How to Use the WordPress Toolkit in the Plesk Hosting Control Panel

Introduction

The WordPress toolkit is a management interface that lets you manage WordPress. Available as an extension, in Plesk hosting control panel, you can use it to install and configure many things WordPress at ease.

With WordPress toolkit in Plesk, you can;

Install WordPress,
Clone a WordPress Site
Manage Plugins
Manage Themes
Update your WordPress site.
Migrate and create new instances.

In this how-to article, we are going to look at How to Use the WordPress Toolkit in the Plesk Hosting Control Panel

How To Use The WordPress Toolkit In The Plesk Hosting Control Panel

To access the toolkit, click Websites & Domains,

Scroll to the management area where WordPress is installed, and you can click any of the buttons on the toolbar.

Installing WordPress

To install WordPress, log into your Plesk control panel and head to WordPress. Then click Install, you can install the latest version of WordPress by clicking install (quick) or if you want to set up administrators and choose a specific version, click install (custom).

Attaching and Detaching WordPress

Whenever you install WordPress using the toolkit or the applications page, the installations appear automatically. However, if you installed manually, you have to attach the installation to the toolkit. Therefore, to attach WordPress to the toolkit, go to Websites & Domains > WordPress then click Scan.

To detach WordPress head to Websites & Domains > WordPress then click the WordPress name you want to remove then click Detach.

Managing Plugins

It’s now much easier to manage your plugins and themes. To install a plugin, go to Websites & Domains > WordPress > Plugins. Click the install and search for your desired plugin. Select it and click install. You can install multiple instances.

You can also upload downloaded plugin. Navigate to the plugins tab and click upload plugin, and choose a file.

All your plugins are activated once installed. To update your plugins, select them and click update. To deactivate, navigate to Websites & Domains > WordPress > Plugins and check all the plugins you don’t want then click uninstall.

Manage WordPress Themes

To manage your themes, navigate to WordPress > Themes. Similar to installing plugins, click install and search for themes. Select a theme and click Install.

You can also upload themes by heading to WordPress > Themes and clicking upload theme then choose file. Browse to the location and click upload. Click install to activate themes.

To remove themes, go to WordPress > Themes and select the themes you want to remove. Then, click remove or uninstall.

To update themes, click update in the themes tab. The toolkit prompts you to backup your site, click yes, and the updates start.

Securing WordPress

Plesk’s toolkit is very secure, hence, to take advantage of the toolkits security features, go to Websites & Domains > WordPress. Select your WordPress installation and click Check Security. The Plesk toolkit shows you the results of security checks for the selected WordPress installations and suggestions as to how to secure your WordPress. If you like the suggestions, you can check the items shown and click Secure

You can also password-protect your site by requiring all users to enter a valid username and password. On the WordPress installation, you want to protect and switch on Password protection.

Maintenance Mode

With the Plesk toolkit, you can now switch on maintenance mode whenever you are updating or modifying your site. The mode temporarily hides your site’s content from visitors until it’s switched off. To turn the maintenance mode on, head to Websites & Domains > WordPress, choose the installation and switch on maintenance mode.

Clone A WordPress Site.

Cloning is making an exact copy of your site. It can be used as a backup or when migrating to a different host. The Plesk toolkit makes it easier to do this. To start cloning, navigate to Websites & Domains > WordPress, click clone next to the WordPress installation you want to clone. Next, click new subdomain to select the destination of the clone and click OK.

Conclusion

We have seen a few features of the Plesk toolkit for WordPress. The above tutorial was just the basics because the toolkit is still capable of doing so much more. Therefore, enjoy the features and keep on learning.