Drupal 6.2 CMF Installation process
- Step 1: Choose language
In this step is required to choose the base language for your future installation of Drupal. The standart download package (English version) has only english, so this step may be skipped automatically.
- Step 2: System Requirements
Here the Drupal system installer check if you host has got what it takes to run Drupal. You probably already know that you need a Web server (Apache1.3 or later OR Microsoft IIS); PHP 4.3.5 (5.2 recommended) with XML (for specific functions), Graphics library (GD, ImageMagick, etc) for image manipulation, User session handling (session.save_handler: user), .htaccess and Apache Mod_Rewrite for url cleaning; DataBase server: MySQL 4.1 or higher (5 and later recommended) OR PostgreSQL 7.4 or higher. On the client side: JavaScript 1.2 and CSS 2 are required (FireFox 2+/ IE6+/ Opera7+/ Safari1.x/ Camino1.x).
There are some very usual problems when installing on Linux based hosts: Drupal requires read/write access to the sites/default directory. There is a very straight-forward fix to that problem: you just need to change the permissions to 0777.
This can be done by using the standart shell command chmod 0777 sites/default (taken that you're based in the Drupal main directory).
Another common issue is the "The directory sites/default/files does not exist" message. Usually Drupal creates the directory, but if it can't you should do it. Read the error message carefully it'll say if there is need to create the directory yourself.
- Step 3: Data Base setup:
Basic configuration: In the database name box set the name of the database that Drupal should be using to store its tables. Data Base Username - enter your designated database access username here, via it Drupal will connect to the database. Note that your user should have full read/write permissions to your database (set in the database name box). Data base password - enter your database user's password here.
Advanced Options: hostname: your database server host name, usually this is localhost so there is no need to change that, unless your hosting service provider gave you specific instructions. Database port - this is your connection port, the default setting is 3306 (TCP Port). Don't change this field (leave it empty as it was) unless you know exactly what you're doing. Table Prefix - this is a prefix to the tables in the database that are going to be created. For example you have only one database allowed, but you want more than one system installation in that database (let's say two Drupals or PHPBB forum and a Drupal site or etc.) or you just want to keep thing tidy, just put a prefix string here - let's say "site_" or "drupal_" (the undercore (_) isn't required, but it looks a lot better - site_users instead of siteusers. )
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- Step4: Site Install:
settings are stored, database tables are created and lots of other action is going on, but it's all automated, so you don't have to do a thing.
- Step5: Configure site:
If you're using a linux or unix based host, you'll probably see a red box in the beginning of the screen, informing you that configuration files are successfully written and you'll need to chmod the permissions of those (specified in the message) files to non-writable, atleast not to non-admins. This is purely for security reasons. And now the fields below. Site name - the title on top of your site that every visitor will see. Site e-mail address - this e-mail account will be used for sending account confirmation letters, news letters, etc. An e-mail like norelpy@yourwebsite.com is a good idea. Administration Account: Username - Administrator's username; E-mail - administrator's e-mail, this will not be published and the system will send notification and system messages to this address, also if you forget your password it'll be send there; Password and Confirm Password - I guess there is no need to explain those. Time zone - let's say that your server's time is GMT+2 and a user with GMT+4 access your website. The system will calculate the time difference and the user will see changes and update according to his timezone and not yours. If this option wasn't available the following situation might occur: You put a news on your website about a big sports event that is airing at 20:30 (GMT+2). Our user sees the news and will go watch the event at 20:30 GMT-2, which means that he'll miss the event by 2 hours and that may result in bitter disappointment and he may not visit your site anymore because he(she)'ll believe that you post false information. Clean URLs: non clean URLs look like this: http://yourwebsite.com/?q=node/13 instead of the more tidy, Google friendly and generally nice http://yourwebsite.com/node/13. And last but not least - Update Notification - check for updates automatically - if this is set, Drupal will automatically notify you for updates and hot fixes on the system, which will dramatically increase system security. In other words - it's highly recommended to turn this feature on. Now click on the Save button bellow.
Congratulations, now Drupal is successfully installed. I got "Unable to send e-mail. Please contact the site admin, if the problem persists.", but that's because I don't have a mail server installed. You probably shouldn't see that, but if you do, contact your hosting services provider and support staff. Post some content to get started.
Have a nice site making!
