Setting Up A Site Using Drupal .

Zeeshan Quireshi · 13-06-2006, 10:15 PM

Setting Up A Site Using Drupal :

Drupal is one of the best Content Management Systems Presently .

It's fast but at the same time infinitely customizable .

It's been given 5 Stars on CNet .

Here's what drupal can do

Code:

Drupal is software that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, 
manage and organize a great variety of content on a website. Tens of thousands of people
and organizations have used Drupal to set up scores of different kinds of web sites, including

    * community web portals and discussion sites
    * corporate web sites/intranet portals
    * personal web sites
    * aficionado sites
    * e-commerce applications
    * resource directories

Drupal includes features to enable

    * content management systems
    * blogs
    * collaborative authoring environments
    * forums
    * newsletters
    * picture galleries
    * file uploads and download

and much more.

Drupal is open source software licensed under the GPL,
 and is maintained and developed by a community of thousands 
 of users and developers. Drupal is free to download and use. 
 If you like what Drupal can do for you, please work with us to
 expand and refine Drupal to suit your needs.

My Article Is For people who don't have knowledge of php , but know a lil bit of html .

I Don't Assume that u don't have a web server running so i'm gonna tell u how to set up one easily on windows .

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Warning : The Server I'm Setting Up Is For Development Purposes Only !

Part 1 : Setting Up The Web Server :

1. Download XAMPP from http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html
2. Extract it to a folder on ur hard drive . [ in my case it's g:\xampp ]
3. Switch to that folder [ g:\xampp ]
4. Double double click on "setup_xampp.bat" .
4. Now double click on "php-switch.bat" and switch to php 5 if it's not active.
5. Now u're all set up , double click on "xampp-control.exe" and start the "apache" and "mysql" server .
6. Now open http://localhost in ur browset , u should see the xampp screen . now explore a bit !

Part 2 : Preparing The Server To Install Drupal :
1. Change To The "htdocs" directory in the xampp folder and delete all files in it . [ g:\xampp\htdocs ]
2. Now Open http://localhost in ur browser , u should get the apache directory listing .
3. Open http://localhost/phpmyadmin
4. click on privileges and set the password the root user .
5. Now click on databases (upper left corner of screen).
6. Here , delete all the databases except "mysql" .
7. Now go back to privileges and create a new user called drupal and set the password u want and grant it all privileges .
8. Now Create a database named drupal .
9. Well Now your server's prepared to install drupal .

Part 3 : Installing Drupal :
1. Download Drupal from http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/drupal/fil...l-4.7.2.tar.gz
2. Unzip drupal into the "htdocs" folder , remember to unzip it in the root folder and not in any directory . [ all the files unzipped to g:\xampp\htdocs ]
3. now open http://localhost/phpmyadmin , switch to the database drupal by selecting it on the list .
4. click on SQL , now as u have to import the drupal database , u select to upload the database from a text file .
so browse to upload the file "{your xampp directory}\htdocs\database\database.4.1.mysql" using the form on the page and
click go .
5. u should have successfully imported the drupal database .
6. now open the file in notepad "{your xampp directory}\htdocs\sites\default\settings.php" .
7. now find

Code:

"$db_url = 'mysql://username:password@localhost/databasename';"

and change it to

Code:

"$db_url = 'mysql://drupal:{the password u set}@localhost/drupal';"

and save the file .
8. now open http://localhost , your drupal site should be up and running .
9. Now click on create new account , the first account u create will become the administrator . {be careful to note down the password )

Horray u have successfully installed drupal . now explore a bit and customize ur site , u can get modules and themes for drupal from http://www.drupal.org

I'll Be Writing My Second Article On Drupal Shortly That will explain how to administer and tweak drupal to your satisfaction . so keep a close eye !