Steps to install Drupal on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Hei readers. My name is Sorin and today I am going to show you how to install Drupal on Ubuntu. Currently , I am using ubuntu 14.04 LTS ,64-bit version.

Why should you install Drupal ? 

Well, that's  an easy question seeing that  Drupal is a great content management software. The only thing you need is  creativity because Drupal already provides all the rest, it has great standard features , such as  easy content authoring , reliable performance and excellent security. Its tools help you build the versatile , structured content that dynamic web experiences need.
Do you think that it has few tools? Again, no problem , you can extend it with any one, or many , of thousands of add-ons.
But, do you know what is the best part ? IT IS TOTALLY FREE.


Don't you believe me? Go and check  https://www.drupal.org/about   and you'll see I'm right.



REQUIREMENTS:

First of all , you need to meet certain minimum requirements. It is recommended to have ,at least , 15 MB free to run this software .

Now that you have enough space to run it , you need some extra programs such as :

• APACHE 

        It is the world's most used web server software.Apache supports a variety of features , ranging from server-side programming language support to authentication schemes.

        You can install it using the next command        

           sudo apt-get install apache2

To check if it is installed correctly, you can open a browser and go to localhost .It should look like this :

•    MySQL 5.5.3

     MySQL  is the most popular Open Source SQL database management system.  This software is very fast , reliable , scalable and easy to use so I strongly recommend it to you.

     

     Use  sudo apt-get install mysql-server to install it.When the installation is finished, you're asked to write a password for the "root" user.

• PHP 5.5.9 :   

PHP is a computer programming language  designed for producing dynamic web pages. You have to install 3 libraries to be able to finish the installation  of Drupal.

      Type sudo apt-get install php5 php5-gd php5-mysql in terminal to install PHP

*it is  require to restart apache to use PHP. The command is :
    sudo service apache2 restart



DOWNLOADING DRUPAL:

Well , you can go to the next step. You have to download and extract the software. To do this , I recommend to use Drush because it offers the most convenient way of downloading Drupal (for more advantages of using Drush check : https://drupalize.me/videos/what-drush?p=1156) .If you don't have Drush installed , you don't have to worry. Use sudo apt-get install drush and now you're able to download Drupal. You have to use a single command  drush dl drupal .When the download is finished , you should get a message like this :




CREATING DATABASE :

Let's move to the next operation. You have to create a database using MySQL commands. It might sound quite hard but you don't have to worry , I will show you how to create it. 

    1.Create a new database 
   Type this command in terminal : *
   mysqladmin -u username -p create databasename;
  Now , MySQL prompts for the 'username ' database password , and creates the initial database files.

  2. Log in and set the access database rights 

           mysql -u username -p
  
   MySQL prompts for the 'username' database password .
  
    3.Now, at the Mysql prompt , enter the following command :

    GRANT SELECT , INSERT , UPDATE , DELETE ,CREATE , DROP , INDEX , ALTER ,CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES ON databasename.* TO 'username'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

   In this case :

• databasename is the name of your database
• 'username' is the username of your MySQL user account
• 'localhost' is the host where  Drupal is installed**
• 'password' is the password required for that  username   

*when you type a command for mysql , don't forget the " ; " 
**in this case, you don't have to change the host

    4.If successful , MySQL will reply with  Query OK , 0 rows affected 

INSTALLING THE SCRIPT


Finally , you reached the last step. You have to run the install script . In order to do that, you have to replace everything is in the /var/www/html folder with the Drupal files.  Open a browser and type in the URL bar localhost .

At the beginning there are two options , Standard and minimal . It is highly recommended to select the standard installation.

In the second step , you have to choose what language do you prefer. If you don't want English , you can go to the translation server  and download a translation. Next , you have to put it into the directory /profiles/standard/translations/ .


In the third step , the script is checking if you meet the requirements. It is possible to encounter some problems:

•  Missing files system  

     You have to grant everyone permission to write to the sites/default directory with this command :
        chmod a+w /var/www/html/sites/default 
        Don't forget to set the permissions back with :
               chmod go-w /var/www/html/sites/default 

• Missing settings file

You have to make a copy of the default.settings.php file with the command :
   cp sites/default/default.settings.php sites/default/settings.php

Next , grant write privileges to the file to everyone with the command :
  chmod a+w sites/default/settings.php
    
Don't forget to set the permissions back with :
   chmod go-w sites/default 



When all the requirements are fulfilled , you are asked to set up database. 



Now, the script is installing the profile . Next, you're asked to configure you site  with email address , username , password, etc.



CHANGE FILE SYSTEM STORAGE SETTINGS

Now , this step is optional . The files directory previously create is the default one.It is used to store all uploaded files , as well as some temporary files created by Drupal.  If your site runs multiple Drupal installations from a single codebase or your site runs on a number of web servers behind a load balancer or reverse proxy , it is highly recommended to modify the file system path .

Move back to the /var/www/html/sites . You have to create a new directory and to grant write permissions . In order to do that , you have to use mkdir uploads , then  
chmod a+w uploads  .  

Afterwards, open you browser and navigate to your site . (type localhost in url bar) . Click on Administration > Configuartion > Media > File system  , and enter the desired bath. ( In mine case , sites/default/uploads )




Congratulations !!! You have just installed Drupal on your computer . Hope you enjoy my tutorial and don't hesitate to comment if you have any problem with the installation.