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Drupal is one of the best Open Source CMS tools in the web. It has been recently awarded the Overall 2007 Open Source CMS Award at the PacktPub Contest.
Drupal is written in PHP and requires a MySQL database, both of which are available with the SiteGround Drupal hosting services. Drupal basic installation can be easily turned into many different types of web pages - from simple web blogs to large online communities. Drupal includes features to enable content management systems, blogs, forums, newsletters, picture galleries, and more. Here we will explain the use of Drupal as a blog application.
Drupal installation
Please, visit the pages listed below to find detailed instructions how to install Drupal on your website with the help of the Fantastico auto-installation tool or via the web.
How to create a blog site with Drupal?
Once you have finished with the installation of Drupal, you should navigate to the web address, where the script is located and you will see the main page. First you should create your account:
Once you have your password, you can log in the Administration area. There you can create content or edit your profile, manage your installation and more from the administer menu:
To start using Drupal as a blog, you should first enable the blog module from Administer -> Modules. The following modules should be checked:
- menu
- node
- path
- page
- statistics
- story
- taxonomy
Also you can download and install image module.
Drupal Settings
Then please go to Administer -> Settings and fill in the text boxes with the required information. This will help the Search egnines to easily crawl your blog site.
After that you should continue setting the access control in Administer -> Access control. Click on the roles tab. Create your own role. The rights you give here depend on how you use your site. In the beginning you can check the following options:
- administer and create images
- administer menu
- access content and administer nodes
- create pages and edit own page
- create url aliases
- access statistics
- create and edit own stories
- access administration pages
- administer taxonomy
After that you should go to Administer -> users, click on the configure tab and choose "Only site administrators can create new user accounts". Click on the add user tab and create a user account you will blog with. Assign it the role you have created earlier.
Now it is time to navigate to Administer -> themes. Choose your desired theme and select the configure tab. Scroll down to "Display post information on" and uncheck the box next to "page".
In "Toggle display" make sure that "Site name", "Site slogan" and "Mission statement" are checked. With Drupal you can change the visualization of your site without changing the links to the content.
Creating Content
Now you should go to Administer -> content. There you should click on configure tab and then on content types. Click on "page". In the "Workflow" remove the check next to "Promoted to front page". Save and do the same for "story" as well.
This will set only story type content to be automatically promoted to the front page.
It is time to create content for your blog. Please, logout from the administrator's area and login with your newly created account. You can create content for your blog from create content link.
There you can add or edit a page or a story:
- If you want to add a static page, like a contact page or an about page, use the page type.
- Stories are articles in their simplest form: they have a title, a teaser and a body, but can be extended by other modules. The teaser is part of the body too. Stories may be used as a personal blog or for news articles.
Once you are done, you can go to your home page. There you will see that the default Drupal new site message is now gone and your post is placed.
Useful links:
Please, feel free to contact us if you have any questions or recommendations about this tutorial at: tutorials 'at' siteground.com
