How to Install and Configure Drupal CMS

How to Install and Configure Drupal CMS

Drupal is an open source content management system (CMS), which means that it is a website design platform where users can create pages, news, blogs, and other web-based content. It is one of the most popular websites in terms of its popularity and usage. There are many benefits of using Drupal for your business or personal site. It's used by many important institutions such as White House, NASA, Banks etc., so it's definitely worth looking into!

This blog post tries to provide a simple process about how to install and configure Drupal CMS on your computer with specific instructions for Windows OS.

This should work for almost all Windows versions, but it might not work for Mac . I'm not sure because I've never used it.

There are many tutorials already about Drupal and installation procedure, so please check these if you don't find what you need.

They are:

The following article is my personal experience in installing Drupal CMS on my Windows computer. I hoped that it would be useful for other people who want to start a new website and avoid the hassle of digging through internet. In addition, some of these steps will be similar to those online tutorials mentioned above.

Before starting, make sure your system has the following requirements.

In my case, I have Windows 7 64 bit OS and the computer runs with 1 GB RAM memory.

1. Download Drupal from its official website ( http://drupal.org ) and save it on your computer. The current stable version is 8.3.9 .

Please note that the latest versions can be found on the release notes page . You'll easily find what you need there , but I recommend you to use the stable version of Drupal for better security and more features supported to avoid failures during installation process or later while using it online. With that in mind, this blog post uses version 8.3 as an example for installation process .

2. After downloading and installing the Drupal software , you'll be redirected to the initial screen of installation. Click on the "next" button on the top left corner until you reach the next step.

3. Now, you're at the "Installation step 3: Site setup". On this step, click on "Next" on top left corner and then answer:

The name of your website (including your domain name if it has one) ;

The database (database name with which Drupal will store all its data) . In my case, I have three possible options: Microsoft SQL Server 2005; MySQL Enterprise Version 5; Oracle Database Version 11 . I'm assuming that you're using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or MySQL Enterprise .

I have for example chosen "Microsoft SQL Server 2005", so I get this screen as output.

4. Now, you're at the "Installation step 4: Database setup". On this step, you need to choose the database engine for your system. Please make sure your system meets all of the following requirements: Right click the "yourdomain.com" link and select "Properties." Click "Settings" in the left column of dialogue box (a row of icons). Select the engine section on the right.

Conclusion: Check if your system meets the following requirements:

For example, in my case, it's exactly as shown in the picture below.

5. Now, you're at the "Installation step 5: Data Prep". In this step , you need to choose how to prepare your database .

Installing Drupal with sample data brings pre-installed content for your website from the Drupal community. At this step, let's assume that you have selected "No." because I'm going to install Drupal without sample data. Then I'll be redirected to the next step on how to configure Drupal CMS site info for your computer .

6. Now, you're at the "Installation Step 6: Site Information".