Website Creation Process

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Here's a basic checklist of how I set up a Drupal website from scratch. I'm sure I've missed some steps, which is why I'm adding this as a wiki page. If you see anything that I've missed, or something that seems unnecessary, please make the correction and add your name by it. I'm sure there's room for debate on some of these things, and I think it might be good to discuss some of these issues here. So feel free to add a link to another discussion page for any topic.

I would like this page to be about creating a very basic website, not necessarily a specific type of site. (community, small business, etc...) But please add links to additional pages that focus on other related topics.

Assumptions

  • Document root = wherever you're setting up your Drupal root (depends on your Apache configuration)
    • We'll use example.com as our URL pointing to document root
  • You already understand how to use FTP / SFTP


Tools

  • FTP Client (WinSCP preferred for its SSH integration)
  • Putty (optional, not all hosts support SSH)
  • Text editor (Dreamweaver, UltraEdit, TextPad, VIM, Eclipse)


Website Creation Process



Install Drupal

  1. Download Drupal to your computer (~1MB)
  2. Copy Drupal to server via FTP/SFTP
  3. Create database (store db username/password and db name for next step)
  4. Unzip files at the document root (Putty/WinSCP)
  5. Open /sites/default/default.settings.php in your text editor
    1. Find $db_url (line 92) and substitute the following:
  • username => db username
  • password => db password
  • localhost => (change only if your host uses separate db server)
  • databasename => db name from step 3
  • Set up additional variables if necessary ($cookie_domain, $base_url)
  • Save this file to the server as settings.php
  • Set up domain (or subdomain / subdirectory) to point to document root
  • Visit http://example.com/install.php
    • Follow steps on screen





    Install modules

    1. Upload and unzip essential modules
    • CCK
    • Views
    • Admin menu
    • Advanced help
    • Webform
    • Pathauto & token
    • FCK Editor / TinyMCE / WysiwygAPI
  • Upload and unzip helpful modules
    • Slideshow
      • filefield
      • imagecache
      • imagefield
      • imageapi
      • lightbox2
    • Community site
      • Mollom
      • Apache SOLR
    • SEO
      • Google analytics
      • Nodewords
      • Page Title
  • Install essential contributed and core modules
    • CCK
      • Content
      • Options widgets
      • Text
    • Views
      • Views
      • Views UI
    • Core - Optional
      • Contact
      • Menu
      • Path
      • Search
      • Taxonomy
      • Upload
    • (all other modules in steps #1, step #2 modules are optional)





    Configure Users  (Administer -> User Management)

    1. Set user settings
    • Users -> User settings
    • community sites require community account creation, corporate websites usually want account lockdown.
  • Create additional roles
    • Content author
  • Set permissions for each role




  • Site Configuration

    1. Set File System to proper location for files directory
    2. Set file upload limits for each role





    Configure content

    1. Create any new content types
    2. Create content pages (with greek if no content is available yet)
    • Use menu settings on the Create Content forms to create site structure
    • Use primary links menu for main navigation
  • Set secondary links to the second level of primary links
    • Administer -> Site building -> Menus -> Settings
    This is not finished, but I'm out of time right now, so I'll publish it here and let others contribute...