Install Drupal 5.x using cPanel

Many hosting providers use a control panel to shield users from the complexity of their servers. cPanel is one of those control panels. This small guide explains how to setup Drupal with CPanel.

Not everything in this guide may be applicable to your situation, because some hosting providers limit the options available to their users.

The basic assumptions: you have a domain name (http://www.example.com) and want to install Drupal at the document root, (usually public_html or htdocs), where it is reachable via the URL http://example.com or http://www.example.com. In order to accomplish this, the Drupal files such as .htaccess and index.php have to be placed into your server's document root, along with the Drupal subdirectories such as includes, modules, themes, etc.

Note that other files present may be overwritten. Make backups before installing Drupal and remove files that may interfere with installation (e.g. index.php or .htaccess). If the pre-existing .htaccess file is necessary for other parts of your site, merge it with the one provided with Drupal.

If you have folders with names like admin/, image/, blog/, etc., these can conflict with Drupal and stop you from accessing areas of your Drupal site.

If your version of CPanel comes with Fantastico, you can use it to easily install Drupal. However, this installation does not come with update.php, a file necessary for updating your database when newer versions of modules are uploaded into your site.

Upload the Drupal files and folders

Download the newest version of Drupal.

Upload this to your hosting space using an FTP Program or CPanel's built in File Manager.

Using the File Manager, extract the contents of the file: click on the file's name and then select extract in the menu that pops up on the right.

This will extract the entire archive into a folder named drupal-x.x.x. You will then need to move the files out of this directory and into your document root directory (such as www or public_html).

You can also extract all the files and upload them this way; however, this takes much longer.

Create a database

1. Open cPanel
2. Go to MySQL Databases
3. Choose a databasename* for the new database and press "Add Database"
4. Choose a username* and password for the new database user and press "Add User"
5. Grant permissions to the user; select the username and database name, check 'ALL' and press 'Grant permissions'

*Note: cPanel usually adds the cPanel username as a prefix to the newly created names.

Install Drupal

Drupal 5.x now comes with an automated installer. You no longer have to manually load the database tables -- Drupal does it for you.

Go to http://www.example.com/install.php

Here you will be asked for the database name, database user, and password.

If you need to use this database for more than one installation of Drupal (such as with hosting packages with a limited number of MySQL databases), you may want to click on the Advanced options and select a prefix for the tables you will be creating (such as "site_" or "main_"),

This will then install Drupal for you, creating and filling all needed tables in your database.

Once it is complete, you can go onto your site and set up the first user.

Setting up your first user account

The first user in your site (often referred to as user/1) is the "super user" on your site. It is automatically granted all admin and view permissions for your site. As such, it is important to immediately register on the site, which creates the first user.

After submitting your user name and e-mail, you'll be given the option of changing the password for the account from the one the Drupal created for you.

Cron tasks

Many Drupal modules (such as the search functionality) have periodic tasks that must be triggered by a cron job. To activate these tasks, call the cron page by visiting http://www.example.com/cron.php -- this will pass control to the modules and the modules will decide if and what they must do. To call cron.php periodically you need to setup a cron job.

cPanel offers a way to set cronjobs via Server » Cron jobs. Carefully read the instructions on the screen; they may differ from the following example.

To run cron.php every day set the Minute and Hour fields to 0 and the rest of the fields to *. The command to run is:

GET http://www.example.com/cron.php > /dev/null

Additional modules

Drupal comes with a limited number of modules. To expand the functionality of your Drupal site, you'll need to download and add modules to your site.

View the listing of modules and download the ones you want to use.

Be careful to only download those that are for Drupal 5.x, as earlier modules will not work with your site.

Also, be sure to read the description, as some modules require additional modules to be installed in order for them to work.