How to install a WordPress plugin

Aug 8, 2007 | Tags: guide, install, plugin, wordpress | Written by Administrator

This guide is another in the Inside WordPress series and will show you how to install a WordPress plugin. While this is a relatively simple task it is one of fundamental importance to WordPress and is often overlooked. As such it is a potential cause of problems to beginners, and not being able to successfully install plugins will prevent you from accessing the very large world of WordPress plugins.

The installation process can be broken down into

Download & unzip the plugin file
Upload the plugin to your website
Activate the plugin

We'll look at each step in turn.

Download & Unzip the plugin file

WordPress plugins are usually distributed as zip files. A zip file is a special file that allows you to store and compress many files together, resulting in a single file that is small and fast to download. Downloading a plugin consists of clicking the download link from the appropriate website and allowing the browser to store the file somewhere on your computer:

Once downloaded the file needs to be unzipped, a term that refers to the de-compressing and restoring to normal of a zip file. Depending what kind of computer you are using this is either a very simple stage, or one that requires additional software. Recent versions of Windows will already understand zip files, as will OS X. If they don't then you will need to download and install something like 7-Zip, Winzip, or StuffIt.

When ready, unzip the plugin:

Upload the plugin to your website

Currently you have the plugin on your computer, but you'll need to move it to your website before it can be activated. There are a variety of ways of doing this, and here we will use FTP. Before you continue you should have access to your FTP username and password. These are the same details provided to you by your web host, and the ones which give you access to your site directory.

Before you begin you will need an FTP client. For Windows you can use FileZilla, for Mac OS X you can use Cyberduck. Once you have the FTP software installed you should start it and open a new connection. Enter your FTP address, followed by your username and password:

After a few moments (if the address, username, and password are correct) you will be connected to your website and will see a directory listing.

Navigate through this directory to where WordPress is installed. The exact location of this will change depending on your web host, but typically it will be inside a directory called public_html.

Now navigate through WordPress to where the plugins are located: wp-content/plugins/

Now you can upload the plugin. Be aware that you need to upload the plugin directory as well as all files. Certain unzip applications will create a surrounding directory for you, which should not be uploaded. For example:

Correct (bold shows directory to be uploaded)

redirection/redirection.php

Incorrect

redirection/redirection/redirection.php

Activate the plugin

This is the simplest stage. First you'll need to login to your WordPress administration panel:

From your dashboard go to the plugins section:

You will be presented with a list of plugins. Locate the plugin you uploaded and press activate. Simple!

Comments

1
Joni Solis :
Mar 6, 2008 4:41 pm

You should add some info here about upgrading to a new version of a WordPress plugin.

Like do you first deactive the plugin and then delete the old folder with the old files before you install the new folder and files? Or do your just overwrite the files in the old folder with the new files (after you deactive the plugin).
2
Joni Solis :
Mar 6, 2008 4:45 pm

By the way, what WordPress plugins are you using for email notices of 'Subscribe to comments' and 'blog subscription'.
3
John (author) :
Mar 11, 2008 2:47 pm

A good idea Joni, I'll look into that soon. The subscribe to comments plugin is called 'subscribe to comments'! It's found at txfx.net. The blog subscription is of my own creation, and doesn't exist outside some experimental code.
4
GoBabyGo :
May 13, 2008 12:17 pm

Yes ... and what if you have WP 2.5? Where do you activate the plug-in? Thx!
5
KathiPeters :
Jul 15, 2008 11:40 am

I follow all of the steps listed above, but when I go to the list of plugins, it's not there. What am I doing wrong? I can't find anyone to help me.
Thank you.
6
John (author) :
Jul 15, 2008 2:38 pm

It's hard to tell what you are doing wrong without seeing the process. if you followed all of the above steps and uploaded an unzipped plugin into your plugins directory then it will appear in the list.
7
Compusure :
Jul 28, 2008 10:23 am

In some few cases when installing plugins it is necessary to install only the files within the downloaded folder to your plugins dir rather than the entire folder. This is pretty uncommon now though. The only example of such a plugin that comes to mind is the 'home-page-link.php' addon. I would read the readme.txt file that usually comes with the plugin and also make sure to refresh your plugins page after the install. You may also in some case, make sure that when you are uploading the files that they are uploaded in Binary format.
8
hamydy :
Aug 16, 2008 7:24 am

hi i newbie in wordpress. my prolem is haw do i install plugin in normal wordpress acct. i didnt see any plugin in my acct.
please help me
9
Jessie :
Sep 9, 2008 11:41 am

hmmm. I've activated the plugin, but do not see a place to manage it. I have many plugins, but don't see it under settings, along with the others.

help?

thanks.
10
Jessie :
Sep 9, 2008 11:45 am

found it under manage. plz disregard. thank you.
11
Chris :
Sep 11, 2008 8:11 pm

Kathi,

I had a similar problem with another plugin. You can try to upload the folder within the main folder of the plugin, which appears in your root directory. That worked for me with another plugin. It may work for this one too.
12
Josh :
Oct 7, 2008 6:13 pm

Cool Tutorial. Is like if you want to explain someone how to take a shower. Extremly for Dummies ;-). Anyway! how much time did you spent for that post
13
Rav Kumar :
Oct 9, 2008 1:55 pm

Hi Nice to have plugin here. I have configured the plugin with the procedure you explained but it did not show any result. Can you please tell me what else should i need to check for making this work in my site????
14
John (author) :
Oct 10, 2008 8:45 am

Without knowing more about the plugin there is nothing else I can say. Remember that general wordpress support questions should be directed to the wordpress support forum.
15
Katrina :
Oct 24, 2008 7:36 pm

Hi there - thanks for the tutorial. I get how to do everything you explain, and have installed and activated 3 plugins. The problem is...now what? Like - how does one see these plugins in order to use them in one's website? So looking at my website, I have the Calendar plugin. But where is it? How do I get to that page? There's no link, no module...nothing. Same with a form plugin I activated. It's installed. It's activated -- but it doesn't show up on the website. So it appears there's one step missing -- the finally step -- in the directions for noobies like me...HELP! Thanks!
16
John (author) :
Oct 26, 2008 9:43 am

Katrina, use of the plugins will depend entirely on the plugins themselves and you should consult the author's website for further details. Typically additional menu options are added into the WordPress administration pages.
17
Amir :
Oct 29, 2008 2:32 pm

Зря не используете FeedBurner
18
CakeBlast (Larry) :
Nov 6, 2008 12:36 pm

Good tutorial..if anyone ever needs to know how to upload in binary format using Filezilla, I wrote instructions and posted them to CakeBlast.

..partially in response to what Compusure said.