Drupal tutorial - installation

For this install I assume that you have a server that has Apache, PHP and MySQL installed (it doesn't matter if it's on Windows or Linux). Also, most modern hosting companies offer Cpanel and PhpMyAdmin so I'll use them in my tutorials.

Here's how to install Drupal:

1. Get the latest Drupal release from the official Drupal site. On the right hand side there is a menu with a link to the latest stable package - click on that and download it to your computer.

2. Extract the files from the downloaded archive to the htdocs or public_html folder. If you are on a local server extract them directly to the folder where you want to install it.

If you want to upload it you'll have to use a FTP client (I use FireFTP , a FTP addon for Firefox) to upload the files to the server.

3. You'll want to create a database and user for Drupal. If you have CPanel you can do this by clicking the MySQL Databases icon.

4. Create a new database. We'll name ours "test"; make yours a little bit more decriptive :).

5. Create a new user and password from the same page.

6. Add the user to the database you created earlier.

6.1. An optional step before you log out of CPanel: open the File Manager from CPanel and browse to where your Drupal files are (usually in the "public_html" folder). Click on the "Create New Folder" link on the top left of the page and create a folder named "files". This will be used to store images and other uploads made during the use of the site.

7. Go to the browser address bar and input the address of the new Drupal installation; hit enter and next you shoud see the Drupal installer. Enter the name of the database, user and password and click on "Save configuration".

8. If everything is ok you'll get the same page as below:

9. Now go to the base URL where you'll see the welcome message and default theme.

10. The first thing you should do now is to create a new account - the first user is the super admin so do this quickly. Click the "Create new account" link on the left of the page and put in a username and email address. Make sure the email is real because that is where you'll receive your password (however once in the account you can change it to whatever you desire).