How to install WordPress and manage installations in Plesk

WordPress Toolkit is a management interface that allows you to install, configure, and manage WordPress in Plesk easily. In this article, we’ll show you how to install WordPress and manage WordPress installations in Plesk. 

Please note that WordPress Toolkit can install, configure, and manage WordPress version 4.9 and later, and the extension is free with the Web Pro and Web Host Plesk editions. It’s available for a fee for the Web Admin edition. 

How to install WordPress 

1. Access your Plesk control panel through your HostPapa Dashboard

2. Click on WordPress.

open-wordpress

3. Click Install.

click-install

4. The Install WordPress page will display. From this page, you can do one of the following: 

  • Install the latest WordPress version (with default settings) by clicking Install.
  • Change the default settings (the WordPress version, database name, auto-update settings and more) and click Install

install-wordpress-page

Note: To install WordPress, WordPress Toolkit retrieves data from wordpress.org. By default, wordpress.org is considered unavailable if WordPress Toolkit cannot establish a connection in 15 seconds. 

A new installation will appear in the list of WordPress installations.

How to add existing WordPress installations to WordPress Toolkit 

All WordPress installations added using WordPress Toolkit or through Applications will automatically appear in WordPress Toolkit. Those installed manually need to be attached to WordPress Toolkit. If you’ve upgraded from an earlier version of Plesk and used WordPress, you should connect all WordPress installations to WordPress Toolkit. 

To attach WordPress installations to WordPress Toolkit, follow these steps: 

1. Go to WordPress

2. Go to Scan.

go-to-scan

The WordPress installation will be attached and shown on the existing WordPress installations in WordPress.

How to import WordPress installations

You can use the Web Site Migration feature to migrate your websites hosted elsewhere to Plesk. When migrating a WordPress website, Plesk will copy all its files and the database to your server. Once a website has been migrated, you can manage it with WordPress Toolkit. 

To migrate an existing WordPress site, follow these steps: 

1. Go to Websites & Domains

2. Click on WordPress

websites-and-domains

3. Click Import

click-import

4. Follow the instructions that appear.

How to manage WordPress installations

To see all of your WordPress installations, go to WordPress.

WordPress Toolkit groups information about all of our installations into blocks called cards. Cards show screenshots of your website and feature many controls to give you easy access to frequently used tools. The screenshot will change to reflect changes made to your website. 

Note: Changes made directly to WordPress are synchronized with WordPress every 24 hours. To sync manually, click the Refresh button.

refresh-button

When you move the cursor over the screenshot of your website, you’ll see the following: 

  • The Open Website button. Click this button to open the website in a new browser tab.
  • The date and time that the screenshot was last updated. To update the screenshot right away, click the sync button in the upper-righthand corner.

open-website

 You can also do the following: 

  • Change your website name by clicking on the pencil icon. Type in the new name, then click the checkmark icon.
  • Log in to WordPress as an administrator by clicking Log in below the website screenshot.
  • Change general WordPress settings by clicking Setup next to Log in.
  • Go to the domain’s screen in Websites & Domains by clicking Manage domain below the screenshot.  

Status

WordPress websites are targeted frequently by hackers, so outdated WordPress core, plugins, and themes can create a security risk.

status-section

In the Status section, you can: 

  • Check if your WordPress core, plugins, and themes are up to date and update them if needed. 
  • Check if SSL/TLS is enabled, and enable it if not. 
  • Check how safe your website is and enhance its security. 

Tools

The controls in the Tools section give you access to the following:  

tools-section

  • Search engine indexing: shows your website in search engine results. 
  • Debugging: helps you debug your website that’s not ready for viewing and being tested/developed.
  • Password Protection: specifies the password you will use to log in to WordPress from Plesk
  • Take over wp-cron.php: helps you set up a regular run of wp-cron.php 

WordPress Toolkit features 

Above the Status and Tools sections, you will see the following features:

  • File Manager: manage your website’s files
  • Copy Data: copy the content of your website to another. 
  • Clone: make a full copy of your website 
  • Backup / Restore: create a backup of your website and restore it if necessary
  • Logs: view WordPress Toolkit logs of the installation that you need to troubleshoot 

At the bottom of the website card, you can: 

  • Install updates and configure auto-updates 
  • Enable Smart Update, a premium feature that helps keep your production websites up-to-date without the risk of breaking them 
  • Turn on maintenance mode, which hides your website’s content from visitors. 

You can manage your installation’s plugins and themes and change the database username and password on the remaining three tabs. 

Website labels 

Website labels are preconfigured identifiers that you can give to your websites. Depending on your project, you might need to host multiple copies of a website for different purposes, and labels can help you tell them apart.

By default, your website will not have a label. To label it, click ADD LABEL (on the website card, next to the website name) and select the desired label. This setting is optional, and you can change or remove a label.

add-label

How to manage Cards View 

You can choose the way WordPress Toolkit shows cards. The default view is best suited for a small number of installations. If you have many installations, you can Collapse the cards or Filter installations to manage them more easily.

cards-view

How to remove and detach installations 

You can detach WordPress installations you don’t want to see and manage them in WordPress Toolkit. Detaching will not remove the installation, but it does hide it from WordPress Toolkit. A detached installation will reattach to WordPress Toolkit after you scan for installations. You can detach installations individually or detach multiple at a time.

To detach WordPress installations individually, follow these steps: 

1. Go to WordPress.

2. On the installation card you want to detach, click the three-dot icon.

3. Click Detach.

click-detach

To detach multiple WordPress installations at once, follow these steps:

1. Go to WordPress.

2. Select the installations you want to detach.

3. Click Detach.

You can remove any installation, no matter how it was installed (WordPress Toolkit, the Applications page, or manually). You can remove installations individually or detach multiple at a time. Unlike detaching, removing a WordPress installation will delete it completely.

To remove WordPress installations individually, follow these steps: 

1. Go to WordPress.

2. On the installation card you want to remove, click the three-dot icon.

3. Click Remove.

click-remove

To remove WordPress installations individually, follow these steps: 

1. Go to WordPress.

2. Select the installations you want to remove.

3. Click Remove.

Search engine indexing and debugging 

By default, a newly created WordPress Toolkit website will be shown in the search results of a search engine. If your website is not ready to be viewed by the public, turn off Search engine indexing

search-engine-debugging

If you’re installing WordPress for testing or development, you can enable Debugging to find and fix errors in your website code automatically. Click the icon next to Debugging, select the WordPress debugging tool you want to activate, then click OK.

debugging

If you need help with Plesk, please open a support ticket from your dashboard.

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