How to install a WordPress plugin
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 (page 1 of 2)
Sep 9, 2008 11:45 am
found it under manage. plz disregard. thank you.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
May 13, 2008 12:17 pm
Yes ... and what if you have WP 2.5? Where do you activate the plug-in? Thx!
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.
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'.
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).
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