Where to find pre-installed virtual machines for local WordPress testing under Virtualbox?

Hello friends,

If you remember our post about virtual machines running under Virtualbox then you are probably wondering if it is possible to find pre-installed solutions that you can import and start using for local WordPress tests.

The great news is that this is possible. In this post I will show you where you can find pre-installed virtual machines for local WordPress testing under Virtualbox.

If such solutions exist, should I use them instead of configuring an Ubuntu (or other) server under Virtualbox by myself?

In terms of local testing – yes. But if you are aiming to use them for other purposes, I’d advise to either start installing or configuring the server by yourself or at least to check the configuration of the pre-installed solution and improve it if necessary. For production servers, based on virtual machines, I’d advise to seek for assistance from an experienced system administrator. Let’s not forget to mention that there are far more advanced solutions than Virtualbox for this purpose (for example Open Stack).

The reason that I am giving you this advice is because the pre-installed solutions are meant to save you time and effort. This may be enough for local testing in most cases, however for other purposes these virtual machines might lack in security. Also even for local WordPress testing you may need to configure them additionally in order to make all of your plugins function correctly.

OK, where can I find these pre-installed virtual machines?

Some of the machines contain only a Linux distribution without any additional configuration. These machines are meant to remove the need to make a new installation and basic configuration. Once you download them and import them in Virtualbox you can install and configure LAMP so that you can run WordPress locally.

Such machines can be found from OSBoxes (click to visit). There you can find images for both Virtualbox and VMware. Select the distribution that you desire to use and then follow the instructions provided on the website. You will find out the username and the password that were created for the virtual machine.

Here is what you need to do in order to use the machine: Add a new virtual machine in Virtualbox. Select the appropriate distribution and then follow the wizard until you reach the section that asks you to either create a new virtual disk or to use an existing one. Simply point the VDI or VMDK file that you have downloaded from OSBoxes and complete the virtual machine configuration. Once you run it you will get a pre-installed Linux with graphical interface. For additional configurations you need to update the distribution and also install VirtualBox Guest Add-Ons. Then you need to install and configure LAMP.

Other solutions provide LAMP Stack in a pre-installed virtual machine. Once you import/add them in Virtualbox you need to follow additional steps and apply a few settings and then you will be able to configure your databases and run WordPress locally. Turnkey Linux provides such machine. You can download it from here.

Finally there are solutions that even contain WordPress within them and you can start adjusting the sample local site right away. Turnkey Linux has such a machine which can be downloaded from here.

Another option is to use a Bitnami virtual machine. You can grab one from here.

From this website you can download another pre-installed WordPress virtual machine.

So there you have it friends. Will you use pre-installed virtual machines or will you try to configure your own one? Share any thoughts on this topic in the comment section below. If you have any questions – we will be happy to assist you.

See you soon, friends!

What should you use for your local WordPress tests and development? XAMPP or Virtualbox? Find out now from this post:

Hello friends,

In this post I will present to you two of the most popular solutions for local WordPress tests and development. They are suitable for beginners and medium-skilled users.

The solutions that I am about to review in details are called XAMPP and Virtualbox.

But first things first! Why would you even consider using a solution for your local WordPress tests and development?

Because this may save you valuable time and effort as well as it may prevent some potential problems when creating a WordPress website directly on the production server with the real domain name.

Let’s imagine that you can build a simple WordPress website for a couple of days or a week at most. If you begin this process directly on your production server this means that you will have to purchase it in advance. This is also related to the purchase of a new domain name if you do not have an older one for test purposes that you can use to the production server.  So in most situations you will have to spend money and then start building your website from scratch.

If you are a complete beginner you may allow search engines to index your website when it is under development. In some cases this might cause potential problems with re-indexation later on. And if you are preventing the bots from indexing your project then you are wasting a week with a paid domain and hosting without getting any initial SEO results. And if something goes wrong you will have to start from scratch once again (in case you do not have backups) or start from a backup. But this will slow things even more.

Now imagine if you need to build an advanced website using WordPress. You can guess that you will need more time and the risks of breaking something are increased as well.

