Connect to TiDB Serverless with WordPress

TiDB is a MySQL-compatible database, TiDB Serverless is a fully managed TiDB offering, and WordPress is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) that lets users create and manage websites. WordPress is written in PHP and uses a MySQL database.

In this tutorial, you can learn how to use TiDB Serverless to run WordPress for free.

Prerequisites

To complete this tutorial, you need:

• A TiDB Serverless cluster. Follow creating a TiDB Serverless cluster to create your own TiDB Cloud cluster if you don't have one.

Run WordPress with TiDB Serverless

This section demonstrates how to run WordPress with TiDB Serverless.

Step 1: Clone the WordPress sample repository

Run the following commands in your terminal window to clone the sample code repository:

git clone https://github.com/Icemap/wordpress-tidb-docker.git
cd wordpress-tidb-docker

Step 2: Install dependencies

1. The sample repository requires Docker and Docker Compose to start WordPress. If you have them installed, you can skip this step. It is highly recommended to run your WordPress in a Linux environment (such as Ubuntu). Run the following command to install Docker and Docker Compose:

   sudo sh install.sh
   

2. The sample repository includes the TiDB Compatibility Plugin as a submodule. Run the following command to update the submodule:

   git submodule update --init --recursive
   

Step 3: Configure connection information

Configure the WordPress database connection to TiDB Serverless.

1. Navigate to the Clusters page, and then click the name of your target cluster to go to its overview page.

2. Click Connect in the upper-right corner. A connection dialog is displayed.

3. Ensure the configurations in the connection dialog match your operating environment.

   • Endpoint Type is set to Public.
   • Connect With is set to WordPress.
   • Operating System is set to Debian/Ubuntu/Arch.
   • Database is set to the database you want to use—for example, test.

4. Click Generate Password to create a random password.

   Tip

   If you have created a password before, you can either use the original password or click Reset Password to generate a new one.

5. Run the following command to copy .env.example and rename it to .env:

   cp .env.example .env
   

6. Copy and paste the corresponding connection string into the .env file. The example result is as follows:

   TIDB_HOST='{HOST}'  # e.g. gateway01.ap-northeast-1.prod.aws.tidbcloud.com
   TIDB_PORT='4000'
   TIDB_USER='{USERNAME}'  # e.g. xxxxxx.root
   TIDB_PASSWORD='{PASSWORD}'
   TIDB_DB_NAME='test'
   

   Be sure to replace the placeholders {} with the connection parameters obtained from the connection dialog. By default, your TiDB Serverless comes with a test database. If you have already created another database in your TiDB Serverless cluster, you can replace test with your database name.

7. Save the .env file.

Step 4: Start WordPress with TiDB Serverless

1. Execute the following command to run WordPress as a Docker container:

   docker compose up -d
   

2. Set up your WordPress site by visiting localhost if you start the container on your local machine or http://<your_instance_ip> if the WordPress is running on a remote machine.

Step 5: Confirm the database connection

1. Close the connection dialog for your cluster on the TiDB Cloud console, and open the Chat2Query terminal.
2. Under the Schemas tab on the left, click the database you connected to Wordpress.
3. Confirm that you now see the Wordpress tables (such as wp_posts and wp_comments) in the list of tables for that database.

Need help?

Ask questions on the Discord, or create a support ticket.