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WordPress One-Click on Cloud Sites

  • Article ID: 3179
  • Last updated on January 3, 2013
  • Authored by: Jereme Hancock
  • (10 Comments)

We are pleased to introduce the WordPress Installer on Cloud Sites.

This feature has been in the works for some time, so thank you for your patience as we worked this out. Now that this has launched, we expect to quickly add other installers to our portfolio. We hope you find this feature helpful in spinning up new sites. Check out the video below:

A quick walkthrough of the one-click process of adding the WordPress CMS application to CloudSites.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I use this WordPress Installer?    

It's simple. Open Cloud Sites, click on the Cloud Sites product link on the left nav bar, then click Add Site and follow the instructions. This installation will install WordPress on the root domain of your website. The installation may take up to 15 minutes for installation and DNS propagation.

 

2. Does this installer work on previously created sites?  

No, not at this time. The installer is only for new site creation at this time. We are evaluating what would be required for implementing this on existing sites, but at this point we do not have a method that would not potentially overwrite or jeopardize content that already exists on the customers site. Since we do not want to be held responsible for overwriting content, we have chosen to limit this to new site adds only at this time.    

If desired, customers can delete an existing site, recreate it, and use the CMS installer, but note that all database, email and other site content will be erased and will need to be set up again.

 

3. Can I select the technology that this installs on?   

The CMS is setup to install only on PHP 5.3 and deploys a MySQL 5.1 database. You cannot select an alternate technology for this installation. You are able to perform manual installations on other technologies, but this 1-click installer defaults only to PHP 5.3.

 

4. Does this installer automatically update the version of WordPress automatically?    

No, Cloud Sites does not automatically update your version of WordPress as the product is not a CMS management utility. However, version updates are very simple in the WordPress management dashboard. Click updates and you will see if a new version is available. If so, click install and it is performed for you. You are strongly urged to stay up to date on the version of WordPress as older versions are easily compromised, so please keep your version up to date for the most secure site.

 

5. Can I select the sub-directory or sub-domain where this is installed?

No, not at this time, but we are considering enabling that in the future.

 

6. Test link support - I just installed Wordpress using the one-click installer and my Test Link displays the new install unformatted, did the installer fail?

No, the installer most likely completed and installed Wordpress just fine. The reason the test link is not displaying the site correctly is due to the fact that the one-click installer uses the actual URL for the Wordpress installation. Since Wordpress stores the site URL into the database you can only visit the site from the actual site URL. There are two ways to overcome this for testing purposes.

  • If you have already pointed your DNS to Cloud Sites you can simply visit the actual site URL and the site should display and function correctly.
  • The recommended method for dealing with this issue is to edit your local computer's hosts file so that your local computer will display the site using the Cloud Sites IP address. This process will be different depending on whether your local computer is a Windows, Linux, or Mac computer. See: How do I modify my hosts file?
  • Lastly, if you haven't already setup your DNS to point to Cloud Sites and you are not able to modify your local hosts file, you can modify the Wordpress installation so that the Test Link is the URL used by Wordpress. See: Changing The Site URL (Wordpress Codex)

 

7. Does this installer work for all web browsers?   

This has been tested and is functional for Chrome, Firefox and Safari.  We are now testing IE and expect to have clarity on this in the very near future.  

 

8. How do I perform a manual installation of WordPress on an existing site? 

You can reference the content listed here for manually installing WordPress on Cloud Sites: Install And use WordPress On Cloud Sites



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10 Comments

So, I can only use this during a new cloud site setup? What about all my domains that I'd like to add WordPress to? I'm still stuck with the manual install? FAIL
By Andrew on Nov. 9, 2012

Hey Andrew,

At the moment the "One-Click Install" only works with newly created domains. Installing WordPress on existing domains will have to be done manually. We apologize for the inconvenience.

-Rae
By Rae D. Cabello on Nov. 12, 2012

We're a pro Wordpress shop and have been looking forward to this functionality all year!

Three comments:

1) The lack of configuration on the Preview URL is really problematic... more than half of our development takes place on existing sites for which we're crafting a re-design, and if we have to login to phpMyAdmin and adjust the application path, we might as well install the database manually as before. This limitation severely lessons the impact of this new feature, almost making it null for pro developer shops.

2) When entering the database information during domain configuration, the admin screen uses an erroneous account number, e.g. 33265_ {field} -- it's not grabbing the actual customer account number on which the domain is being added, and this is leading to confusion in our shop, as we record the information into our files during creation.

3) Please consider adding the ability to change the WP database table prefix... this is in the top 5 recommended security actions to take for pro Wordpress usage, and would surely benefit the entire community. We might also abandon the one-button install feature on this issue as well, as feel this is pretty important.

Thanks for listening!
By Rob on Nov. 19, 2012

Thank you so much for your feedback. I am currently and actively working with our Product Team and our devs to address these concerns and some others as well. While I cannot guarantee an immediate fix for these issues/concerns, I do want you to know that this feedback helps immensely and is going to be part of our efforts to make the WP Installer a great tool for our customers.

Regards,

Jereme
Rackspace Cloud Sites Support
Linux System Admin I
By jereme hancock on Nov. 20, 2012

Hi Jereme,
Has this been actioned yet? This is the only thing stopping me pulling the trigger on your hosting. If you could let me know that would be great.
By Guy on Apr. 22, 2013

I was hoping, and I am sure others were as well, that this would be something that my customers could do for themselves thereby saving me time and hassle. I don't actually need or want the one click install process for myself although this will be handy at times, its not what I was looking for.
By Dawn on Nov. 29, 2012

Thanks for the feedback, Dawn. We've passed it back to the Cloud Sites team. Further streamlining of the process is not planned for the near future, but they are aware that it's a concern.
By jered.heeschen on Nov. 30, 2012

Even though I have no need of it and don't want it, 1 click install is what everyone says is great when I say you're ruining Cloud Sites.

You can only install on a new site.

You are ruining Cloud Sites and don't ever say to me 1 click install again.
By Mike Hartley on Feb. 8, 2013

How can I set my preferred domain? Currently it's grayed out and not editable. Does this kind of installation prohibit setting preferred domain?
By Josh on Feb. 8, 2013

Dear Rackspace, please stop installing WP Supercache by default. It causes the inability to edit the site and see the live edits. And the plugin can not simply be turned off, I tried multiple times. I just spent time with your tech on Live Chat and he agreed. He had me delete it via FTP and all it's multiple folders. It appears I can't access my htaccess to fix that. Please just stop installing it unless we ask. (Waste of my afternoon. I am not a fan of Rackspace right now, add this to the list.)
By Eric on Mar. 12, 2013

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