Can’t select the wordpress database…?

bluqueen777
(@bluqueen777)

21 years, 2 months ago

Hello! This is probably a very dumb question, but I am new to this program, so any help would be very appreciated.

I am trying to install the program on my website (I do not host it myself, I FTP’ed everything to my host.) I get the following message when I view the install page:
“We were able to connect to the database server (which means your username and password is okay) but not able to select the wordpress database.”

What is the wordpress database? How do I create it? Or, how do I select it? According to my host’s documentation, I already have a database that is initialized in my username. Do I need to ask them to set up a database with the name “wordpress”??

Thanks for your help!! 🙂

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

Kafkaesqui
(@kafkaesqui)

21 years, 2 months ago

No, you can use the database you already have. I recommend reading through the installation instructions:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress

Thread Starter bluqueen777
(@bluqueen777)

21 years, 2 months ago

Thank you for your reply!
So, if I understand correctly, to use the db that should be in my name, I would set the parameters as follows:

define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘usernme’); // The name of the database
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘username’); // Your MySQL username
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘my password’); // …and password
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’);

right? If that still doesn’t work, it’s probably a question for my host, correct?
Thank you for your help!!

Kafkaesqui
(@kafkaesqui)

21 years, 2 months ago

DB_NAME would be set to the name of your database, and sometimes DB_HOST needs a specific server address, but otherwise yep.

Thread Starter bluqueen777
(@bluqueen777)

21 years, 2 months ago

Thank you!
Do you think the server address would be requiring a “http:\\” – ie to the specific server on which my host puts my files?
1,000,000,000 thank-you’s for your help tonight!

Kafkaesqui
(@kafkaesqui)

21 years, 2 months ago

“Do you think the server address would be requiring a “http:\\””

No, just use the name as it’s provided, so if it’s “mysql.site.com,” then that’s how you enter it in wp-config.php.

krawunsel
(@krawunsel)

21 years, 2 months ago

define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘usernme’); // The name of the database
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘username’); // Your MySQL username
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘my password’); // …and password
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’);

I know that it’s a stupid question but do I have to keep the ‘ in the listing? I’m just getting started with all this and I might have a lot more questions before I’m done.

dave_merwin
(@dave_merwin)

21 years, 2 months ago

You settings should look something like the following:

define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘my_database’); // The name of the database
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘bill’); // Your MySQL username
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘thisismypassword’); // …and password
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’);

In 90% of scenario’s you will NOT need to change the localhost setting. If you do need to, your isp will need to provide that to you.

krawunsel
(@krawunsel)

21 years, 2 months ago

Thank you… I got this far now. But there’s an other problem now – I get the message that ” options.php” is not there (supposed to be in the admin folder) when I try to update things in the general options section. However, my ftp uploadet tells me the file is there. What’s wrong???

lawtai
(@lawtai)

21 years, 2 months ago

make sure that you don’t have any 0 size files. if so, you’ll need to reupload it.

krawunsel
(@krawunsel)

21 years, 2 months ago

No I don’t. I found out I must refresh the page and then it works. 😉