EasyWP WordPress Installer - Cause There Ain’t No Such Thing As “Too Easy”
Social Media, blogthropology, coding, nerdiness June 18th, 2008
Let’s face it… generally speaking, installing WordPress is not exactly an arduous task. It’s designed to be relatively easy, allowing pretty much anyone to set up a blog of their own, regardless of their technical expertise. For the most part, WordPress succeeds at this. However, if you are the type of person who sets up blogs often, especially considering the fact that they all have to be updated every time a new security hole in WordPress is discovered, and if some of those blogs are on hosts that might have some issues with latency (small lags just before each connection), then setting up WordPress can sometimes be a little bit of a pain. WordPress 2.5.1, for instance, has 515 files in it that have to be uploaded in order to install it. Sure, if you have shell access and know how to use it, then you can just upload the zip file and unzip it on the server. However, if you don’t have that (which is common with most shared hosting accounts), and there is just a couple of seconds lag before each files starts transferring, then that means that uploading the full package can take 20 minutes or more for each blog.
Me? I’m just not that patient.
Therefore I have written a WordPress Installer script, named EasyWP, that removes that hassle completely. Simply download and unzip EasyWP.zip (download link on this page). Upload easywp.php (a single file that is a mere 8KB) to the folder where you want to install your blog. Any directory will do, including the root directory, as long as WordPress isn’t already installed in it (this script is designed to do clean installs only) and PHP can write to that directory (either through setting the permissions, or through PHPSuExec running on your server). Next, visit the page wherever you uploaded it to (ie. http://www.yourserver.com/blog/easywp.php), fill out the form, and hit the “Go!” button.
EasyWP will download the latest version of WordPress, unzip it into the directory where you want to host your blog, and modify your configuration file based on the information you entered into the form. Then it tests your database connection. If that fails, it gives you a chance to re-edit the info you entered, so if you made a mistake there is no need to edit and re-upload the config file separately
(just like when you install WordPress without the script, you do have to create the database and user beforehand). After that it takes you to the normal WordPress setup page, where you finish the process.
That’s it. 
To recap: you can now upload and configure an entire brand new WordPress installation in under 30 seconds. Feedback and suggestions are of course welcome.
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June 18th, 2008 at 8:40 am
[...] can get all the info about the EZ WordPress Installer either here or here. Photo by: [...]
June 18th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
you could just use fantastico that is literally a 1 click install
June 18th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
@Brandon - that’s true, except that not all hosts have Fantastico, and for those that do not all keep them up to date with the latest WordPress versions. Also, this script is especially helpful in cases where you have to clean an infected installation (which I plan on blogging about shortly). I know that WP Automatic Upgrade should not be used in cases like that, and I would guess that Fantastico would have some of the same shortcomings. Can Fantastico install over a pre-existing WP install that wasn’t originally installed by it?
June 18th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
[...] Install WordPress in Under 30 Seconds with EasyWP→ [...]
June 24th, 2008 at 10:11 am
[...] over from scratch as far as the files portion of your installation goes. Note that if you use the EasyWP WordPress Installer script that I wrote it saves you from having to download, unzip, and then upload all of the core [...]
June 27th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Thanks! This is very convenient, especially for those of us reselling hosting packages. Gives that quick install option of WP, the less I have the set up the happier I am!
September 1st, 2008 at 10:35 am
Really cool script except I use a Windows host and it doesn’t seem to be working there. I get the error
Warning: exec() [function.exec.php]: Unable to fork [tar xvfz wordpress-2.6.1.tar.gz] in D:\rallyofkerala.com\wwwroot\easywp.php on line 111
September 1st, 2008 at 12:51 pm
@Kiran, I am guessing that’s because that line is a call to “tar”, and that isn’t installed on your Windows host.
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:46 pm
I was new to Wpress and didn’t know 1 thing.
I read through the tutorials at Wordpress.org and lo and behold I installed it all myself !!!!!
Try that first then come back to this site.
The reason I say this is because you learn a lot by doing, and if you have to make changes later you have the power to do so.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I hope you have a screenshot of the actual installer before we download and run this script. But I’ll try this one now.
Thanks in advance and I hope it work.
October 28th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Usually I used net2ftp to unzip WordPress files on my host.
Before I tried this script, I was a bit worried about the “owner” of the unzipped files and folders
I tried some scripts that unzip and install automatically similar to this (not WordPress-relate), the owner of the file isn’t my ftp username, and that cause me some troble when I want to move/delete/rename the files
But easyWP has no problem about that issue
I tried it and wow! installing WordPress could not be easier! I’m very impressed. Thank you for the great script