Installing Drupal 6 Locally with MAMP

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Last week I covered how to set up a local web server using MAMP. Today we will take things one step further by installing Drupal 6 locally. I have broken the set up into 36 simple steps. I don't have much experience with databases so I am encouraging the more knowledgeable viewers to fill in any gaps that I might have missed.

1. Download the latest Drupal release here.
2. Move the directory containing the Drupal files into the MAMP htdocs directory. In my case it is in Applications/MAMP/htdocs. Note: if you use Finder you may miss moving the .htaccess file which is necessary for clean URLs to work. It is generally best to download and unzip Drupal directly in the document root (default is htdocs) so you don't miss the .htaccess. Tip: you can download and install TinkerTool which has the ability to view hidden files. http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html.
3. Launch MAMP and click "Open start page."
4. Click "phpMyAdmin" in the menu bar.
5. Click the link "Databases" near the bottom in the left column.
6. On the "Databases" page enter a name for your Drupal database in the "Create new database" field at the bottom of the page.
7. Select "utf8_general_ci" under the "Collation" drop-down (must be utf8!).
8. Click "Create".
9. Next you must create a user name with the privileges Drupal requires to use the new database.
10. Go back to the main phpMyAdmin page and click "Privileges". You can use the home icon in the upper left to navigate back to the main page.
11. On the next page click "Add a new User".
12. Fill out the "Login Information" form, making sure to change the "Host" field to "Local" and not leave it as "Any host".
13. Leave the "None" radio button selected under the "Database for user" section, and under the "Global privileges" section leave everything unchecked.
14. Click "Go".
15. On the next page scroll down to the "Database-specific privileges" section and select the new Drupal database you created from the dropdown.
16. Check the SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, INDEX and ALTER checkboxes and then click "Go".
17. Open the folder /Applications/mamp/conf/php5.
18. Edit php.ini and change the line that says memory_limit = 8M to memory_limit = 32M.
19. Save and close the file.
20. Inside your Drupal directory create a "files" directory. Change its permissions to read & write for everyone.
21. Create two Directories called "modules" and "themes" in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/sites/all/themes.
22. Open the folder /Applications/mamp/htdocs/sites/default and edit default.settings.php and add the line ini_set('memory_limit', '32M');.
23. Save and close the file.
24. Inside /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/sites/default/ create a blank php file called settings.php.
25. In your web browser go to http://localhost:8888/yourdrupaldirectory.
26. Click install drupal in english.
27. Check mysqli as the database type.
28. Enter in the name of the database you created earlier in MAMP.
29. Enter in the username and password.
30. Then continue.
31. Enter in your site name.
32. Enter in your site email address.
33. Enter in a name for your administrator account.
34. Enter in an email address for your admin account.
35. Enter in a password for the admin account.
36. Click save & continue.

There you have it! Your local install of Drupal 6 should be complete. There are a lot of steps but once you've done this a few times it becomes quick and easy. In the future I will cover how to take your local install and move it to your web server. If you have any questions or suggestions please leave a comment.