Set up a development environment

- [Instructor] Throughout this course, I'll be working on a local installation of WordPress. To follow along, you'll need WordPress installed locally. You'll also need a text or code editor so you can edit the code, you'll need a web browser to view your work, and of course the Genesis Framework if you plan to follow along with my code throughout the course. First, let's talk about setting up a local installation of WordPress. The reason you want to install WordPress locally on your computer is so when you make changes you don't have to upload those changes to the server to see if they worked. Instead you can just make changes to a file in your text editor, save it, and then reload the page in your browser to see updates. It also means that you can take projects with you on the go. If you're on a laptop and you don't have internet access, you'll still be able to work on your development site because it's on your computer, not the internet. In order to run WordPress locally, you need a web server, PHP, and a MySQL database. Depending on your operating system, there are several ways to set up these components. We've got a series of courses here in the library that walk you through this process. There's Installing and Running WordPress with Local by FlyWheel, and that's for Windows and Mac. Another option for Windows users is WAMP and for Mac users, there's also MAMP. Next, let's talk about a code editor. For a code editor, I prefer Sublime Text. It's a cross platform code editor for Windows, Mac and Linux. While it's available for free to try, it does require a paid license for continued use. If you don't want to pay for a code editor, don't worry. There are a lot of great free options available, such as Visual Studio for multiple platforms or Atom for Mac, just to name a couple. I've found that code editors tend to be a matter of personal preference. Ask five web developers what their favorite code editor is and you'll probably get five different answers. All of that to say, don't get caught up in which one you use. Find something that works well for you, go with it, and you can always change it down the line if needed. Lastly, you'll need a web browser to view your handiwork. I'll be using Chrome for this class. Due to the baked in developer tools, I'd recommend using either Chrome or Firefox. Now, once you have WordPress up and running in your browser and a code editor, you're just about ready. The final step is to make sure that you've downloaded the Genesis Framework from your StudioPress account or from your WP engine hosting account and have it installed on your local WordPress site. You'll also want to make sure that you're using Genesis version 3.0 or greater. 3.0 introduced some big changes with Genesis, and things we cover in this course may not work if you're using an older version. I'll be using Genesis 3.2 for this course. With these things in place, you're ready to get your groove on.