Really Stupid question about Wordpress Plugins

7 replies
Hi everyone I'm trying hard to put together a wordpress site and it has been going good...1 question though. When I am installing my plugins I just upload them from my computer without FTP, but I see everywhere that people are using FTP to upload them. Why are people using FTP to do this? It seems so much simpler to do it the other way.
#plugins #question #stupid #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author CliveG
    Originally Posted by bigballin6161 View Post

    Hi everyone I'm trying hard to put together a wordpress site and it has been going good...1 question though. When I am installing my plugins I just upload them from my computer without FTP, but I see everywhere that people are using FTP to upload them. Why are people using FTP to do this? It seems so much simpler to do it the other way.
    What are you using if not ftp, presumably your browser, which means that the permissions on your server allow the web server write access to at least part of your directory structure. While this is not of itself necessarily insecure, if someone breaks into part of your web server they will probably be able to access your files.

    CliveG
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2637632].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author SteveJohnson
    If you're using the Add New WordPress plugin functionality, you're not uploading "from your computer". You're sending a command to your WordPress install on your server, which in turn goes out and gets the plugin, unzips, installs, and activates it.

    But - if you have a plugin that doesn't live in the WP plugin repository, you'll have to upload and install it manually. That's where FTP comes in.
    Signature

    The 2nd Amendment, 1789 - The Original Homeland Security.

    Gun control means never having to say, "I missed you."

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2638601].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author bigballin6161
    Right on! Thanks guys cleared that up. Wordpress can be kind of difficult at the beginning but I'm getting there.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2643503].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author cyphix
    No real reason to use FTP..... just use the simple WP plugin installer..... only reason you may wanna unzip the file yourself is if you need to read the read me file with the plugin.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2645082].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author mywebwork
      Originally Posted by cyphix View Post

      No real reason to use FTP..... just use the simple WP plugin installer..... only reason you may wanna unzip the file yourself is if you need to read the read me file with the plugin.

      Not true - see Steve's response above for a reason you would need FTP.

      Some (albeit few) plugins are not dispensed as ZIP files and do not live in their own directory. A plugin could just be a single PHP file, which cannot be installed from the WordPress dashboard.

      An obvious (and silly) example is the pointless "Hello Dolly" plugin included with WordPress - it's just a single file.

      So at times the FTP method is the only way top do the installation

      Bill
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2647476].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author joesemo
        Some of the more complex plugins like PHPbay require you to use a FTP like Filezilla to place some of the files into a seperate folder to get it to work.

        Wordpress really gives you a chance to customize your site with plugins and the fact that you can simply download new ones with the installer and activate them in about 10 seconds is pretty awesome.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2649117].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author SEOTranslator
    I think that the previous answers already explained it.

    However, they forgot to explain one thing:

    "The only stupid question is the one that is never made."

    As the wise said: "I prefer to ask and look stupid for five minutes rather than remaining stupid for the rest of my life."
    Signature
    Website localization and multilingual SEO
    Making your translated sites friendly for humans and machines alike.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2647240].message }}

Trending Topics