServer.

For help with your WordPress installation, you can go the Forums at WordPress.org.

Plugins:

• Akismet — anti-spam (now ships with WordPress).
• Bad Behavior –
  

  “Bad Behavior complements other link spam solutions by acting as a gatekeeper, preventing spammers from ever delivering their junk, and in many cases, from ever reading your site in the first place. This keeps your site’s load down, makes your site logs cleaner, and can help prevent denial of service conditions caused by spammers.”

• Google XML Sitemaps — creates and updates a sitemap.
• Fast Secure Contact Form — provides a “secure” contact form for your site.

Hosting:

• Characteristics of a Good Web Hosting Service For Content Providers and Online Marketers

Installing:

• Installing WordPress
• Managing Your WordPress Database
• How to Install and Style WordPress — My blog has been updated to the latest version of WordPress 3.X. Therefore, this article is a bit dated. However, if you are still using the old Kubrick theme or are interested in learning how to style a theme, the article might still be of interest to you.

FTP:

• FileZilla — My choice for an FTP client.

Theming:

• Theme Development
• Child Themes

Code Validation:

• W3C Code Validator

WAMP:

• Download WAMP
• Wampserver: A Testbed For WordPress

WordPress Support:

• WordPress Support Forums

My Blog About WordPress:

• blog.selectdigitals.com — Articles, tips, and tutorials about WordPress.