I’ve barely begun blogging and I’ve already violated a major blogging no-no: failing to post on a consistent basis. Despite my recent “blogging violation” I’m brushing it off and getting back to work. Therefore, to get back on track, I’ve decided to explain how to set up a WordPress staging or development site. If you’re interested in diving into WordPress theme development, plugin programming, or just want to experiment with changes to your own WordPress blog in a safe environment, then you definitely should take the time to read this post.

Probably the easiest way to set up a staging/development environment for WordPress is to acquire a second computer, install your favorite operating system, install the underlaying components of WordPress (MySQL, PHP, and Apache), and then install WordPress itself. This approach is certainly a viable option; however, there is another way.

If you’re a Linux user, then you already know all about LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP). Most Linux distros come bundled with everything you need for LAMP. Windows, on the other hand, doesn’t come with everything you need out-of-the-box. And since my laptop runs Windows, I need WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, and PHP).

Before going any further, let me dispel a few common myths about WAMP or LAMP:

• You DON’T need a server class machine to run either of these bundles (Remember, the point of this post is how to create a staging/development environment. You won’t be supporting any other users other than yourself so you don’t need a monster machine)
• You DON’T need a dedicated machine for either of these bundles (WAMP starts and stops similar to other applications. Turn it on when you want it, and turn it off when you don’t)
• You DON’T need excessive amounts of RAM and Disk space (If your current hardware configuration can comfortably run Windows XP, and you have at least 100 MB of free disk space, you can most certainly run WAMP )

With the myths out of the way I can move on to the actual process for setting up WAMP.

Step 1. Download WAMP

The general idea of “WAMP” exists in a couple of different packages but I use WampServer for my staging/development server. Once you visit the WampServer site you should see a download link for the latest release (in my case it was release 1.7.1) on the top of the main page. Select this link and save the 20 MB file to a safe location on your local hard drive.

Step 2. Install WAMP

Double click on the icon of the downloaded file and the guided installation process starts. First thing you see is the generic welcome screen. To continue click next.

An end user agreement screen appears next. Accept the EUS and click next to continue.

In the next screen you can specify an installation directory. The program defaults to C:\wamp, which I accepted. Also notice that this screen points out that you need at least 73.6 MB of free disk space for the installation. If you don’t have this, then cancel the installation now. If you have enough space, click next to continue.

The next screen allows you specify the Start menu folder for this installation. The program defaults to WampServer, which I accepted. Click next to continue.

The next screen allows you to enable WampServer to automatically start each time your computer starts. The default option is checked. I recommend unchecking this option unless you plan to do a lot of work with Wamp.

The next screen confirms your previous selections and prompts you to press “install” to proceed.

At the end of the installation you are prompted to select a “document root” folder. The default is www under wamp installation directory. It’s under this directory that you install WordPress when that time comes. I selected default but you can do whatever you want. Click OK to continue.

Next you are prompted to specify your SMTP server for PHP emails. The default is localhost and since I’m not concerned about PHP emails, I accepted the default. Click next to continue.

The next screen prompts you for an email address. The default is you@yourdomain. Again, since I’m not concerned about getting PHP emails, I just accepted the default to make things easier. Click next to continue.

Finally, the installation process detected Firefox as my default browser. I was prompted to confirm this selection so I just clicked OK.

If all goes well you should be looking at the setup complete screen with a default option selected to start the Wamp5 now. You can keep this or deselect and come back to it at a later time. Whatever you choose, you need to click finish to complete the installation.

When everything is done you can start Wamp by selecting the corresponding icon in its newly created program group. Or, if you left the launch option checked at the end of the installation, Wamp has already started. Once Wamp is running you will see an icon in your system tray.

Left click on the system tray icon and a menu of options appear. These options allow you to start and stop various services that make up Wamp, and you can easily access various configuration files for fine tuning of your new staging/development environment.

Double check your installation. Open a browser and enter http://localhost in the address bar and press enter. If the installation was successful and Wamp is running, you should see WampServer welcome page appear in your browser.

That’s all there is to installing WampServer. As simple as any other application installation and yet the end results leaves you with a powerful staging and development environment for your WordPress blog.

When you’re finished with Wamp, just right click on its icon in the system tray and select exit. That’s it. As easily as Wamp started, Wamp stops.

In part 2 of this series (scheduled for publication this Thursday 5/17/07) I’ll walk you through installing the latest version of WordPress on your newly created WampServer installation. In the meantime, down load WampServer and get started.

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Filed under: How-To & Tech Tips