WordPress Operational Steps: Adding to Server

Items added to our site are not writable in order to protect content uploaded to the server. This means that utilizing a WordPress plugin requires an admin to download the full plugin file from www.wordpress.org and upload it to our server in the correct location using secure copy (SCP).  

The steps to upload a new plugin (on Mac): 

1. Open a new Terminal window 

2. Locate the file in your computer’s directory 

   1. For example, if the folder [foldername] is located on your desktop, you can use the command cd Desktop then cd [foldername] to enter the [foldername] folder.  

   2. Using the command pwd (present working directory) you will be able locate the file’s path. Our pwd for this example should be: /Users/[username]/desktop/[foldername] 

3. Use secure copy to transfer the file 

   1. scp -P *PORT NUMBER* -r *FILE’S PATH* admin@*SERVER*:*SERVER LOCATION* 

      1. Parts in caps must be replaced with the correct information 

   2. scp -P 35535 -r /Users/[username]/desktop/[foldername] admin@66.135.61.24:/var/www/html/httpdocs/wp-content/uploads 

4. The location of the file will depend on the type of file 

   1. Media uploads will go to /var/www/html/httpdocs/wp-content/uploads 

   2. Plugin uploads will go to /var/www/html/httpdocs/wp-content/plugins 

   3. Theme uploads will go to /var/www/html/httpdocs/wp-content/themes