XAMPP - Run WordPress Locally

Tyler Martin · Developer Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 885

There is nothing like being able to test out your theme customizations locally, editing the files, locally, no FTPing and checking every change, totally creating and testing out the new site on your local computer with plugins and everything in place, before it ever sees your server and your live site.

You can do this by setting up your computer as an Apache Web server, but that's not normally the simplest task. XAMPP makes it easy though. It will set you up with PHP and MySQL as well so you can install WordPress right to a local directory.

Get XAMPP Here

For Windows I recommend getting XAMPP Lite, it's light and simple and all you need for setting up a local WordPress install (or twenty). That's all I've ever needed. There's plenty of tutorials for setting it up for WordPress, just do a search for XAMPP, WordPress and your OS.

Here's a couple good Windows tutorials to get you started:
http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/xampp/
http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/06/installing-wordpress-locally-under.html
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outlandish · Joined: 20 May 2007 Posts: 21 Location: US

Thanks for the great idea. I have one problem. I followed the tutorials and got Wordpress installed ok as far as I can tell. It works fine with the default themes, but when I click to choose the Comic Press theme it shows a blank preview (where it actually showed a preview for the built in themes). When I selected the Comic Press graphic novel theme I get this error at the top of the page in the admin:

Penned In Comic · Joined: 14 Sep 2008 Posts: 7

I believe we all need this.

I actually used xampp right when I started my site in efforts to prep it up before the "grand release." I, then, hap-hazardly deleted and forgot how to use xampp. Laughing

Now that I'm reminded how to use xampp again, I plan on tinkering with the layout to make it all nice like. General maintenance is good too.

Thanks again Tyler.

zieglarf · Joined: 28 Jun 2008 Posts: 105 Location: Texas

I've got XMAPP working, but my question is...

How much do I mirror my site?

Install ALL the plugins with all the same settings?
Match every post?

Then, when I make a change I assume I test it on XMAPP and if I like it then I just copy the NEW sheet to the real site?

Adrian J Wallace · Joined: 24 Feb 2010 Posts: 15 Location: Portland Oregon

Macintosh users may want to check out MAMP, it's a nice apache web server developed for the Macintosh community. It's my understanding that XAMP was developed for the Windows XP, and may not work as expected on other operating systems, including newer versions of Windows.

Firebug is pretty much essential for anyone involved in web design and development. I cannot think of an easier way to navigate a large stylesheet and follow the cascade through all the different tags.

I'm a big fan of Dreamweaver for coding HTML and CSS. The code hints are invaluable, and the wrap tags feature and the color palette are great time savers. The only complaints I have about Dreamweaver are its cost, and the loads of features which I'm not interested in. Notepad++ is a great alternative for coding when I'm in a hurry.

godkid · Joined: 04 Jan 2010 Posts: 97

How does it compare to MAMP from a developer's perspective?

bart5irwin · Joined: 29 Jul 2010 Posts: 1

Thanks for sharing lots of information.

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