Introduction:
WordPress supports only one database type as its backend: MySQL. But using MySQL is not always possible or desirable – some people will not have access to a MySQL database account, or they prefer to have a fully portable blog which is self-contained in a single directory (easy to backup!).
A plugin called “PDO for WordPress” allows you to use a SQLite (file-based) database instead. Unfortunately this sqlite plugin (and it is the only one of its kind) is not 100% compatible with some of the WordPress routines. As a consequence, versions of WordPress 3.0 and newer make it difficult to create a new blog with sqlite database.
Difficult, but not impossible. This page shows you how to setup a new blog with a SQLite database.
You must have access to (preferably) an Apache webserver. This webserver must have PHP script support enabled. You will need to ensure that SQLite has been installed on your server as well. Shell access to your server is preferred but not required.
For generic installation questions, please visit the WordPress support pages http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress . Note that you can skip all the steps that deal with setting up the MySQL database and user. My own article describes the additional instructions required for your SQLite backend.
Instructions:
The following installation procedure has been tested for WordPress Version 2.9.2. You will be able to upgrade to the most recent version of WordPress after the initial configuration of your sqlite-powered blog has completed.
- Start with downloading WordPress 2.9.2 and PDO (SQLite) Plugin 2.7.0 from wordpress.org .
- Extract the two downloaded archives:
$ tar xvf wordpress-2.9.2.tar.gz $ unzip pdo-for-wordpress.2.7.0.zip
- You should now have a ‘wordpress’ directory and a ‘pdo-for-wordpress’ directory. In the ‘pdo-for-wordpress’ directory you will find a ‘pdo’ subdirectory and a ‘db.php’ file. Copy those into the ‘wp-content’ subdirectory of the ‘wordpress’ directory:
$ cp -a pdo-for-wordpress/pdo wordpress/wp-content/ $ cp -a pdo-for-wordpress/db.php wordpress/wp-content/
- Create a new directory named ‘database’ in the ‘wp-content’ subdirectory of the ‘wordpress’ directory. Set the file permissions of the ‘database’ directory to 777. The PDO plugin will create the database in there with the hard-coded name ‘MyBlog.sqlite‘. The mode “777” will ensure that your web server will be able to create and update the database.
$ mkdir wordpress/wp-content/database $ chmod 777 wordpress/wp-content/database
- Rename the ‘wp-config-sample.php’ file located in the ‘wordpress’ directory to ‘wp-config.php’.
$ mv wordpress/wp-config-sample.php wordpress/wp-config.php
- Open the ‘wp-config.php’ file renamed above in an text editor.
- Add the following line
define('DB_TYPE', 'sqlite'); // use sqlite
right after the lines
/** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */
define('DB_COLLATE', '');
- A bit further down in the same file, replace the lines
define('AUTH_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('SECURE_AUTH_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('LOGGED_IN_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('NONCE_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('AUTH_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('SECURE_AUTH_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('LOGGED_IN_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('NONCE_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here');
with your own unique set of keys. You can generate a set of random keys online: browse to the URL https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ and copy the page content into wp-config.php.
- First stage is complete! Now we are going to make the blog files accessible through a webserver. Copy the ‘wordpress’ directory structure into the DocumentRoot of your webserver, or upload it to a remote server. See the WordPress installation guide for more help about that. You can also rename the ‘wordpress’ directory to something like ‘blog’ if your WordPress blog is not going to be the root directory of your webserver.
- Open the URL http://yourdomain/wp-admin/install.php in a web browser (substituting your server name and possibly a directory name for “yourdomain” of course) and kick off the WordPress installation procedure.
- Enter a friendly name for your new blog, and the email address which will be associated with the “admin” user account. Then click the ‘Install WordPress‘ button
- You might see a lot of PHP code being written to your browser window. You can safely ignore this. Scroll to the bottom of the page and wait patiently.
- Write down the randomly generated password for user ‘admin’ which will be printed at the bottom of the page below the line that says “Success!” when the WordPress installation has completed. Then click the ‘login’ link located at the bottom of the page.
- Enter the “admin” username and the password you just wrote down. You should then be taken to the WordPress Configuration Panel.
Congratulations! You have a working WordPress blog which is PDO Powered. Now comes the next step: upgrading to the latest version of WordPress. The upgrade process will be painless. Just foillow the instructions on http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrading_WordPress.