While the time and effort might still be the same when developing locally, you are saving time, effort and money for yourselves or for your clients for the SEO and digital marketing for the website. Why? Because it is better to upload and set up a complete WordPress installation that may launch immediately and start getting visits.

All of the above reasons were related to the creation of new websites. But what about your existing one when you need to try a new plugin? Doing this directly on the production server comes with a risk of breaking the theme or the functionality of the website due to incompatibilities. The latter might be PHP related, plugin related, theme related and etc.

Once again it is better to do tests locally and when the results are as expected to apply the changes on the production server.

OK, I am convinced! What is the difference between XAMPP and Virtualbox and what do I need to start developing or testing WordPress locally with them?

XAMPP for local WordPress tests and development

XAMPP is a project that provides you with a local server powerful enough to launch your WordPress website and easy enough to be the most suitable solution for beginners. All you need to do is download it from apachefriends.com and install it. You will find builds for Windows, Linux and OS X. After you are done installing you need to create a new directory under htdocs. In this directory place your WordPress installation. Lets assume that you call it localwp.

Start the XAMPP control panel and launch PHP and MySQL.

Then create a database using the built-in PHPMyadmin and edit wp-config.php with the needed information. After this you can access your local website in your browser by typing localhost/localwp (the name of the directory that you created).

Now you may begin developing a new website or testing your current one by transferring a backup copy to the local website.

In some situations you will need to adjust some settings but there are lots of tutorials online on how to achieve this. Also XAMPP makes it super easy to do this.

For more information, please view the following video:

Virtualbox can be used for Ubuntu server installation in order to develop and test WordPress locally

Virtualbox is an open source solution that will allow you to run virtual machines on your computer. Download it from here: www.virtualbox.org

In our case you might want to install Ubuntu server (or similar) and configure it locally. In this virtual server you can begin developing or testing your WordPress website.

Virtualbox can be useful for your local WordPress website creation and testing.

VirtualBox 5.0 for Windows. Within VirtualBox Ubuntu 14.04 is running. The image is embedded from the official Virtualbox’s website.

There are many guides on how to achieve this and it is not that hard. However I’d recommend this for medium and advanced users as beginners might face some problems and difficulties.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these solutions?

I will make the comparison based on the following criteria:

  1. Speed and resource usage – in my opinion a virtual machine using Virtualbox and Ubuntu server is running faster and is saving more resources than XAMPP. However this might be different for you as it depends on your hardware configuration.
  2. Ease of usage – XAMPP is easier for beginners.
  3. Flexibility – XAMPP is limited to the PHP and MySQL versions that come with the current build. On the other hand the virtual server under Virtualbox will provide you with enough flexibility to choose exactly the tools that you need for your website.
  4. Possibility to add control panels – this is not a problem for the virtual server running under Virtualbox. A control panel provides more options and makes you feel like you are working on the real production server.
  5. Access from clients and other users – both solutions can do this. For XAMPP you will need to add your IP address as WordPress address in the admin panel of your website and save the permalink structure. Then instead of using localhost you can use your IP address and thus the local site can be accessed.
    Virtualbox however makes this easier and the website can be accessed by IP by default. You do not need to make changes to your WordPress admin panel. But what is more important is that Virtualbox and Ubuntu server can allow you to create multiple virtual hosts. For each of them you can have a stand-alone website that can be access by your clients and other users. All you need to do is to set the local domain names under your hosts file and by pointing your IP to each of them. Then you need to instruct your clients and users to do the same and the local websites can be accessed. For these cases I like to use .loc domain names. They are not real but for the purpose of local tests they are great. You can use whatever domain names you want. For example – .dev, .test and so on. When the website is completed and transferred to the production server the only change in the database for the domain name will be the end part. For example from .loc to .com.

So these are my criteria for comparing the two solutions. What do you think friends? Which one is the most suitable for you?

Before I end this post, I’d like to share some useful links with you:

See you soon, friends!

