Tag: drupal install

As promised, we are going to be moving on to Drupal 6, which is the current version of Drupal.  Instead of converting the Drupal Pad to version 6 as I had planned, I have decided to keep that website in Drupal 5 and create a whole new website in Drupal 6 for these series of tutorials because there is still sufficient interest in using Drupal 5.  I will tag the tutorials “Drupal 6” and “Drupal 5” so that you can choose which ones you’re interested in.

So let’s get right into it.  We are going to be working with Drupal 6.10, the current version as of this writing.  There are many ways to write a tutorial. I could introduce you to ALL the elements of a Drupal site and explain them all in theory, but then you’d probably get bored and maybe feel overwhelmed. Instead, I will introduce them as we need them so that you can know what they are as well as see them in action.  For example I will introduce the concept of modules when we start enabling modules, themes when we start enabling themes, blocks as we use them, and so on.

What are we going to build?

Through this series of tutorials we will be creating a Drupal Resource Site.  We’re going to create a place on the web where we can add tutorials, news about Drupal, articles, and so on.  We may at a future date include other features such as a user forum and more.

Continue reading “Building a Website with Drupal 6 – Part 1: Introduction”

There are many resources out there on how to install Drupal, so I am going to go over this in brief in this post.

If your webhost provides you with control panel that has a script installer, check if Drupal is listed. An example of a script installer is Fantastico, which comes with cPanel. Using a script installer makes the process pretty painless. Make sure though that you have the latest version of any scripts you may install using a script installer such as Fantastico. Otherwise, you may want to visit the homepage and download the updates.

In our case, we want to install Drupal 5.7. Even though there’s a new version out (6.0), as of this posting a lot of the modules have not yet been updated to work with 6.0. So we’ll go with 5.7.

If you don’t have a script installer like Fantastico, or you just want to do the install manually, the process is a little lengthier but not too complicated. There are install directions at Drupal webisite, but I’ll break them down here for you:

1. Create a database and user, and assign the user to that database. Make note of the database name and username and password as you’ll need them.
2. Extract the drupal archive that you downloaded into a folder on your hard drive.
3. Using your ftp program, upload the files in this folder into your domain folder where you wish to install Drupal.
4. In your browser, type the name of your website where your drupal folder is sitting, and you will be prompted to enter your database information:

5. Enter the database configuration information from step 1, and then click on “Save Configuration.” If all is well, you will see this screen.

6. After this you will need to create a user account for yourself. This very first account that you create is designated by Drupal as the admin account and is a superuser account.

Your website is now installed and you’re ready to set it up, which we will cover in the next tutorial.

You can find more detailed installation instructions at the Drupal website (http://drupal.org/getting-started/5/install). If you have any problems doing this install you can post them here and we will discuss them, or you can also check the Drupal forums to see if there is a solution there.

In the next installment, we will walk through the process of setting up your new website.