WordPress Portal is not like other WordPress plugins, it is a fully functional web application attached to your website. WordPress Portal uses a different structure compared to other plugins and apply the MVC module on its own. To get the most of WordPress Portal, we have prepared this guide for you to help you Install, configure, and use WordPress portal
Installation Best Practice
1- Use the subdomain approach
If you are running your business website on your main domain, we prefer that you install WordPress Portal on a new fresh, and a separate installation of WordPress. You can do that by adding a new subdomain to your website like my.yourdomain.com or pm.youromain.com or whatever the subdomain you prefer.
2- Use MySQL database
WordPress Portal can use different types of databases, but we prefer using MySQL databases because it is the most compatible database type with WordPress Portal and it is already configured to connect to. Using different types of databases could make some issues on the first install and will need some configurations to be changed by our team on your server.
Server Configurations
To get WordPress Portal to work on your server without any issue, there are some configurations that need to be set and enabled on your hosting server.
1- Hosting environment
WordPress Portal could be installed on all types of hosting servers (shared, dedicated, cloud, and managed WP) with PHP 7.1 at least installed. we prefer to have your PHP version to be 7.3 also to get the maximum performance and MySQL server version to be at least 5.6.
2- PHP modules & extensions
WordPress Portal needs some PHP modules and extensions to be enabled on your server to make it work without issues. here are the required modules and extensions for WordPress Portal:
- pdo_mysql enabled.
- PHP function allow_url_fopen enabled.
- PHP extension intl enabled.
- PHP extension curl enabled.
- PHP extension OpenSSL enabled.
- PHP extension MBString enabled
- PHP session.auto_start disabled.
- PHP opcache.save_comments OR zend_optimizerplus.save_comments is enabled
3- SSL Certificate
In order to use WordPress Portal, you need to have HTTPS protocol enabled on your website. HTTPS is required to be able to receive online payments via PayPal or Stripe. If you don’t have SSL installed on your website, use our guide to add free SSL to your WordPress website.
WordPress Configurations
WordPress Portal doesn’t require a specific version of WordPress, but we prefer that you have the most recent version of WordPress installed and updated just for security matters.
1- Site Settings
Make sure that your WordPress website has a Site Title before as it is the default name for your WordPress Portal sending name for emails and notifications
Also, WordPress Portal requires that you set your WordPress website permalinks to Post name. so, make sure that you have set your permalinks to “Post name” before trying to activate your WordPress Portal.
2- Using Caching Plugins
Because your WordPress Portal is a fully self-hosted web application and it is all about data coming in and out from the database and it is not a public website that is getting tons of traffic. we prefer to avoid using extensive caching plugins or varnish cache as in many cases, we found it cause some issues with WordPress Portal and blocking some functions that are required to make the plugin works. Besides this, the app already has its own caching system for performance optimization, and using another caching system over it would cause some conflicts and disable some functions from work especially user login and sessions.
3- Backup Your Data
WordPress Portal is using the same database as your WordPress website. so you can install and use your preferred backup and restore plugin for your files and data and all of your WordPress Portal data and files will be combined with it.
If you are experiencing any issue installing WordPress Portal or configuring it, please reach out to our technical support team and they will be happy to help