Installation – neede file not included in DL package

This file is part of WordPress core, so it is included in the ZIP file you downloaded. When unpacking the ZIP file, make sure that sub directories are created, then you should get a sub directory named wp-admin with many files, including install.php.

If in doubt, download a fresh copy of WordPress from this site.

Forgot one detail that may be important in the initial post and this one…or it could be irrelevant…but since I don’t know and it appears to NOT be related to WordPress other than trying to run when I try to install WordPress:

What happens each time installation has blown out (first because I was trying to run what I *thought* might be the right startup file(s); next when I was directed to the correct subdirectory and install.php file) is that for about 10 seconds before things go *boom* my screen shows Adobe “GoLive” (??) is starting up. My Adobe experience (I have CS2, which is fine for me as I only use Photoshop and Acrobat (newer versions don’t have features I can’t live without)

Does that drop any more breadcrumbs on the trail?

______________________________________________
…now an on-topic thanks & plea for additional advice:

Thanks – I think php files, unfamiliar icons and abbreviated naming conventions (i.e. “wp-admin/install.php” – I’m used to seeing things like “In the unzipped WordPress folder locate the subfolder (or subdirectory…) wp-admin, which contains the file “install.php”. double-click the file to get started with the installation process.”
Probably too many years of staring at C:/wpadmin/install.php – type wording (and as noted, without the “dash” in the folder name).

So – got past that, thanks.

But now I hit roadblock #2 when I tried to install it – “Error: PHP is not running
WordPress requires that your web server is running PHP. Your server does not have PHP installed, or PHP is turned off.”

..except I’m not ON my webserver, and won’t be until I upload the site for beta testing. Not sure how to handle (or if I NEED to handle) this “Catch-22”.

My interpretation is that I need server software in order to install site creation/maintenance client software that will not be on the server until it’s 90% complete, tested and functional.

My server/hosting folks recommended using WordPress in lieu of NVU/Kompozer (which I’ve used to maintain/modify sites – I’ve never started from scratch). Is it possible they are so used to working with servers that they don’t know an “average Joe” doesn’t have the necessary “tools” to create a site using www.remarpro.com?

I guess I need php – although even after reading some descriptions I’m not sure WHAT I need specifically. First I found this “code example”:
<?php
namespace Foo;
class Bar {
public function Bar() {
// treated as constructor in PHP 5.3.0-5.3.2
// treated as regular method in PHP 5.3.3
}
}
?>

Then this “Sanskrit”:

“The module includes many popular PHP extensions, among them:

* the MySQL and PostgreSQL databases
* the cURL library for various communications protocols
* the GD image creation library (with PNG, JPEG, PostScript Type 1 and TrueType font options).
* the expat XML parser and WDDX support
* XSLT transformations
* LDAP access
* the IMAP client library
* mcrypt encryption functions
* GNU gettext

The distribution comes in a Mac OS X Installer package and is completely self-contained, there are no external dependencies beyond what is delivered by Apple in a regular Mac OS X installation. It does require that you have applied all available Software Updates for the current OS release.”

Have I bitten off far more than I can chew, given that I have no programming experience other than VERY basic HTML?

I’m totally baffled AND under a tight deadline to get SOMETHING – just a home page with a logo would be OK, but not great.

Thanks – Jim

Howdy Jim –

By the sound of things, you are not quite familiar with how WordPress (WP)(and other popular Content Management Systems/Frameworks, such as Joomla! and Drupal) operate ?? That’s cool, because I too came from a static web page background (NVU, Dreamweaver) and it took a while to wrap this old grey matter around this notion.

Here’s the scoop: WP is a database-driven web development framework; it is NOT and application/program that one “double-clicks” anything to “run”. WP requires both the core files that are contained in the download package and also a database, which does not come with the package. The install process sets up and initially populates the required tables in a database that you have created in advance. All your site content is stored in and retrieved from this database.

Now, if you are wanting to develop your site on your own computer first before putting it on a remote server, that is fine too; that is generally how I do it. But what you require for your own computer are the necessary items that will replicate the remote server environment. As you are on a Mac, I would recommend MAMP which you can freely download here:

https://www.mamp.info/en/index.html

Be SURE to read the Documentation on their site!

What this (and others, such as XAMPP) do, is install the 3 items required to run WP (or any of the others mentioned) locally on your computer:

Apache – the actual web server
MySQL – the database system that WP uses
PHP – the scripting language that WP is written with

Notice the acronym formed by these 3? Add the “M” for Mac and you have MAMP ?? This is what is know in the “biz” as an “AMP stack”.

If all of this is still “Sanskrit”, then I would suggest you find one of the many fine beginner tutorials online and go through them first. This is NOT your father’s NVU site! ??

