Installing Drupal

How to install Drupal on Uniform Server 3.5-Apollo

Drupal is easy to install on Uniform Server 3.5-Apollo.

This step-by-step guide shows how to install Drupal and resolve common issues such as PHP mail and cron.

Pre-Installation 1

Install Uniform server and create Drupal database

Creat a new folder named drupal_server
Extract a copy of Uniform Server 3.5-Apollo to this new folder
Run Uniform server double click server_start.bat (\drupal_server\Uniform Server)
With apanel displayed, under Tools click on phpMyAdmin
Enter drupal in the "Create new database" (A) Click Create (B)
Stop server Stop.bat

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PHP mail

After you complete the final step in Install and set-up Drupal you will receive the following warning message:

warning: mail() [function.mail]: Failed to connect to mailserver at "localhost" port 25,
verify your "SMTP" and "smtp_port" setting in php.ini or use ini_set()
W:\www\includes\mail.inc on line 193.
Unable to send e-mail. Please contact the site admin, if the problem persists.

If you are only exploring and testing Drupal's functionality you can safely ignore this (Its only a warning and not an error). However if you would like to send emails via your ISP you have two options.

1) Edit php.ini

Open php.ini located in folder \drupal_server\Uniform Server\udrive\usr\local\php

Locate this section:

[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
SMTP = localhost
smtp_port = 25

; For Win32 only.
sendmail_from = me@localhost.com

Replace: SMTP = localhost with your ISP's SMTP server; for details check out this page PHP mail function

Replace: sendmail_from = me@localhost.com with your real email address issued to you by your ISP.

2) Install Fake Sendmail for Windows

If your ISP requires authentication install Fake Sendmail for Windows

3) Install a mailserver

One final option if you want to run your own mail server and your ISP does not block the mail ports check out this page Installing hMailServer

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Pre-Installation 2

Download

Create a new folder named drupal_temp
Download latest version of Drupal Drupal Download
Save the file (latest version drupal-6.4.tar.gz) to folder drupal_temp

Extract

Extract files drupal-6.4.tar.gz (I use 7z portable this)

Copy files to Uniform Server

Open folder drupal-6.4 (C) and copy entire contents (files and folders) to Uniform folder www (D)
Allow files index.php and .htaccess to be over written.
Navigate to folder \drupal_server\Uniform Server\udrive\www\sites\default
Make a copy of file: default.settings.php
Rename this copy to: settings.php

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Install and set-up Drupal

Start servers double click Server Start.bat
Type the following into browser address bar http://localhost/
This opens Drupal's instalation page (http://localhost/install.php?profile=default)
Click Install Drupal in English
Enter database configuration information:

Database name: drupal
Database user name: root
Database password: root
Click Save and continue

Enter site information

Site name: localhost
Site e-mail address: me@localhost
Username (admin): admin Use your own admin name
E-mail address: Use your own email address
Password (admin): root66 Use your own password
Confirm password: root66 Use your own password
Clean URL's radio button is Enabled no need to change
Update notification leave checked.
Click Save and continue

I mentioned in Pre-Installation 1 you will receive this warning it can be safly ignored:

warning: mail() [function.mail]: Failed to connect to mailserver at "localhost" port 25,
verify your "SMTP" and "smtp_port" setting in php.ini or use ini_set()
W:\www\includes\mail.inc on line 193.
Unable to send e-mail. Please contact the site admin, if the problem persists.

Note: If you implemented either of the solutions mentioned the warning will not be produced.

You are ready to view your new site click "your newsite" link.

When you log into admin at the top of the admin page you will see

"Cron has not run. Please visit the status report for more information."

Click the status report link:
Navigate to "Cron maintenance tasks" to the right click "run cron manually"
After a short time you will receive a message "Cron ran successfully."

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Summary

I have shown how easy it is to install Drupal on Uniform Server. In order to update Drupal cron must run. For a test server although inconvenient you can periodically manually run cron.

On the next page I look at a method to resolve this issue. Check out Portable Cron

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Ric