Is Portfolio an asset for a tech college course I'm about to start?

If you only need a quick WP hosting for your training and testing, get a free WP hosting account at

Create your free website | Altervista | Altervista

or

Free PHP and MySQL hosting, free Domain | Altervista | Altervista

It's completely free, and installs a fully functional WordPress - no limitations. Perfect for testing and training. It is also possible to create a regular hosting at altervista, with full FTP, MySQL and PHP support - all for free. The main limitation is the domain name, of course (which will be yourname.altervista.org). I have used this option with students of mine, and they had no issues.

You could even set up multiple free sites.

As for the Leaven website: ideally you would set up a local web server on your machine, and duplicate the leaven website locally. Then you'd be able to tinker around with the local version without any risk of breaking things online.

General steps (ask your teacher(s) to assist you in this if required):

1. install XAMPP or WAMP (windows only). WAMP is easier to use. WampServer Apache, MySQL, PHP
2. install WordPress in your local host environment. This is where it gets a little bit hairier. Follow this tutorial:
   http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-install-wordpress-on-your-windows-computer-using-wamp/
3. install all-in-one wp migration plugin on the Leaven WP site. (you will need to login as administrator of that wp site)
   All-in-One WP Migration — WordPress Plugins
4. Activate the plugin, and use it to backup the entire Leaven website. Download the generated zip file.
5. Install the same all-in-one WP migration plugin in your local WP site.
6. use the plugin to open the backup, and have it replace the contents.

Done! You will now have a mirrored copy of the Leaven site on your localhost.

Make changes to the local copy, and to upload to the (new?) host, perform the same steps. Always create a new backup before doing so, of course.

The current Leaven website is hosted at Godaddy. Click on this link to check the WHOIS information on Leaven: | ICANN WHOIS

There is in principle no need to switch to a different hosting, of course. You have been given the hosting info by your contact(s) at Leaven, I hope? You should be able to login to the Godaddy account.

The thoughtful replies here prompt me to offer more detail. I will try to be concise. I'm looking for two things.

     1.     A hosting spot that can run WordPress for the training. Short-term.

     2.    After training, that same hosting spot to run a copy of the WordPress site used by the nonprofit agency LEAVEN.  LEAVEN Fox Cities – Just another WordPress site -- www.leavenfoxcities.org  

A state program supports me (at minimum wage rates; which is fine) in providing free graphics services to LEAVEN. LEAVEN says their website hasn't been revised in a year. They asked me if I could maintain it. I used to do simple sites in WordPress (before I "retired") so I said I would re-learn WordPress and help them with their site.

But I don't want to make changes directly on the live site. I want to have a copy of the site hosted elsewhere. That will be my place to experiment, learn, and make the revisions they ask for. After success and approval, I will upload the revisions to the real LEAVEN site.

I do that for sites on two different parades put on by the City of Appleton. It works great. But those are not WordPress sites, and I don't know if anything about WordPress will be problematic in "syncing" the review site and the real site.

It appears that I & LEAVEN can get free hosting at a host named InterServer.net. They strike my nonexpert eye as legit, and they offer a flexible free plan with no weasel restrictions. LEAVEN has the non-profit certificate they ask for as authentication. But LEAVEN, as they should, would like to know more before sharing their paperwork and the LEAVEN NAME (in some form or other) with an unknown organization that says it is offering something for nothing. If anyone has experience or opinions to offer on InterServer, I would be grateful.

Chuck M

If this is UOT -- unacceptably off topic -- I will look elsewhere for answers, probably through WordPress resources.

To expand on Nancy's answer: ideally find a hosting service that includes a control panel with an option to install applications "with one click". For example, my hosting includes a one-click install option in the control panel to install WordPress in a new directory. That means I can install WP in http://www.mydomainname.com/wordpressfoldername/ , and all the setup is done automatically, barring some basic information that I have to provide, such as the password and login.

Alternatively you could set up and install WP manually on your hosting service, but that requires some experience. I'd just choose a hosting service that includes these one-click web application installations. That should get you ready for your course.

In short, ensure the hosting you choose includes a control panel and allows you to install WordPress with that one-click install.

Adobe Business Catalyst and WordPress are sort-of mutually exclusive: if you need WordPress hosting for your tech course, you will need to look elsewhere. Adobe's hosting service is not your answer in that case.

This actually is a Portfolio question, but since I found no way to ask about Portfolio.

FYI, the Portfolio forum is here Adobe Portfolio