All the best.

Cheers!
Lyle

Lyle – thanks; great info and I needed the humor (intentional or not – an “AMP stack to me is a 100-watt Marshall guitar amplifier and two large cabinets with 4 12” speakers in each!).

I’d had one book recommended as simple, straightforward and cheap to boot – “WordPress in 10 Minutes” – short enough I read it cover-to-cover yesterday, and it looks like both the book is actually pretty darned good AND WordPress is not THAT tough unless you WANT it to be.

But the caveat is – *once you get it installed*.

The primary advice I was given by a host I use for parking some sites and hosting one (done in NVU, but taken down by me for the moment for reasons not relevant here) is to use WordPress for the new site; they have turned to WordPress for just about every site they create. Our company is not, however, in a financial position to pay for site development (Three 58 year old former execs who were all laid off5 days apart…different companies…and collectively swore to NOT make someone else rich again!)

It was described to me on the phone: DON’T use WordPress.com or the MU version – just DL WordPress from www.remarpro.com, install it, build the site as you would with NVU except it will be much simpler) and upload it via FTP, just like every site I’ve ever worked on.

I don’t want to waste 2-3 days building a basic site in NVU or iWeb to met a couple of “dog snd pony” deadlines only to nuke the results and RE-do it in WordPress.

And it seems from the “10 minute” book and every other resource that goes beyond blogging outs WordPress and perfect for product marketing and even ecommerce – AND simple

So it boils down to either I’ve been completely misled or I have some cooked brain cells and every resource (EXCEPT the WordPress site) has info I’m just not getting…at all.

Can I ask one more question (of anyone – and there may be more than one question interwoven through it):

When stating “This is NOT your father’s NVU site!” I laughed – and then realized I had no idea that that means (Possibly that I’m a kid hacking my way around; or my previous experience with NVU is totally useless and irrelevant; or that NVU (or Dreamweaver, or iWeb, or whatever is “normally” used for a non-blogging business website – intended for exposure/tech/contact info, not virtual “brick & mortar) is the “Model T” and WordPress the Mercedes F! open-wheel car…

…meaning out of date, moldy, decrepit and with the noxious odor of stale Cheetos and spilled Red Bull.

(And oddly, although I’ve been on the web since before it WAS the web (with early entry into the automated night dialup information/mail transfer, 6-line bulletin board world – in DOS…and when a 20meg HD and controller card was $1000+) – plus being the “marketing” guy on various IT teams and running the whole shebang for two small companies – I think I started in the middle and am still looking for both the start or finish line; a trivial example – the 2 lines right under this text entry window – “Allowed markup: a blockquote come em strong ul ol li”, then “Put code in between ‘backticks’.)

I don’t know if that’s a set of directions or something to be sung while playing ukulele!

Thanks SO much to the guys who have answered; even though I still can’t install WordPress the information is critical once I CAN.

Jim

I always forget something – yikes!

If the two files mentioned will allow me to get WordPress installed – WHERE should I get them, and what versions? There seem to be multiple sources with different versions – but some disagreement over which “newer” version(s) is/are stable…or not

Thanks –

Hey Jim –

Not to worry … I’m only 3 years behind you ?? Retired from the airlines (aircraft maintenance engineer) but I have been involved with personal computers for 30 years as of last month! … a Radio Shack TRS-80 PC-1 “Pocket Computer”; but it ran BASIC and I wrote my first program on it … and it worked! ??

Anyway, I do believe that you were slightly misled; perhaps not misled as much as misinformed. What I meant by “not your father’s NVU” is that WP, along with the other popular systems I mentioned, are what’s known as dynamic web sites, opposed to static web sites, the likes of which are created by NVU, iWeb, Dreamweaver, FrontPage, etc. The “old” way used by those programs, is to create individual documents, generally of the HTML variety, and stitch them together with some sort of menu structure to come up with a functional web site. These “new fangled ones” are completely different, structure-wise. There are no individual “pages” in the usual sense of the term; the documents you see in an installation, generally all of the PHP and CSS variety, are used to control the storing, retrieving and display of your content to and from that darn old database ??

Now it has been quite some time since I have used NVU, but from what I recall, when you started it, it also started it’s own little “mini web server” on your computer so that you could preview your work in a web browser without uploading it to a hosting server. Well, this is what MAMP and XAMPP do; they allow you to work on and preview your site on your own computer. The reason you need something such as one of these “stacks” (yes, I love a Marshal stack too, but I digress ?? ), is that you need to have PHP (the scripting language) and MySQL (the database server) installed and running on your computer so the the Apache web server (part of that stack) can “pretend” it is the web and you can use your browser to work on and view your site. Remember, WP is totally browser based; there is no “EXE” to run. It is accessed via a web browser.

