{"id":146296,"date":"2015-09-18T11:00:23","date_gmt":"2015-09-18T15:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/premium.wpmudev.org\/blog\/?p=146296"},"modified":"2017-02-28T03:23:06","modified_gmt":"2017-02-28T03:23:06","slug":"develop-wordpress-locally-mamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/develop-wordpress-locally-mamp\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Develop WordPress Locally with MAMP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes you need to make changes to your WordPress site (like activating plugins or changing the design) that you need\u00a0to test out before you start to mess\u00a0with your live site. The good news is that there is a way to do this \u2013 by making a local version\u00a0of your site for testing and development.<\/p>\n

Or maybe you want to start working on a new site but instead of doing all your development on a remote server (i.e. on the Internet), you want to create a development site on your own computer to try things out on. Not only does this keep your development site hidden from the world, it will also speed up your development as you won’t have to wait for files to upload when you make changes.<\/p>\n

In this post, I’ll show you exactly how to install WordPress locally (i.e. on your computer instead of on the web). I’ll take you through the process step-by-step with screenshots along the way. Hopefully, once you’ve read this you won’t be daunted at all and you’ll be ready to start using WordPress locally.<\/p>\n

You’ll need to follow a four-part\u00a0process:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Install MAMP on your computer (this applies to Windows and Mac users, as MAMP is no longer restricted to Mac as it once was).<\/li>\n
  2. Activate MAMP’s local servers and change port settings (optional).<\/li>\n
  3. Create a database on your computer where your site’s content will be stored (which means typing one word and\u00a0clicking one button!).<\/li>\n
  4. Install WordPress using the famous five-minute install.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So let’s get started!<\/p>\n

    Installing MAMP<\/h2>\n

    First you’ll need to download the MAMP program. MAMP stands for\u00a0M<\/b>acintosh,\u00a0A<\/b>pache,\u00a0M<\/b>ySQL, and\u00a0P<\/b>HP. This reflects the fact that MAMP was originally developed for use on Macs, but it now runs on Windows and Linux too and is the easiest way to run WordPress locally.<\/p>\n

    \n
    \"MAMP
    MAMP is free software that lets you run Apache and PHP on your computer, both of which you need to run WordPress locally.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

    The reason you need MAMP is that it runs PHP (which WordPress is written in), MySQL and Apache on your machine. This means you can\u00a0create and run queries from a database, which is where WordPress stores your content.<\/p>\n

    Go to the MAMP website<\/a>, download the free software and install it on your computer.<\/p>\n

    Activating Local Servers with MAMP<\/h2>\n

    Now that you have MAMP installed you need to start it and get it to run servers on your local machine. This means editing the post settings to one of two options:<\/p>\n