First step-by-step

Just signed up, first time I've attempted to publish a web page. I loaded all the easy mode one-click installs. I think that what I want to do next is use one of those themes I saw over at Drupal.

Well, I can't find the Drupal install anywhere on my computer. Moreover, the Drupal help video seems deliberately antagonistic towards Windows users ("I don't know what it's called in Windows . . ." Gee, thanks.)

I've been rummaging around here for maybe 20 minutes . . . I'm thinking I might as well just go ahead and ask: if all I want to do is get a little one-page site up for my boss, who has a little home-renovation business, where can I find a step-by-step for that?

The big red warning at the top of the One-Click for Drupal says the following:
WARNING! In easy mode you cannot install your own plugins or themes (though there are a number included). To have full customizability, pick advanced mode below.

You're stuck with the existing themes, or manually installing Drupal yourself.

-Scott

Oh, believe me, I'm perfectly content with the existing themes. It's just that I got this:

"Cron maintenance tasks Never run
Cron has not run. For more information, see the online handbook entry for configuring cron jobs. You can run cron manually."

on the Status Report page. And both of the first two links they offer up in the help vid are dead links: (from my notes)

"http://adrupal/cron.php" is a dead link.
"http://adrupal/admin/reports/dblog" is a dead link.

Anyway, I'm working on it, and will spend weeks doing so if that's what it takes. But, again, all I really want is to figure out how to get one of those themes associated with my domain name. Seems like I would have to do that before I could begin adding my own content.

You can manually run cron from the admin panel:
http://www.example.com/admin/reports/status

If you click on the "run cron manually" that'll do it. To run cron automatically, there's a spot in the Panel that lets you do this. Goodies -> Cron Jobs. Pick a user (hopefully you've got one. If not, create an FTP user. That's good enough. Then the title, an email address if you *really* want to hear back (I wouldn't). Use this for the command:
/usr/bin/wget -O - -q -t 1 http://www.example.com/cron.php

Keep the full path for wget, but change example.com. And then choose hourly. That's it!



-Scott

Back to your original goal, if it's just a one-page site for a business, give the Advanced One-Click WordPress a try (it lets you add themes while Easy One-Click won't). You can have the main page pull up a Page, rather than Posts, and there are plenty of cool themes. Give it a test run on a throw-away subdomain. Tons of themes and cool plugins. WordPress is a breeze compared to Drupal.

-Scott

Cool. Thought WordPress was only for blogs. I'll give it a shot!
Thanks, Scott

There's an update for WP available, and it asks for my hostname, username, and password. And the "FTP" box is checked.
My username should be "admin," password the PW they sent in the email, but what's my hostname?

Tried several, but keep getting:

"Error: There was an error connecting to the server, Please verify the settings are correct."

I don't know what screen that would be. How'd you get to that point? Is this a One-Click? Easy or Advanced?

-Scott

In the email with this subject line:
"Success installing wordpress to blog.example.com!"
there was, in the body, this address:
http://blog.example.com/wp-admin/
And, at the top of that page, it said that:
"WordPress 2.7.1 is available! Please update now."
The last three words are a link, which take you to a page asking after you want to update automatically or manually. I chose automatically, and you have to fill in those three boxes with the information i indicated in my last post. I looked on their forum, and the one posting on point was not resolved and all the suggested hostnames did not work for me, either. I downloaded the zip for the manual, but it's not installing . . .

i think maybe the answer is here:
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/224413?replies=9

I think this lady has it:

"Hi. I had the same experience that Janey had. Thanks, Janey! I reset my file permissions. It didn't take long to activate. For hostname I pulled from the FTP account manager as Janey did - and yes, include the .com. My username was pulled from the FTP user account listed on this same page. The password was the one supplied next to this FTP user account number - it's the one that includes the % if you're on Network Solutions.

I think resetting the file permissions is key. The exact same steps did not work, until I reset the permissions. Then it was seamless. PS I work on a mac."

(I'm on a PC.) I'm thinking that, since I have no content on the WP site, I shouldn't have to worry about resetting anything? But where are all these FTP names and numbers?
Are they in that email with the subject line:
"DreamHost FTP-only User Activated"
which I received from DH a couple of days ago?

Did you use the Easy One-Click, or the Advanced? Either way, I recommend that you don't upgrade Wordpress from within Wordpress. Both One-Clicks can be updated externally (via Panel, or automatically).

-Scott

I used what DH calls their "easy mode." I noticed that, under the "advanced mode," there's the latest version number posted under the WP logo. So I removed the previous easy install (it doesn't show the version number, and directs me to a version which is, apparently, outdated), thinking I would simply install the advanced. But there's a bunch of stuff to fill out down there, and, yet once again, I'm just not filling in answers the machine likes.

Seems like there's really no point in building on the old platform?

Anyway, maybe tomorrow I'll send them an email and ask them to make sure the latest version loads with the easy mode.

Where, btw, do I go to send an email to their 24/7 email support?

And thank you, Scott, for all your help.

Ok, Easy Mode won't let you do the update. DreamHost is supposed to keep that one up to date.

Once you've deleted the Easy Mode, you need to create a Fully Hosted domain where you want your new WP installed, *then* go to the One Clicks and install the advanced one.

Support can be reached via the Panel - not email. The Panel feeds into their ticket system.

-Scott