"Five minute install" not really true

[japhonthenet]

Hello

I just installed wordpress for the first time and it took a while because i had to find out how to make a database with my hosting service. probably twenty minutes!!

[nacin]

The feedback we typically hear is that the five-minute install is more like one minute. This is especially true since most hosts now have one-click install options either as part of a hosting package or in a dashboard. Sorry to hear you struggled a bit.

[dd32]

I do think we can do better here however still, not everyone uses hosting-panel installers, and this is something that has crossed my mind a few times - even just today as I went to install a test install, I had to try and remember what spare database name was available on that host.

We have several options here which can help the experience for both new and experienced devs here. The first one that comes to mind is listing the databases already available in the account and letting the user select it, or, if the users permissions are great enough, offer to create the database too.

We can query MySQL for the permissions of the user. This does however mean, we'd have to split the install into 2 screens (hostname/username/password & db select/create), but we could ajaxify the page to reduce it to a single screen for most users (and this would also mean we'd be able to add some basic instant form validation/feedback).

[nofearinc]

Usually people who don't know the databases available don't have user/pass for the DB login either so I don't think that it would help a lot. And database listing won't be possible without a valid login.

[Ipstenu]

We're addressing this in the user manual over at make/support, so hopefully that will help.

The 5 min install is true if you don't have to make that first DB, otherwise, yes, it takes a bit longer.

[ericlewis]

Replying to Ipstenu:

We're addressing this in the user manual over at make/support, so hopefully that will help.

The text in the installer page reads "In all likelihood, these items were supplied to you by your Web Host. If you do not have this information, then you will need to contact them before you can continue. If you’re all ready…"

Maybe we can provide a link here to the ​make/support page if that's going to be the canonical support info on basic DB setup.

[Ipstenu]

Links are not finalized. :/

[wycks]

This is exactly why I made this, ​https://github.com/wycks/WordPhing .

It basically only does the install so it's not like the wp-cli (which is way more advanced), it will install the DB, latest WP and any plugins/themes in about 30-40 seconds, most of which is simply downloading from .org.

Benefits:

Platform independant, runs on PHP.

Phing is included in most every stack.

It installs plugins and themes as well.

Drawbacks:

Requires command line.

Using it on shared host is a big what if because of PEAR packages.

Maybe something along these lines could actually be baked into WordPress, the 5 minute install made it famous, I think it's time to improve that especially with all the mega simple to configure PHP cloud apps breathing down its neck.

ps. link only tested with xampp on windows.

[nacin]

dd32 once wrote an installer — ​http://wpquickinstall.com/.

Ultimately, our time is better spent pushing hosts to add, improve, and simplify one-click updates. In fact, our download counts stayed flat (actually went down slightly) for the last two one-year periods, yet the number of sites spiked, due to millions of one-click installs.

[dd32]

dd32 once wrote an installer — ​http://wpquickinstall.com/.

FWIW, the main feedback I've had from that, has been that since it's been dead, a few people have stepped forward and suggested improvements/fix ups, but when it was working, the major stone that most people stumbled on was the WordPress installation process - not the problem the installer fixed (getting the files to the server in the first place).

One-click installers from hosts have all but removed the need for that tool now days, and future core versions are going to quickly remove the downsides to the existing one-click installers (primarily, host one click installers don't handle non-english installations).

The major stumbling step I've seen is still the database credentials from what I see people having trouble with, and thats something that only the host can resolve