WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that turns a standard WordPress website into self-hosted online store. This tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install WordPress and enable WooCommerce plugin to create an online store to sell your products or services.
The installation process should be fairly simple and straightforward. and should take only a few minutes to complete even for students and new users.
You will learn how to install WordPress with Apache2, MariaDB and PHP 7.2, enable WooCommerce Plugin and start selling your products.
To get started with installing WordPres and WooCommerce, continue with the steps below:
Step 1: Install Apache2 HTTP Server on Ubuntu
Apache2 HTTP Server is the most popular web server in use. so install it, since WordPress CMS needs it.
To install Apache2 HTTP on Ubuntu server, run the commands below.
sudo apt update sudo apt install apache2
After installing Apache2, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots.
sudo systemctl stop apache2.service sudo systemctl start apache2.service sudo systemctl enable apache2.service
To test Apache2 setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address and you should see Apache2 default test page as shown below. When you see that, then Apache2 is working as expected.
Step 2: Install MariaDB Database Server
MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open source database servers to use with Magento. To install MariaDB run the commands below.
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client
After installing MariaDB, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots.
Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
sudo systemctl stop mysql.service sudo systemctl start mysql.service sudo systemctl enable mysql.service
Run these on Ubuntu 17.10 and 18.04 LTS
sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service sudo systemctl start mariadb.service sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service
After that, run the commands below to secure MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access.
sudo mysql_secure_installation
When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.
- Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
- Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
- New password: Enter password
- Re-enter new password: Repeat password
- Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
- Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
- Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
- Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y
Restart MariaDB server
To test if MariaDB is installed, type the commands below to logon to MariaDB server
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then type the password you created above to sign on. if successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message
Step 3: Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules
PHP 7.2 may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. in order to install it, you will have to get it from third-party repositories.
Run the commands below to add the below third party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.2
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2
sudo apt update
Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2 and related modules.
sudo apt install php7.2 libapache2-mod-php7.2 php7.2-common php7.2-sqlite3 php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-mysql php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip
After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open PHP default config file for Apache2.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini
Then make the changes on the following lines below in the file and save. The value below are great settings to apply in your environments.
file_uploads = On allow_url_fopen = On short_open_tag = On memory_limit = 256M upload_max_filesize = 100M max_execution_time = 360 date.timezone = America/Chicago
After making the change above, save the file and close out.
Step 4: Restart Apache2
After installing PHP and related modules, all you have to do is restart Apache2 to reload PHP configurations.
To restart Apache2, run the commands below
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
To test PHP 7.2 settings with Apache2, create a phpinfo.php file in Apache2 root directory by running the commands below
sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php
Then type the content below and save the file.
<?php phpinfo( ); ?>
Save the file. then browse to your server hostname followed by /phpinfo.php
/phpinfo.php
You should see PHP default test page.
Step 5: Create WordPress Database
At this point, all the required WordPress packages and and servers are installed. The new server is now ready to host WordPress… On the new server, create a blank WordPress database.
Run the commands below to logon to the database server. When prompted for a password, type the root password you created above.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a blank database called wp_database .
CREATE DATABASE wp_database;
Create a database user called wp_user with new password.
CREATE USER 'wp_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'type_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the database.
GRANT ALL ON wp_database.* TO 'wp_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'type_user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Step 6: Configure WordPress Site
Next, configure the WordPress site configuration file on the server. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called wordpress.conf
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/wordpress.conf
Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace example.com with your own domain name.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin [email protected]
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/wordpress/
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
<Directory /var/www/html/wordpress/>
Options +FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Save the file and exit.
Step 7: Enable WordPress Apache2 Site
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
sudo a2ensite wordpress.conf sudo a2enmod rewrite
Step 8: Downlaod WordPRess Content
Next, visit WordPress site and download the latest…. or run the commands below to do that for you.
cd /tmp && wget tar -zxvf latest.tar.gz sudo mv wordpress /var/www/html/wordpress
Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for WordPress root directory.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/wordpress/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/wordpress/
Step 9: Configure WordPress
Next, run the commands below to create WordPress wp-config.php file. This is the default configuration file for WordPress.
sudo mv /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config-sample.php /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php
Then run the commands below to open WordPress configuration file.
sudo nano /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php
Enter the highlighted text below that you created for your database and save.
// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define('DB_NAME', 'wp_database');
/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', 'wp_user');
/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'new_password_here');
/** MySQL hostname */
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');
/** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */
define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
/** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */
define('DB_COLLATE', '');
Save the file and you’re done.
Now all is configured… run the commands below to reload Apache2 web server settings.
sudo systemctl reload apache2.service
After that, open your browser and browse to the server IP address or domain name to continue with WordPress setup.
If everything is setup correctly, you’ll see WordPress setup wizard and continue with the setup.
Follow the on-screen instruction to complete the wizard. you’ll have to create the site administrator account with password. then use it to logon to WordPress dashboard to manage WordPress.
/wp-admin/
When you logon to WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins –> Add New Then search for WooCommerce and click Install Now
After installing, Activate. After activating, the plugin should automatically start the setup wizard. follow the on-screen instruction
Continue until the setup is complete. After that, you can begin setting up your products to sell online
Enjoy!
This is how to get WooCommerce plugin setup with WordPress support.
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