By Unsetdeuxs on

Ok so I need to have a domain before I can work on the site? Does this mean I need to have a host/server?

If so, how do I do this and how much does it cost? The support section is WAY over my head.

Thanks,
Adam

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

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Unsetdeuxs’s picture

Unsetdeuxs commented

If I DL Apache and use it as my server does that mean my computer has to be online all the time in order for people to visit my site?

I think I might be in way over my head here with this Drupal thing... All I want to do is make/maintain my own site

danmurf’s picture

danmurf commented

You can start building a Drupal site off of your local machine if you install Apache, PHP and MySQL. One of the easiest ways to do this is with a WAMP package (I'm assuming you use Windows?), like XAMPP (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html). If you don't use Windows you can download a Mac or Linux version of XAMPP instead. This will enable you to install Drupal on your machine, add content, configure the site, develop modules, themes etc.

If you want other people to be able to access your site, you'll need a domain name and a host. A domain name on its own won't do anything without a host, as it needs to point somewhere. Hosting is relatively cheap for personal sites, and can go up and up depending on the amount of bandwidth and disk space that you need.

I'm using 34sp for my personal site and I've found them to be very reliable with good support. To get up and running with a fairly light weight site will cost around £20/year (http://www.34sp.com/hostingfeatures), plus the cost of a domain name which can be around £10/year.

Hope this helps :)

Unsetdeuxs’s picture

Unsetdeuxs commented

YES THANK YOU!!!

So that XAMPP is everything I need? I am using XP32. I already got Drupal and extracted it... not so sure about where I am supposed to put the extracted file however.

Adam

danmurf’s picture

danmurf commented

Just to be clear, XAMPP is everything you need to develop a Drupal site - it's not meant for serving a production site to the public. The reason for this is that it is built to be quick and easy to set up with no passwords, which when developing will save you a lot of time, but in production would be a security hole.

Here's a quick step guide to getting your development environment:

1) Install XAMPP
2) Go to C:/[xampp path]/htdocs/ and create a folder to store your site, let's say 'mysite'
3) Extract the Drupal files to c:/[xampp path]/htdocs/mysite
3) Start the XAMPP manager, then start Apache, MySQL and Mercury mail
4) See if you can access your development server by opening a web browser and going to http://localhost (you should see an XAMPP page)
5) If it works; great! Go to http://localhost/phpmyadmin (this will allow you to make changes to the MySQL databases)
6) Create a new database called 'mysite'
7) Open your web browser and go to http://localhost/mysite (hopefully you will see the Drupal install screen)
8) Enter your site details, and for the database bit enter the hostname 'localhost', the database username 'root' and leave the password blank. You don't need to worry about the database prefix unless you're sharing the database with another application.

Hopefully after this you will be greeted with the default Drupal page :)

Unsetdeuxs’s picture

Unsetdeuxs commented

Can you modify it to include passwords?

Oh so I wouldn't be able put the site up on the web without it being open to everyone?

The goal of this is to host a site which will document my trip around the world, but also have community capabilities, forums, advertising as a source of revenue, blogs, photos, videos, chat, etc.

Any suggestions?

Unsetdeuxs’s picture

Unsetdeuxs commented

????????

danmurf’s picture

danmurf commented

I'm sure you can lock it down so it's safe enough; but if you want to set up your own server you are better off learning a little more about the packages and setting them up from scratch :)

The idea of XAMPP is so you can build your site. Once you have built your site, you can export the database and files to a hosted site for the world to see.

Your best bet would be to run through the steps I said before, so you can start setting your site up. Find a host and get a domain (a lot of hosts offer a domain with their hosting package). Once you have built your site, you can upload it to the host. This way you don't have to worry about the responsibility of setting up and running a server.

Unsetdeuxs’s picture

Unsetdeuxs commented

Sweet, thanks.

Ok one more question. Can I use features that are not Drupal made in conjunction with my Drupal site? Like import html, java, css, etc?

danmurf’s picture

danmurf commented

What sort of features do you mean?

You can do pretty much anything with Drupal :) The site's presentation is managed by 'themes', which you can download or write yourself. And the functionality is extended by modules, which again you can download or write yourself. If you have a look at the showcases you can see how diverse it is.

Unsetdeuxs’s picture

Unsetdeuxs commented

Yea I have been scrolling through and taking a look. Is it hard to write your own theme? Do all the theme's work with all the mods?

danmurf’s picture

danmurf commented

A lot of modules include some light styling, which you can of course override in your theme.

If you're confident with HTML/CSS then there's no reason why you can't write your own theme. In simple terms, you're building a page shell and telling Drupal where to spit out various sections of the page (content, left side bar, footer, etc).

Introduction to theming
http://drupal.org/node/221881

If you're using Firefox I highly recommend trying the Firebug add-on https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843 . It will allow you to inspect the page IDs and classes so you can style them in your style sheet.