WordPress started as a small, open-source project built on PHP and MySQL and has widely been deployed to people running Linux and Apache. Up until recently, the process to run WordPress on Windows servers was not very easy because WordPress is hard-coded for MySQL. In an effort to reach out to the open-source community Microsoft has been working to make the MySQL and PHP installation simpler on Windows by utilizing the “Microsoft Web Platform Installer.” This platform walks users through a step by step installation process for all the apps listed in their gallery; including the WordPress installer.

Through the hard work and dedication of the MIX Online team and in collaboration with WordPress, the process for running WordPress on Microsoft servers has been made easier. What this means is that the MIX Online team will maintain a copy of WordPress that has been reprogrammed specifically for Microsoft SQL, targeting designers and developers to grab the free version of SQL Express to use along with it. This is a huge step forward as part of Microsoft’s continued effort in supporting the open source community.

The MIX Online team enlisted Plexipixel because of our deep WordPress experience to help design and develop a new informational website, WordPress on Microsoft, in order to spread the word throughout the online community.

Here is what our lead developer, Andy Jacobs, had to say about the new site:

“We built the website to help them market this special, souped up copy of WordPress.  It's pretty cool because we built the site in WordPress - running on Windows with Microsoft SQL Server.  So we're dogfooding the whole thing.  That's pretty cool and the layout is slick.”

The new site also incorporates a slightly custom version of the Incarnate Plug-In we worked on with the MIX Online Labs team late last year. This new version of the plug-in also runs on Microsoft SQL instead of MySQL, so that it can be used with the new WordPress patch.  Don’t forget to keep an eye out for the resident spider!