how wordpress works

How WordPress WorksContent Management System Basics

Copyright 2016 Angela Bowman

Nutshell of a Content Management System

Database-driven software application

Lives on the web (or a local computer running web software)

Website content is stored in the database

The software queries the database for the content to present on a web page

Beauty is complete separation of content from design


Hosting WordPress

To be on the Internet, your WordPress site will be “hosted” on a website server for a monthly fee.

You can install web software on your computer that allows you to run WordPress on your computer, but only you will be able to see it.


There is no place called WordPress!

People are often confused by the words “logging into WordPress” as if it is a singular place. (With the exception of WordPress.com - which is a singular place.)

WordPress is NOT a computer application, though you can install an instance of it on your local computer’s web server.

You do not login to WordPress. You login to the WordPress Dashboard for YOUR specific site via http://yoursitename.com/wp-admin

Every time you create a website, you will install WordPress on that hosting account for that domain. Each website will have it’s own unique login and Dashboard and it’s own instance of WordPress files.

Creating a new WordPress website somewhere will not effect the WordPress website created somewhere else. They are completely independent of each other.

http://WordPress.com

http://yoursitename.com/wp-admin


What happens when you install WordPress

When you install WordPress, the following things happen either automatically via the “one-click installer” script or manually via the “famous 5-minute install process”:

A MySQL database is created

WordPress files are copied to the web hosting server directory

The wp-config.php file is modified to contain the login credentials for the database

The WordPress install.php script is run to allow you to give the new website a title, username, and password

The install script creates a bunch of tables in the database, and you can the login to your site via http://yoursitename.com/wp-admin

http://yoursitename.com/wp-admin


MySQL DatabaseAll of the text content of your posts and pages and WordPress settings are stored in a database which is like a large spreadsheet.

The database is stored in a special place on your web host’s server. Viewable ONLY via your hosting control panel via phpMyAdmin or shell access (SSH).

You can’t copy or move your database. However, you can export contents of the database and import it into a new, blank database.

Database


WordPress Application FilesWordPress is a PHP application that communicates with the MySQL database to retrieve and display your content in a web browser

Can be downloaded at http://wordpress.org

WordPress core files

PHP originally stood for Personal Home Page, but it now stands for the recursive backronym PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.

http://wordpress.org


Understanding WordPress App

wp-admin contains everything needed to display the WordPress “Dashboard” - we sometimes refer to this as the “backend”

wp-includes contains essentially the core functionality of WordPress that allows WordPress to function on the “frontend" of the site and more

wp-content contains YOUR uploaded content, including themes, plugins, and media

wp-config.php connects WordPress to the MySQL database


wp-config.php

The wp-config.php file is the magical file that allows the WordPress application to communicate with the MySQL database.

Without this file set correctly, you will see a 500 server error in your browser window.


wp-content folder

This folder is all about YOU! You want to back it up, because it contains stuff you’ve uploaded.

Themes: consists of PHP files with HTML, CSS, and Javascript to display your site in a unique way.

Plugins: can be installed to extend the functionality of WordPress, such as add e-commerce, calendar, galleries, and more.

Any files you upload: images, documents, audio, video

Other folders placed there by various plugins


Themes

The theme you choose determines the look of your site.

The theme consists of PHP files with HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

You can change your theme without necessarily effecting the content of your site.

Typical theme files


Bringing it all together

Data Layer

Database

Application Layer

WordPress

Presentation Layer

HTML, CSS, JS

Browser

Database Management System