Free Image Resources for your Website

Getting the right image for your website is more than just an important step. As a matter of fact, it is extremely crucial especially if you want to create a website that stands out from the crowd. One of the biggest mistakes done by many bloggers and website owners is using free images from Google. They are unaware of the consequences that are bound to besiege them if they are not careful. For example, there is the possibility that the image may be copyrighted and using it without proper crediting could lead to lawsuit. Regardless the size of your website, you certainly want to avoid that at all cost! So, in this post, you are going to find the top 9 free image resources for your website.

  1. Gratisography

If I am given a chance to choose, Gratisography is my go-to site for royalty free images for my website. Images on Gratisography are free for download and use on your personal and commercial projects. What makes it unique is that the pictures there are unique and more importantly, high resolution. At this point of writing, Gratisography is free to use (you don’t have to create an account), and new images are often uploaded either weekly or monthly basis.

  1. Unsplash

You may have heard about this website. If you are not, this site (or project as they call it) is managed by Crew. Just like Gratisography, you are free to download images for use. The website’s disclaimer says that you can ‘do whatever you want’ with the photos and are not bound to any laws or restrictions. As for the update, Unsplash updates its gallery every ten days. You will get ten news images every ten days. If you want to be notified with new photos and images update, you can easily signup for their newsletters where you will receive updates delivered directly to your email. Unsplash is also free to use and what I love about it is the ‘nature-themed’ images.

  1. Pexels

Pexels calls themselves as “The best stock photos in one place.” All photos on Pexels are free for any personal and commercial purpose. Images on Pexels can be modified, copied and distributed indefinitely. At the same time, you do not need to provide credit or attributes to the source of the image (even though it is highly optional). Pexels allows you to download the free images, and even providing options such as voting it up (via like) or share it with your friends. Additionally, there are also information of the image at the middle/bottom of the download page for further reading.

  1. Pixabay

According to Pixabay, there are over 830,000 free stock photos, vectors and art illustrations that you can choose from (and download) from its website. Images on Pixabay are free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0 which means that you can download, modify, distribute and use these royalty free images for any purposes. If you are looking for images which are highly related to human (or human touch), you should check out Pixabay for more information. Besides that, Pixabay allows you to download the images with three different sizes:

Do note that the sizes of each image may varies.

  1. Pickupimage

Are you looking for a large collection of free images for your website? If you are, then you need to check out what Pickupimage has to offer. Unlike other free image resources, pictures on Pickupimage are very much based on outdoor related scenes. This is critical because there isn’t many free image resources that offer excellent outdoor related scenes like what Pickupimage is offering. The best part about Pickupimage is that you do not need to register for an account to start downloading the images.

  1. Compfight

Do you know that Flickr can be an excellent source for pictures? I use Flickr a lot, and Compfight is a Flickr image search engine. It uses Flickr API to find and locate images based on your license needs. Compfight is kind of cool since you can search photos based on types of license and even through specific tags. Searching images through licenses is a good way, but it doesn’t provide a very accurate result. On the other hand, searching images using tags only can provide more precise results but results are often cluttered together.

  1. Image Finder

If Compfight isn’t your ‘cup of tea’, then Image Finder is an excellent alternative to finding images on Flickr. This tool allows you to search for images or photos based on Creative Commons. Of course, there are many other categories to help you filter out specific results such as:

  1. StockPhotos.io

I recently came across StockPhoto.io and surprisingly, it is a Creative Commons-licensed (free and professional) stock photo sharing community. Currently, it has a huge 25,000 images in its database, and the figures are just increasing by the day. StockPhotos.io is unique as all its photos are displayed via Pinterest style. If you are using StockPhoto.io for commercial purposes, it is important to remember that you would need to provide proper credits to the authors (or owners).

  1. Canva

Do you know that Canva is also a great source of free image resources for your website? Canva allows you to search for the best pictures or graphics based on your specific needs. It is very powerful, and you can create a new design directly from it. At the same time, there are also many sample images and designs that you can choose from inside the Canva tool. You can either use it to create better pictures or simply as an idea to create your own, stunning images from scratch! Summary If you search for “free image resources for your website” on Google, you will be overwhelmed with hundreds of different options. While there is no image resource that ‘one size fits all,’ you should take the time to try each platform before finally making a decision. For me, my top favorite would be Gratisography, followed by Unsplash and Canva. What’s your favorite free image resource for websites?