When that is done, you can dress up your blog the way you like it.
Fast track:
If you want to be up and running in no time, you can grab this tarball of an empty WordPress blog, which was setup using the above instructions and containing only one published article… this one!
- Extract the tarball to your webserver’s DocumentRoot and change ownership of the “pdopowered” directory structure so that your webserver account (apache or httpd) can at least write to “./pdopowered/wp-content/database” and everything below.
- Access to the blog will initially only be possible through the localhost in order to prevent external visitors to mess it up. You need to visit http://localhost/pdopowered/ with a webbrowser running on the server. Login with user “admin”, password “pdopowered”.
- Set a new password for user “admin” and define a proper URL for your blog in the “Settings” module. This will allow external access to the blog pages.
- If needed, upgrade to the latest version of WordPress, and start dressing up your new blog!
Good luck! Eric
Happy Blogging
http://ziyaretdefteri.freeiz.com/pdopowered/
Thanks Alien
Good luck with it 🙂
Hi,
I have modified the code mentioned here so that it works with a new install of wordpress 3.4.1
I would appreciate it if people could test it.
Hi Tino,
Do you have these updated instructions / code somewhere public so I can link to them, or do you want me to try it out and add it to this blog page (with due credits)?
Eric
Hi Eric,
The instructions are the exactly the same as your own , as I used the same base code and just fixed the various errors.
There is a copy of the code here http://tinoest.no-ip.org/wolfcms/public/wp-pdo-sqlite/wp-pdo-sqlite.tar.gz
Although I can’t host it there for long.
Hi everyone =)
I tried what Tino posted, using wp 3.4.2 and works perfectly. Just be careful if you use plugins like “better wp security”, it has a function that modifies the content folder and it can lock you out immediatly. Also, if you change the table prefix, you will have to go through the install process again and you will have extra unused tables in your database.
A question, if I want to move my site, do i have to change the url in the settings module to the new site’s, previous to the back up?
works fine for me http://hussam.eu.org
but I get a wp-content/database/debug.txt file full of
[code]Line 431, Function: prepareQuery, Message: Problem preparing the PDO SQL Statement. Error was near “7”: syntax error
Line 431, Function: prepareQuery, Message: Problem preparing the PDO SQL Statement. Error was near “15”: syntax error
Line 431, Function: prepareQuery, Message: Problem preparing the PDO SQL Statement. Error was near “15”: syntax error[/code]
wowowo.. thanks.. i prefer sqlite to mysql
tino, I am interested in using your code. How may I get it off you since your website is unavailable?
Hi Andy
I had copied that archive file when tino published it. I compared it to the original pdo-for-wordpress.2.7.0.zip archive and cleaned up tino’s indentation so that the only differences with the original are his code changes.
This is the diff between the original and tino’s adaptation:
http://slackware.com/~alien/pdo-for-wordpress_newer_wp.diff
Cheers, Eric
Hi,
The code should be available again, if not as Andy has kindly provided there is a diff of the changes above. I use tab spacing set to 4 if that helps, Andy.
Sorry got you mixed up, Andy should be Eric.
hello again, thanks for your code. However as I expected for some bumps along the way I got in a problem. I used wordpress on my raspberry pi and set it up successfully. But after restarting my pi i have an error that an connection to the cannot be established and found the debug.txt in the database folder full of errors saying tables are missing. I am using latest version of wordpress. Any ideas?
Nice Share 🙂
Hi Eric,
I followed your instructions but now i am getting the following error:
Line 431, Function: prepareQuery, Message: Problem preparing the PDO SQL Statement. Error was no such table: modTimes
Line 431, Function: prepareQuery, Message: Problem preparing the PDO SQL Statement. Error was no such table: modTimes
Line 431, Function: prepareQuery, Message: Problem preparing the PDO SQL Statement. Error was no such table: modTimes
Line 431, Function: prepareQuery, Message: Problem preparing the PDO SQL Statement. Error was no such table: modTimes
Line 431,
in the debug.txt?
How to resolve this? thx
Hi namita sai,
My debug.txt has that too, and a lot more. But my blog functions properly even with these messages so I ignore them.
Eric
Terrific steam showers, we had one of these built about five years ago
and so it could do with upgrading, would never buy a bland old typical kind of shower
ever again