Web developers often find the hardest part of using a CMS is setting it up. Installing it is usually trickier than setting up local apps on a computer, which makes a lot of people dread starting. But, it’s not as tough as some say it is.
With over two-thirds of websites using a CMS, it’s clear that most developers figure out any issues they have at the start.
If you’ve never done it before, there are several simple strategies you can try to get your software working.
Hosting-backed Package Installers
Organizations that use a cloud-based web hosting solution may find that they have access to some wizard that’s supplied by the organization they’ve chosen to do business with.
Using one of these is often the easiest way to get a system up and running since they automate almost everything and use an installation image that’s tailor-made for the type of server it will be running on.
In some cases, web developers merely have to click a single checkbox and their server will automatically roll a customized installation out.
Anybody who wants to be certain they’re going to be able to try this strategy will want to read over a comparison of best WordPress hosting services before they definitively pick out a host.
Since WordPress enjoys such a commanding place in the overall web ecosystem, it’s the most common one that providers select to come with their services.
Tech-savvy netizens who’d prefer to deploy a different CMS may have to shop around, or they might instead resort to a manual installation.
Full Manual CMS Installation
Grabbing a copy of most of the popular CMS platforms is as easy as downloading a single archive, especially if users are careful to only pick out an open source solution.
These are usually available in both the zip and .tar.gz formats. Those who work with Unix systems shouldn’t have any difficulty working with either, but they’ll more than likely prefer tar-style archives because these tend to preserve file permissions somewhat better.
In theory, all an administrator would have to do is extract the archive into a top-level directory on their server and then execute a single script.
Some installation scripts might have malformed names that don’t support certain edge cases while others may lock up if they’re running on specific platforms.
A few commentators have even expressed the view that software is gradually getting worse when it comes to the installation process, which is why so many people have difficulties with this.
Perl, Python and JavaScript enthusiasts might look at this as an opportunity to tailor some of the installation tools to their particular situation.
Failures due to execution bit errors and malformed file system links are usually corrected with just a few commands anyway, which makes this a much less daunting proposition than it might initially seem. Examining a few critical command line messages could be all it takes to restart the installation successfully.
Nevertheless, those who are still having trouble may want to consider deploying a self-extracting containerized solution that automates most of the distribution process.
Using a Prefabricated Container Image
Much like a disk image, container packages are built from a complete file structure that a software driver mounts to look like a physical storage volume. Almost any modern CMS platform could be at least theoretically deployed in this fashion, and doing so usually negates the installation process entirely.
System operators merely have to clone an existing image and then copy it to their own server.
While they’ll still need to manually go through and tick all of the right configuration check boxes, anybody using this method can be sure that they’ll have a stable system in a relatively short amount of time.
Container systems are also designed to put a barrier around every program running inside of them, which may be an important consideration for those who are using an on-premise hosting solution and don’t want to take their entire infrastructure down just because of problems on a single blog.
Site operators who might have had a bad experience with one of these techniques shouldn’t hesitate to try another one.
Certain edge cases necessitate the use of one strategy over another, so it often pays to experiment with different techniques until everything works smoothly.
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