So go check out MAMP and install it on your Mac. It’s free, it won’t hurt anything, and you NEED it or something like it, in order to work locally on your own computer with WP.

Here are the steps (in abridged form)
– download, install and start MAMP
– download the WP install package
– create a folder in Applications/MAMP/htdocs and name it mywordpress (for example; can be whatever you want, but no spaces!)
– extract (unZIP, unSTUFF, whatever) the WP package to this new folder; it will create a folder called wordpress with all the contents in it
– go to that wordpress folder, select ALL and MOVE it UP one level to the mywordpress folder
– make sure MAMP is running, then fire up your browser and enter:

localhost:8889/mywordpress and you will next see the first screen of the WP installer! ?? just follow along and you’ll be up and running in no time ?? Note: you may have to enter 8888 after the colon in the address above; I won’t go into details at this point; just try it if 8889 doesn’t work.

Cheers!
Lyle

I forgot one item in the list …

I was thinking about another system and forgot that with WP, you have to create a new, empty database prior to beginning the WP installer. You do that from the MAMP control panel by going to phpMyAdmin and entering a name in the Create New Database field then click Create … that’s it! ?? Remember, no spaces! and remember the “case” … if you enter MyWordPress as the database name, then mywordpress is NOT the same! ??

Wow – thanks; it’ll take me a while to absorb everything. I have no idea why it was touted as being so much easier than NVU (or iLife, or watever. It sound like after “they” (that nefarious “they” that is always resposible but never accountable for..ahem…”unique”applications or anything else in life where it’s a little confusing how it happened) either discovered WordPress could be used for “normal” websites by accident, or tried to “break” it to see if could be done

So I guess I’m at a crossroads – do I follow the host’s advice and try to make it work, or do I cut my losses, take a page from one of my old sites and try to tweak it into something (on the plus side) usable but (on the minus side) having it look NOTHING like the business concept.

And I STILL have no clue what THIS is:

“Allowed markup: a blockquote code em strong ul ol li.”

My second guess – a snippet from a 1965 8-track tape of programmers sorting their punch-cards while yodeling.

What do I win?

Seriously, I’d like to make WordPress work for me, as it *seems* to this poor, ancient newbie’s easily re-routed synapses to be th way to go.

But I do have to say that the “collective consciousness” that runs related websites (including the “home” pages), writers of books on the subject and the so-called experts who have sent rather unfriendly emails are not on the same page. They’re not even in the same library.

I barely noticed in the last post that all the other stuff not clearly defined elsewhere – database, mysql (still NO idea what that is) and php (same level of non-understanding..even after reading the very well-intended replies) all has to be installed BEFORE WordPress, which is exactly the opposite of what my host said (actually, those other things were never mentioned).

So (sorry) – another question: I’ve discovered, after several months of Mac-only after decades of PC use, that eleting a program from the applications folder only does HALF the job and it usually takes an email or call to support to find all the buried stuff that ALSO needs to be deleted (I guess Apple, in heir “for the rest of us” philosophy kinda…IMO…blew one thing – they try to make the front-end pretty and consistent, but “back room” is left with trash and smelly cigars.

====> So DO I NEED TO DELETE ANYTHING FROM THE LIBRARY WHEN I NUKE WORDPRESS SO I CAN START OVER????

I really don’t want to waste bandwidth with my asinine questions that I’m sure any kid 1/5 my age understands, so if anyone reading want to respond be email that’s be great.

The one REALLY weird thing – I have not seen posts with related issues. That amazes me, because experienced Mac users I talked to (but not WordPress users) gave me the deer-in-the-headlights look when I explained my predicament – not ONE believed WordPress as a website creation tool is not a “program” to “run” on your own system.

The consensus was there’s no way they’d put a site together all on-line, where anyone making a typing error could stumble in.

But I’ll take any advice I can get – quit and try to crash and burn a page or two to get a site started (via NVU or iWeb) or somehow throw something together with WordPress (the scary part being I don’t know if I have the necessary software – or plugins, or whatever, and only a limited amount of time (the pran was to have a basic page and a simple “links” pae running by 10am tomorrow (Tues).

Either way it looks like I’m screwed – the question is which option offers the fastest way for me to “fake it” (given I’m on 3 or 4…I lost track…hours of sleep over the last 40 hours or so).

Thanks again for the advice, and advance thanks to anyone who comes up with a quick-and-dirty “fix”.

Well, I’m off to delete…something. I think.

Jim

Hey Jim, I really do feel your pain ?? Now, I am not sure what the forum rules are here in this matter and I see no provisions for private messages or otherwise contacting members, but why not send me an email at [email protected] and I can explain how you can get out of your current predicament ??

Cheers!
Lyle