Wordpress Blog Site (Tool)

Install FTP server

Log in and sudo su yourself, then:

apt-get install vsftpd

Man page for the vsftpd.conf file

http://vsftpd.beasts.org/vsftpd_conf.html

Securing the FTP:

https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/serverguide/ftp-server.html

Configuration

Edit /etc/vsftpd.conf (note next restart will reflect changes in /etc/init)

#add at tend of file:
listen_port=26

Generate keys for our website with the following command:

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout /etc/vsftpd.pem -out /etc/vsftpd.pem

Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:US
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:Texas
Locality Name (eg, city) []:Houston
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:McNair Center at Rice University's Baker Institute
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:
Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) []:McNair Center
Email Address []:admin@mcnaircenter.org

Edit /etc/vsftpd.conf again

#change the lines as follows:
rsa_cert_file=/etc/vsftpd.pem
rsa_private_key_file=/etc/vsftpd.pem
write_enable=YES
chroot_local_user=YES
chroot_list_enable=YES
chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd.chroot_list
ssl_enable=YES

Edit /etc/vsftpd.chroot_list to contain a list of usernames (e.g., ravali)

Restart the server

service vsftpd restart

The FTP server should be accessible. Beware local packet shaping. Connect through mcnaircenter.org:26. Otherise have a check that the process is running and listening:

ps -aux
netstat -lnt

Assuming all is good with the FTP server, we now need to update Wordpress.

Turning the FTP server on and off

To stop the FTP server loading at boot:

service vsftpd stop
mv /etc/init/vsftpd.conf /etc/init/vsftpd.conf.stop

To start the service, restore the conf file first:

mv /etc/init/vsftpd.conf.stop /etc/init/vsftpd.conf 
service vsftpd stop

Update Wordpress

First make a copy of the wordpress folder and dbase

 cp -R /var/lib/wordpress/ /var/lib/wordpress_bak
 mysqldump -u mcnair_wp -p wordpress > backup_12Aug2016.sql
 (enter password for dbase found in wp-config.php)

Change the permissions on every in the wordpress folder and make www-data its owner:

chown -R www-data /var/lib/wordpress
chmod -R 755 /var/lib/wordpress

Browse to 128.42.44.180/blog/wp-admin Click update now. Enter:

Hostname 128.42.44.180:26
FTP Username ravali (or some other account)
FTP Password 
Connection Type FTPS (SSL)

Leave the Akismet plugin Go to appearance, themes -> add new

Choose Accesspress Lite 2.46.7
Activate

Install all of the recommended pluggins that come with the theme

Check the media library works by uploading a file (e.g., GreenRoundLogo.png)

Create a child theme

cd /var/lib/wordpress/wp-content/themes
mkdir accesspress-lite-child
vi accesspress-lite-child/style.css 
	Add in the template from the parent folder's style.css (just the top of the file)
	Update the theme name and text domain to accesspress-lite-child.
vi accesspress-lite-child/functions.php
	Add in the section that never changes
	
<?php
function my_theme_enqueue_styles() {

    $parent_style = 'parent-style'; // This is 'twentyfifteen-style' for the Twenty Fifteen theme.

    wp_enqueue_style( $parent_style, get_template_directory_uri() . '/style.css' );
    wp_enqueue_style( 'child-style',
        get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/style.css',
        array( $parent_style ),
        wp_get_theme()->get('Version')
    );
}
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'my_theme_enqueue_styles' );
?>

Check the permissions on the new files:

chown -R www-data /var/lib/wordpress
chmod -R 755 /var/lib/wordpress

Active the child theme! Check out what it looks like: www.mcnaircenter.org/blog

Customize our theme

Middle Section

The middle area of the blog's home page as three sections -

The Twitter Feed

This widget will display the top 5 tweets of the McNair Center's twitter account.

In the Appearance -> Widgets section, the theme has the middle section sidebar.
Add the AccessPress-lite Twitter feed widget to the middle section sidebar
Log into dev.twitter.com with the McNair Center's creds.
Paste the security keys, consumer keys, etc identifying the McNair Center API into the form of the widget.
Set/reset the number of blog posts that are required

Custom Widgets

Add a custom (text/html) widget from the widgets to put in the 'Contact Us' and social media icons.

Requirements

Design

Styling

Header

Sidebar

Image Uploads

Images uploaded, both attached to posts and unattached, are added to the media library.
They are categorized in the backend per the month and the year in which they are uploaded.

Plugins involved:

- Enhanced Media Library
  - This plugin allows us to
    - create new categories
    - assign images to categories
    - filter in the media library section by category

- Pixabay
  - This plugin allows us to
    - find images from Creative Commons
    - add these images for each post - the Pixabay button can be seen next to the Add Media button on the create post screen.

Content

Footer

Blog Posts

Titles

Author Info

Usability Features

RSS

Subscription Rules

User Accounts

Adding pluggins

Check the ftp server is running: ps -aux | grep ftp
Restart the ftp server if not: service vsftpd start
Go to http://mcnair.bakerinstitute.org/blog/wp-admin/plugin-install.php and choose the plug in

Useful resources if there are errors

Wordpress:

FTP Issues: