With a content-rich internet these days, many people often forget that there are powerful software solutions available to aid in the creation and publishing of web-based content- that are free of charge and relatively easy to configure and maintain.  One of my favorites, would have to be Drupal- it provides a powerful core that can handle even the largest community and content-based sites while being easily extendable to produce a website that can do just about anything.

While you may know the benefits of a Drupal-based website, you may not realize just how easy it is to install, configure, and maintain.  Drupal is available free of charge as open source software that is continually updated and enhanced by a huge community of developers- you can download the latest version here.  Once downloaded, unzip the contents to your desktop- now’s the time to figure out where you’re going to be hosting the site and the location of which.

Most likely, you’ll have a web-based environment already set up via your hosting account, so open you FTP program and connect to your newly hosted website.  Find the unzipped Drupal folder on your desktop and upload the contents to the “publish_html” folder on your web host.  Once the files are hosted, Drupal more or less installs itself and does all the hard work, but before you run the installer you do have to change one thing.  Open the file called “default.settings.php” that’s located in the unzipped Drupal folder on your desktop.  The file will open in a text editor- when it does open another new text file, copy the contents from the “default.settings.php” file into it, and save it as “settings.php”.  Using your FTP program again, upload this newly created file into your “public_html” folder.  Once it’s finished, change the permissions of the file to be “writable.”  This can usually be done by right-clicking the file, choosing “properties” and then checking “write” as a permission.

Your next task is to create your database.  You’ll need to login in to your settings page, or cPanel for your hosting account and click on databases.  Create a new database with a descriptive name such as “main-site” for example.  If you already have a database user created, associate that user with your new database and give it full permissions.  If you don’t already have a user, create one with an easy to remember username and password and associate it to your new database.  Once your database is created, note down the full database name, as well as the username and password for the user that’s associated with the database, as you’ll need this information later.

It’s now time to open your new website in your browser, and run the install script.  Just go to your base domain (www.example.com) and the install script will run automatically.  It’ll take you through a series of setup pages, with simple questions and inputs- just go step by step inputting the information it asks for such as your database name and so on.  Be sure to note your admin username and password, as it’s vital to configuring your site.  Once the install process is finished, your basic Drupal website should be up and running.  It’s now time to customize the site to your needs and expectations.

Login to the admin area of the site and explore the options and settings by clicking “administration” in the menu.  There are a few things you should do before getting into the nuts and bolts of your Drupal site to make sure your new website is both SEO friendly and easily extendable.  First, go to “Clean URLs” under “Site Configuration” and make sure it’s enabled.  Then go to “Site Information” under the same menu and input your details such as site name, site-email address, and your copyright information as the “footer”.

It’s now time to begin extending the functionality of your Drupal website to suit your needs.  To begin, you can start with the modules that come pre-installed in Drupal.  In your admin, under “Site Building” choose “Modules” and take a look at the options you have.  You can enable things like news feed aggregators, blogs, contact forms, polls, syndication feeds, and much more.  To enable a module, simply check the box “enabled” and click save.

Now it’s time to set permissions and what your users can and can’t do with the site.  In your admin under “User Management” click on “Access Control.”  This section lists all of the modules you’ve enabled so you can set permissions for each function.  Let’s say, for example, you enabled the “aggregator” and “contact” modules, under each of these you can set appropriate permissions based on whether people are logged in or out of your site.  You can set the aggregator so that only people that are members of your site- and logged in can access the news feeds, as well as set the permission for the contact form so that anyone visiting the site can access it.  Once your done setting permissions for each user-class, it’s time to start adding content and customizing the site to your specific requirements.

Depending on your needs, you can download a variety of themes and modules that can extend your site to do just about anything you desire.  There are modules that can turn your site into anything from streaming radio stations to forums, multi-user blogs, internal intranets, and everything in-between.  You can explore and download additional modules here, as well as explore additional themes here.  Drupal also offers excellent documentation to help you out as well.

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Entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 11:23 pm under Tutorials.

Read more entries by Justin Montgomery.
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