ClassicPress

#blog #cms #lang-php #web 

ClassicPress is a fork of WordPress, which aims to be a more stable and secure alternative to the popular CMS. It is fully compatible with many WordPress plugins and themes, but uses the TinyMCE classic editor as the default option and lacks the support of blocks and the block editor (a.k.a. Gutenberg).

Note

For this guide you should be familiar with the basic concepts of

Prerequisites

ClassicPress recommends PHP version 8.1 or 8.2. to be used:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace tools version show php
Using 'PHP' version: '8.2'
[isabell@stardust ~]$

You’ll need your MySQL credentials. Get them with my_print_defaults:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ my_print_defaults client
--default-character-set=utf8mb4
--user=isabell
--password=MySuperSecretPassword
[isabell@stardust ~]$

You will also need a database, where ClassicPress can store data. You may use your default database (i.e. named isabell) or add a new one to your account like this (the database requires your username as a prefix):

[isabell@stardust ~]$ mysql -e "CREATE DATABASE  ${USER}_classic_press"
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Note your credentials and the database name for later use.

Your blog URL needs to be setup:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web domain list
isabell.uber.space
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Installation

Download the source

Change into the /tmp directory of your root folder, download the latest ClassicPress version and unzip it.

[isabell@stardust html]$ cd ~/tmp
[isabell@stardust tmp]$ wget https://www.classicpress.net/latest.zip
[isabell@stardust tmp]$ unzip latest.zip
[isabell@stardust tmp]$

There should be a directory ClassicPress-release-<release_number>, i.e. ClassicPress-release-2.2.0 in your tmp now. Let’s copy its content to your web folder.

[isabell@stardust tmp]$ cp -r ClassicPress-release-2.2.0/* /var/www/virtual/isabell/html/
[isabell@stardust tmp]$

Clean up your /tmp folder:

[isabell@stardust tmp]$ rm latest.zip
[isabell@stardust tmp]$ rm -rf ClassicPress-release-2.2.0
[isabell@stardust ~]$

The installation on the server side is now complete. The rest of the installation process will happen in the browser.

Finishing installation

Point your browser at your domains address, probably https://isabell.uber.space and follow the installation instructions.

  1. Choose your language

  2. It follows an information about what you will need to install ClassicPress.

  3. Fill out the form like this:

    1. The name of the database we set up earlier

    2. The user name for that database (it’s usually the same as your username here)

    3. The database password we acquired above

    4. The database host is localhost

    5. The table prefix would be cp_ (the default)

  4. In the next step, you can start the database initialisation process with a click.

  5. Next step: Set your blog and admin user:

    1. Enter the title you have chosen for your blog (you have chosen one, haven’t you?)

    2. Choose a username for your user

    3. Choose a secure password (and store it in your password manager!)

    4. Enter an email that will be associated with your user

    5. Choose if your blog should be indexed by search engines (can be changed back later)

  6. That’s it, after sending the form, you may login into your freshly installed ClassicPress weblog.

Done.

Updates

ClassicPress updates itself automatically, but you can also check for updates manually in the admin area. Plugins and Themes also have the option to update themselves but it needs to be activated for each.

Documentation

Find more help on the ClassicPress Documentation page.

Tested with ClassicPress 2.2.0, Uberspace 7.16.2

Written by: Nico Brünjes <https://nicobruenjes.dev>