Transcript:
In this video, we're going to take a look at setting up WordPress on your own machine in what's
called a local development environment. We're going to put a server right on your own computer.
There are quite a few reasons for doing this. One of them is speed. If you'll look in the address
bar of my browser here, you'll note that the domain name ends with .dev not com or net or anything
like that. That's because this page is running on my own machine. If I click reload, that's how fast
it reloads. There's no download time at all. It's simply pulling from my hard drive, which is very,
very fast.
Another reason is that it's very, very easy to set up a wordPress site, wreck it, throw it away and
start again. This makes it extremely cheap and easy to experiment, to try new themes and plugins, to
try to build things, to break things. Often, your development environment can save different
positions so you can set up a site, get everything set and then break it, and then go back to where
you saved so that you don't have to start all the way over. Another great reason to use it is that
you don't need an internet connection. So you could sit and work at the beach or the lake house or
on a bus or a train. This gives a great amount of flexibility for building things without being tied
to some place where you have to be online.
There are a variety of software packages to help you with this. One of them is called desktop-server.
From server press calm desktop server works in Windows and Mac. There's a free version and a paid
version, which comes with some extra features and it works very, very well. It's very easy to set up
another option is called mam mam is free and matte Pro costs money and comes with some extra
features.
Similar to desktop server, it's available for OS 10 and windows. It has a few more features than
desktop server but it's not specifically made for WordPress, whereas desktop server is made for
WordPress. They're both excellent options and you'll be able to accomplish your needs with either
one.
Another option is called varying vagrant. Vagrants and this sets up a virtual machine on your
computer. So you'll end up actually installing Linux inside a virtual computer. This has some
advantages and some disadvantages. It's not nearly as easy to use as the first two, but it's
possible to build a virtual machine that is exactly like your server. So if you're looking for
something a little bit more technical and you want to get your hands dirty, vvv can be an excellent
option.
I have desktop server running on this computer so let's take a quick look. Here it is and I'm simply
going to create a new development website. Here you can choose a domain name. Note that your
extension can only be .dev so I'm going to make my cool site dev. The blueprint allows you to choose
from a variety of default options. I can choose WordPress 4.6, 4.3.1 or blank, which would be not
WordPress at all. So we're going to choose 4.6. You have the option to put it someplace on your own
machine but I like to leave it at the default. Then you can choose to allow multi-site, so then I
simply click create and it's done.
Now I have a new WordPress site. I click here and I setup my site. I don't mind you knowing my
password because this is on my computer, but note that WordPress requires a strong password and if
you want to put in a weak one you have to say yes I know it's weak.
There, and we just finished our WordPress install. Now, something good to note is that this is
exactly like a normal WordPress site. There's nothing special about the fact that it is running on
your own machine. So you would install plugins the same way, you install themes the same way, all of
your options and features are exactly the same. Now let's say I don't want this site anymore. I go
to remove, I find my cool site and note that I could copy it or move it or simply remove it. There,
and now it's gone. I could do this over and over again with my experiments.
This makes it much, much easier to try things and not worry about bringing down your live website or
somebody else's live website or getting banned because you're hitting the admin area too many times
or any of that kind of thing. Local development is really great for being offline, for being really
fast and being really, really flexible.