Who's it for

Anyone wanting to set up a Drupal website on their own PC or live server can use this free course to guide them through the process.

Prerequisites

You will need a computer with a good Internet connection as there are several software downloads required. Alternatively, you can set the website up on a live server in which case you will need a server with a MySQL database, PHP and sufficient disc space to handle Drupal. Drupal provides a list of minimum system requirements here.

Description

Drupal - Installation and Setup is a free guide that provides and in-depth, comprehensive overview of the installation and setup of a Drupal based website. In particular, it focusses on the process for installing a prebuilt website, although, an additional section on installation of a standard Drupal distribution is included for completeness.

Attention is also given to common installation errors and problems, and apart from providing solutions, a pragmatic approach to problem solving in general is fostered. Understanding how to use online resources is a fundamental skill that will be utilized heavily both in the remaining courses and in the real world.

Table of contents

• Preface
• Introduction
• How a Website Works
•  How a Web Page is Served
•  Server and Website Architecture
•   The Server
•   File System
•   Database
•  The Website
• Setting up a Development Site
•  Prerequisites
•  Installing the Server
•   Testing
•   Troubleshooting
•  Installing the Website
•   Prebuilt Site Installation
•    Extracting the Prebuilt Site
•    Setting up the Database
•    Populating the Database
•    Testing
•    Troubleshooting
•  Standard Drupal Installation
• Summary
• Recommended Reading 
• Community

Excerpt

How a Web Page is Served

Each time you go online and view a web page, a multitude of different technologies, protocols, software and hardware work together to locate the correct website, obtain the correct page or data, and send it back to the browser so that it can be displayed. It's not really necessary to know how this is facilitated. What's important is understanding the process.

Take a look at the following diagram that highlights what goes on every time a web page is served:

Fig 1: HTTP Request-response

From this you can see that:

1. a client (this could be a browser on your home PC or a mobile device - or anything with access to the Internet) sends a request to the server
2. the server receives the request and processes it - this could mean performing a calculation, saving content to a database, sending an email and so on
3. Once the request has been processed the server sends the appropriate response to the client - this could be a web page, error message and so on

That's it in a nutshell! The entire Internet, to differing degrees, works off this same basic process. Whether you are using your own development machine to work on a website, or browsing a page in Nepal the process is the same. The only thing that differs is how the requests find their way through the Internet - requests and responses could go via undersea cable, up into space, via cell phone towers or stay right on your own computer.