WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that turns a standard WordPress website into a self-hosted online store.
This tutorial will show students and new users how to install WordPress and enable the WooCommerce plugin to create an online store to sell your products or services.
The installation process should be fairly simple and take only a few minutes to complete, even for students and new users.
You will learn to install WordPress with Apache2, MariaDB, and PHP 7.2, enable WooCommerce Plugin, and start selling your products.
To get started with installing WordPress and WooCommerce, continue with the steps below:
Install Apache2 HTTP Server on Ubuntu
Apache2 HTTP Server is the most popular web server in use. Install it since WordPress CMS needs it.
To install Apache2 HTTP on the Ubuntu server, run the commands below.
sudo apt update sudo apt install apache2
After installing Apache2, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots.
sudo systemctl stop apache2.service sudo systemctl start apache2.service sudo systemctl enable apache2.service
To test the Apache2 setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address, and you should see the Apache2 default test page as shown below. When you see that, then Apache2 is working as expected.
http://localhost

Install MariaDB Database Server
MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open-source database servers to use with Magento. To install MariaDB run the commands below.
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client
After installing MariaDB, the commands below can stop, start and enable the MariaDB service to start up when the server boots.
Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
sudo systemctl stop mysql.service sudo systemctl start mysql.service sudo systemctl enable mysql.service
Run these on Ubuntu 17.10 and 18.04 LTS
sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service sudo systemctl start mariadb.service sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service
After that, run the commands below to secure the MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access.
sudo mysql_secure_installation
When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.
- Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
- Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
- New password: Enter password
- Re-enter new password: Repeat password
- Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
- Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
- Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
- Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y
Restart MariaDB server
Type the commands below to log into the MariaDB server to test if MariaDB is installed.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then type the password you created above to sign on. If successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message.

Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules
PHP 7.2 may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. to install it; you will have to get it from third-party repositories.
Run the commands below to add the below third party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.2
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2
sudo apt update
Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2 and related modules.
sudo apt install php7.2 libapache2-mod-php7.2 php7.2-common php7.2-sqlite3 php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-mysql php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip
After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open the PHP default config file for Apache2.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini
Then make the changes on the following lines below in the file and save. The value below is an excellent setting to apply in your environment.
file_uploads = On allow_url_fopen = On short_open_tag = On memory_limit = 256M upload_max_filesize = 100M max_execution_time = 360 date.timezone = America/Chicago
After making the change above, please save the file and close it.
After installing PHP and related modules, you must restart Apache2 to reload PHP configurations.
To restart Apache2, run the commands below
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
To test PHP 7.2 settings with Apache2, create a phpinfo.php file in the Apache2 root directory by running the commands below
sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php
Then type the content below and save the file.
<?php phpinfo( ); ?>
Save the file. Then browse to your server hostname followed by /phpinfo.php
http://localhost/phpinfo.php
You should see the PHP default test page.

Create WordPress Database
At this point, all the required WordPress packages and servers are installed. The new server is now ready to host WordPress… On the new server, create a blank WordPress database.
Run the commands below to log on to the database server. When prompted for a password, type the root password you created above.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a blank database called wp_database.
CREATE DATABASE wp_database;
Create a database user called wp_user with a new password.
CREATE USER 'wp_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'type_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the database.
GRANT ALL ON wp_database.* TO 'wp_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'type_user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Configure WordPress Site
Next, configure the WordPress site configuration file on the server. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called WordPress.conf.
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/wordpress.conf
Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace example.com with your domain name.
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin admin@example.com DocumentRoot /var/www/html/wordpress/ ServerName example.com ServerAlias www.example.com <Directory /var/www/html/wordpress/> Options +FollowSymlinks AllowOverride All Require all granted </Directory> ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined </VirtualHost>
Save the file and exit.
Enable WordPress Apache2 Site
After configuring the VirtualHost above, please enable it by running the commands below.
sudo a2ensite wordpress.conf sudo a2enmod rewrite
Download WordPress Content
Next, visit the WordPress site and download the latest…. or run the commands below to do that.
cd /tmp && wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz tar -zxvf latest.tar.gz sudo mv wordpress /var/www/html/wordpress
Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for the WordPress root directory.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/wordpress/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/wordpress/
Configure WordPress
Next, run the commands below to create a WordPress wp-config.php file. This is the default configuration file for WordPress.
sudo mv /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config-sample.php /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php
Then run the commands below to open the WordPress configuration file.
sudo nano /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php
Enter the highlighted text below that you created for your database and save.
// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** // /** The name of the database for WordPress */ define('DB_NAME', 'wp_database'); /** MySQL database username */ define('DB_USER', 'wp_user'); /** MySQL database password */ define('DB_PASSWORD', 'new_password_here'); /** MySQL hostname */ define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); /** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */ define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8'); /** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */ define('DB_COLLATE', '');
Save the file, and you’re done.
Now all is configured… run the commands below to reload the Apache2 web server settings.
sudo systemctl reload apache2.service
After that, open your browser and browse to the server IP address or domain name to continue with the WordPress setup.
http://example.com
If everything is set up correctly, you’ll see the WordPress setup wizard and continue with the setup.

Follow the on-screen instruction to complete the wizard. First, you’ll have to create the site administrator account with a password. Then use it to log on to the WordPress dashboard to manage WordPress.
http://example.com/wp-admin/
When you log in to the WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins –> Add New. Then search for WooCommerce and click Install Now.

After installing, Activate. After activating, the plugin should automatically start the setup wizard. Follow the on-screen instruction.

Continue until the setup is complete. After that, you can begin setting up your products to sell online.

Enjoy!

This is how to get the WooCommerce plugin set up with WordPress support.
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