Last updated May 11, 2010. Created by sepeck on September 16, 2007.
Edited by LeeHunter, webchick, VM. Log in to edit this page.
Drupal is part of a technology stack that contains a number of important pieces:
| Server - A server is a computer which provides information or services to other computers on a network. |
| Operating system - The software that runs the server. Unix, Linux, BSD, OS X and Windows are some examples. |
| Database - A structured collection of records. Drupal uses a database to store most content and configuration settings for your site, some content such as media files are generally stored in the server's file system. |
| Web server - The software component responsible for serving web pages. Examples are Apache and Microsoft IIS. |
| PHP - PHP is a programming language that allows web developers to create dynamic content that interacts with databases. |
| Drupal - A framework for building dynamic web sites offering a broad range of features and services including user administration, publishing workflow, discussion capabilities, news aggregation, metadata functionalities using controlled vocabularies and XML publishing for content sharing purposes. A Drupal installation is generally comprised of a mix of core and contributed modules. |
Comments
Reviewing my install procedure... what about DB Drivers?
The technology stack listed here is probably missing the Database Drivers for PHP. On my MacBook Pro, I had to download the source code of an already installed version of PHP in order to compile the support for accessing PostgreSQL database from PHP. Also, I needed to LoadModule them in my Apache configuration as separate modules. That may be a sufficient reason to consider them a separate component in the stack.
little pieces
that's true, the php/mysql interface needs to be added. Might be included with PHP or MySQL themselves. Similarly, apache and PHP need an interface, I think that's usually included with PHP, but it's another piece not listed here.
And if you've ever built these things from source, you might remember other pieces. Like gee I want the ImageMagik module for PHP. Oh it needs libjpeg? and libpng and libgif, ok I'll go download those too and build and install them, then try building PHP again. Similarly Apache has extra modules you can download and toss in. And I think MySQL too - you can make your own database data types, whatever.
So I think the idea behind this page is that it lists the big pieces, the ones you need to keep in mind, rather than the ones that you can forget after you install them. Each of the big or little pieces may be hard or easy to install, or might already be installed for you. Just get it all installed and forget about them.
the man may be gone, but the heroic struggle to mock him continues