Drupal – Page 4 – The Coding Pad

Building a Website with Drupal 6 – Part 3: Configuring your Site

Welcome to part 3 of our tutorial on building a website with Drupal 6. In part 1 we did a brief introduction, and in part 2 we installed Drupal. As we go through this tutorials I am building a Drupal resource site called Learn Drupal. So our website so far looks like this:

(You can click on the images for larger views)

In this installment, we’re going to further configure our website and learn more about the administrative back end of a Drupal website. So log in to the website with your admin username and password. On the left side is a navigation bar, and we’re going to click on “Administer” and look at the admin back end.

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Building a Website with Drupal 6 – Part 2: Installing Drupal 6

In the first part of this tutorial we introduced Drupal 6. As part of your homework I asked that you install a webserver and get an FTP program so that you can install and run Drupal. In this tutorial we’re going to go ahead and start the process of installing and configuring our Drupal install.

The website that I am building and showing you screenshots of is Learn Drupal, the Drupal resource site that I mentioned in the last post. I am building it online so that you can follow along or visit later and see how different things that we mention here were implemented.

1. Create your settings.php file.

You can do this step before or after you upload the Drupal install files onto your server. Go into the sites/default folder. Here you will find the file default.settings.php. Copy and paste this file and rename the copy to settings.php. So you should now have two files in the sites/default folder – settings.php and default.settings.php. Drupal needs both of these files to exist for the install to be successful.

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Building a Website with Drupal 6 – Part 1: Introduction

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.

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Moving on to Drupal 6… then 7

In our series of tutorials on how to build a website with Drupal for newbies, we created a simple website from start to finish using Drupal 5. Now it’s time to move on. Drupal 6 has been around and stable for a while now, and the Drupal.org website was recently upgraded to Drupal 6. The current version out is Drupal 6.10.

The developers at Drupal are now working on Drupal 7, and yesterday at DrupalCon, Dries Buytaert announced the Code Freeze date for Drupal 7 as September 1. What this means is that after September 1 of this year, no more new features will be accepted for addition into the Drupal Core for version 7. Instead, the developers and contributors will now start working on patches and fixes, on usability and all that other good stuff. Which means, before we know it, Drupal 7 will be here!

What does this mean for us?

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Most Useful Drupal Resources on the Web

So as you all know I’ve been getting deep into Drupal in the last few months. I have a lot of things going on right now around Drupal and other projects and I can’t wait to blog about them. For starters though I want to share with all of you my personal list of the most useful drupal resources on the web.

Drupal Tutorials and Resources

Obviously, Drupal.org leads the way as the number one most useful Drupal resource on the web. With a prodigious amount of online documentation in the handbooks and forums, you will find almost everything you need there. The Documentation section is divided into sections – Getting Started, Beyond the Basics, and so on. The forums are also divided into sections to allow you to find answers and ask questions.

Lullabot follows as my number 2 most useful Drupal resource on the web. With numerous tutorials in screencast form and podcasts, Lullabot offers a tremendous amount of useful training and information on using and developing for Drupal. Lullabots describe themselves as Drupal experts. They write books and articles, publish videos, and roll out weekly podcasts about Drupal and building web sites. They also offer public and private training, as well as ongoing consulting relationships. I am currently working through a Lullabot book “Using Drupal” which I will be reviewing here soon. Lullabot is easily my favorite Drupal resource.

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