How can I create a site like that?

You are right to be concerned about building a site in a subdirectory then moving it live. That can cause breakage. Not irrepairable but to be avoided.

Poking around will demonstrate HEAPS of docs about multisite setup some even in relation to localhost multisite.

You've gotta make some choices, but unfortunately not all the requirements are in front of you just yet.

First lesson - get friendly with the *AMP apache configs and make use of the VirtualHosts. They work exactly as documented by Apache, and are meant to be modified, so don't get worried just because they came in the distro stack. They are not sacred.

It's possible to get a good effect by using alternate ports, but it's even easier to
- Edit your HOSTS file to add a new server name
- Edit your Apache configs to add a new VirtualHost by that name
- Set the VirtualHost DocumentRoot to any-thing-you-want if you want to do non-drupal development, inside or outside the default www directory.
- Set the VirtualHost DocumentRoot to the drupal install directory if you want to try drupal multisite. Drupal does magic to choose between different config files depending on which door (hostname) you came in by. NOTE DO NOT link directly to anything in the sites/directory. It doesn't work that way.
- Visit your made-up hostname, see the multisite docs for installation/activation instructions

Anyway, sorry that's all probably too much and too fast - you'll have to do some reading to figure out what I meant. But it CAN all be done in 5 minutes with a little copy & paste.

.dan.
_{if you are asking a question you think should be documented, please provide a link to the handbook where you think the answer should be found.}
| http://www.coders.co.nz/ |

1. Installation - I have to tell you that installation was easiest for me when I just followed the step-by-step walk throughs from lullabot.com

Also, I didn't think to attempt an answer at this question earlier:

So, how do I go about creating and configuring a Drupal installation locally without me having to go deep into PHP and MySQL

The main reason, I think, is that the primary use for Drupal would be placement on a web server. On that web server, the PHP and MySQL is already taken care of, other than creating your database. Being that each is its own separate entity, and each server has different requirements, and each individual site may have different requirements, it really is functionally best to keep it separate.

That doesn't make it easy, of course. Most of us are used to using Windows Apps where you open an installer program, hit next - next - yes/no, check a box saying "I agree to your gibberish..." and Finish.

But if you want to set up a powerful, efficient, and useful website or anything for that matter, you're going to have to get into some of the nitty gritty at some point.

I can tell you my personal experience so far:

• I initially started looking at Drupal at least 1 or 2 years ago, and attempted a couple of local installs. For one reason or another, I goofed up, and then gave up, b/c had more pressing matters. I finally did get it installed locally correctly, but then again other things took my time to where I could not spare any time at all for web design/admin, especially not an entire new site.
• Well, I did further research, and contacted a couple others who had built sites with Drupal, and talked further with them, as to how they converted their sites to drupal, suggestions they might have, etc.
• Finally, after much thinking and researching, I bit the bullet. I attempted a Drupal site, but not on a local machine this time; no, it was on the actual web server, just in a sub-directory to start with. And honestly, I did run into some headaches. However, I think the headaches were well worth it. Some of them could have been avoided by just being patient, and regardless, I learned from all of them.
• Also, one thing I learned for sure is that your web host matters with this type of site. If you have/had a static site before, and this is your first time moving to a CMS platform, I highly recommend making sure your web host can handle everything well, so you don't have pages randomly taking long times to load. This isn't a review of web hosts, but here are a couple thoughts from my personal experiences:
  • DreamHost - from my little experience and things I've read - it just is not well suited to CMS packages. Specifically, my brother had a personal site up for a while, using WordPress. I told him practically ever time I looked at his site that he HAD to fix the speed issues. And he tried all sorts of suggestions, I thought of just minor things I could recommend, and finally we had to come to the conclusion - it wasn't the CMS itself (though that does play a role in part) nor the person designing/maintaining the site. It was the host. If you kept your install very simple, it might do okay there... also, this was not the best package they offered, I don't believe, it was the cheapest he could get.
  • 1and1 Hosting: I have mixed experience with this one. First, up front, my overall experience has been VERY good (still have 2 of 3 sites I am working on with 1and1 - might change in the future, b/c of the whole Drupal conversion when I get there, but not necessarily). Their customer support has generally been good. A couple of times, they did not really answer my questions accurately, but 99% of the time they did. Uptime was excellent through the few years I've used them for a couple sites. The only problem I ran into was with Drupal. It did perform okay most of the time, however, there were times that it would run pretty sluggish - still not the worst, no where near as bad as the DreamHost site I mentioned.
  • So I did some checking, and found a couple reviews and mentions of ANHosting for Drupal sites. I specifically appreciated the in depth review over at blamcast.com (same guy who runs drupalmodules.com). And so I checked into it. And I also found a coupon for 3 months free at another location, and used that. The sales experience went well. However, the first week or two once the site was actually working (had to wait for a domain transfer to complete for about 1-2 weeks prior), I had way too much down-time. The good thing, though, is that the hosting company (MidPhase - they bought ANHosting, so all support now is through MidPhase - at least mine was) was courteous, and did promise that this was very unusual, and would not be a regular occurance by any means. And since that time, now at least 3 or 4 weeks, I believe, I have not noticed any event of downtime. And the entire time, our site has performed flawlessly.

Sorry that was a bit long, hopefully the list will help make it easier to read. ;0)

One last thing I will mention - if you end up doing a website for a nonprofit (such as a church), then you may can actually get FREE hosting at DreamHost. I'm planning on giving it a shot just to see how that all works, and how their free for nonprofits plan works.... as time provides, of course. ;0)