Drupal

Introduction
Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Tens of thousands of people and organizations have used Drupal to power scores of different web sites, including


 * Community web portals
 * Discussion sites
 * Corporate web sites
 * Intranet applications
 * Personal web sites or blogs
 * Aficionado sites
 * E-commerce applications
 * Resource directories
 * Social Networking sites

Links

 * Drupal - Official website
 * Documentation
 * Modules
 * Themes
 * Translations

System Requirements

 * Web server like Apache
 * PHP4 (4.3.3 or greater) or PHP5
 * MySQL or PostgreSQL

Installation
$ tar -zxvf drupal-x.x.tar.gz $ mv drupal-x.x/ /var/www/drupal/ $ chmod ugo+w /var/www/drupal/sites/default/settings.php $ md /var/www/drupal/files $ chmod ugo+w /var/www/drupal/files
 * Download the latest version of Drupal MediaWiki, version 5.1 or higher.
 * Extract the files:
 * Move it to a proper place:
 * Grant write permission to the file :
 * Create and grant write permission to the directory . This subdirectory stores files such as custom logos, user avatars, and other media associated with your new site.:

Database creation
Create the database and user. For example: $ mysql -u root -p mysql>create database tradedrupal; mysql>GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, INDEX, ALTER, CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES, LOCK TABLES ON tradedrupal.* TO 'tdrupal'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password'; mysql>FLUSH PRIVILEGES; mysql>quit

Take note of the username, password, database name and hostname as you create the database.

Apache Configuration
Edit the file and insert the snippets:  Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Order allow,deny Allow from all RewriteEngine on   RewriteBase /drupal/ RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]  Alias /drupal/ "/var/www/drupal/" Alias /drupal "/var/www/drupal"
 * 1) DRUPAL
 * 1) DRUPAL
 * 1) Drupal
 * 1) Drupal

Restart the server in order the configuration can take effect: $ apachectl restart

Final configurations
Now, Drupal is ready to run. Open your browser at http://localhost/drupal. You will see the page Database Configuration of Drupal. Enter the username, password and database name. Click on Advanced options in order to change the hostname and other options. Finally, press the button Save configuration. Certify that you see the message of success: "Congratulations, Drupal has been successfully installed.".

Change the write permissions of the file : $ chmod go-w /var/www/drupal/sites/default/settings.php


 * Click on the link that redirects you to your Drupal start page.
 * Click on Create the first account which will become the main administrator account with total control.
 * Visit the page http://localhost/drupal/cron.php once in order to activate and pass the cron jobs to internal drupal modules.
 * Login as the administrator and complete the initial configuration steps on the Welcome page.

Building your website
Here you can find a tutorial step-by-step to create and configure a website based on Drupal.

Site Information
Enter a name, e-mail address, slogan, mission, footer message and other information related to your website.

Clean URLs
This option is important to be set in order search machines can get and save friendly URLs of your website without so many parameters.

To accomplish this task, change the configuration of the website to accept Clean URLs.

Module Path
Additionally to the configuration menu Clean URLs, you can activate the module Path, responsible to allow users to rename URLs. Then the users will be able to enter a friendly name for a page. The name of the page will be displayed instead the Drupal parameters used in the node. For example, you create your first page and published it. Drupal shows it like .../node/1, but you edit the page and give it a name "firstpage". Drupal, now shows .../firstpage.

Error reporting
Optionally you can change the content displayed when a page is not found or the access is forbidden. Create a new page and associate the page name or new node in the fields options in the Error reporting.

Customizing logo and colors

 * Choose the option configure of the selected theme.
 * Now, you can activate or deactivate what shall be displayed in your website.
 * You can also change the colors of each part of the website.
 * You can upload a custom logo and icon for your website.
 * Press the button Save configuration.

Installing and configuring Drupal modules
Drupal modules which are common to all sites shall be placed under. This will allow you to more easily update Drupal core files.

Contact form

 * Activate the module Contact.
 * Press the button Save configuration.


 * Click on the tab Add category and enter the required information.


 * Activate the option access site-wide contact form for anonymous user and authenticated user.


 * Search for Contact, edit the menu, associate it to a parent menu, set the weight to put the menu option in the desired order and save your changes.

Newsletter
Download the module Simplenews from the download page of modules and extract all the files under. $ tar zxvf simplenews-5.x-1.1.tar.gz $ rm simplenews-5.x-1.1.tar.gz


 * Go to the link of this section and activate the module Simplenews.
 * Press the button Save configuration.


 * Click on the tab Settings to configure the newsletter and send a test e-mail.


 * You shall activate the block called Newsletter to the users in order they can see the block in the left sidebar and subscribe the newsletter.
 * Select left sidebar and put a weight of 6 in order the block is displayed below the other blocks.


 * Now, you can send newsletter to the community members.

Search

 * Activate the module Search.
 * Press the button Save configuration.
 * Now, you shall be able to see a search box at the top left of your website.

If you don't want the search form on this position you have to do as follows:


 * Select the region left sidebar for the block called Search form and set the weight.
 * Press the button Save block.
 * Now you should see two search fields in the left sidebar.
 * Click on the tab Configure at the top of the page.
 * Deactivate the checkbox Search box and save the changes.
 * Now, you have only one entry for the Search box that you can control under the Block option.
 * Deactivate the checkbox Search box and save the changes.
 * Now, you have only one entry for the Search box that you can control under the Block option.