In the first few steps, the phpMyAdmin interface is used to create a database on the local MySQL server. This web-based database management tool comes bundled with XAMPP and most other web servers. The http://localhost/phpmyadmin address will always take you to the database administration tool, even if you relocate your web server's document root directory as documented in the previous recipe.

Once a database is created and the WordPress files have been copied to the correct location, pointing your browser to the local web server gets it to search through the document root directory to find HTML files to send back to the browser or PHP files to execute. In the case of WordPress, the web server finds the index.php file and executes it using its PHP interpreter. As the WordPress code is executed, it checks if a configuration file is present and launches the installation process when it does not find one. The WordPress code does not see any difference between the local web server that we are running it on and a remote live web server that would be accessible anywhere online.

While we specified an email address for the administrator during the installation, many local web servers are not configured to send out email messages so we will never receive any email communication in these cases. It is preferable to use a remote server when developing and testing email functionality in a plugin.

Once this recipe has been completed, you will have a functional WordPress installation in place.