Installing Drupal

"RTFM!", they scream. For most people this is the last resort. Therefore, it is almost expected nowadays that a web application will install with as little hassle as possible. If you're capable, I suggest beefing up the fresh install process for your favourite open source web application and feeding it back to the project. It will result in more uptake from your project, as the barrier to entry is lower, or best case, removed.

Anyway, I put my head down and ran forth to install Drupal. Here's what I found:

1. There was an instantly visible Download link on the Drupal website. Wanting to avoid potential problems I steered clear of the 6.0RC2 release (even though it's likely to be pretty solid) and went for the 5.6 release.

2. I extracted it into my /var/www directory and pointed my browser at http://localhost/drupal-5.6/

3. Hooray, no error page and what looked like the first step of an installation wizard. I was informed that /var/www/drupal-5.6/sites/default/settings.php had to be writable. Clickety click, sorted.

4. Refreshed the page and was asked for database credentials. Even though it said the database had to exist, I tried without creating it anyway. I got the perfect error message telling me that the login to the database was successful, but the database didn't exist. Ever curious I tried again with the wrong username and password and the error changed appropriately.

5. Created the database on the server and tried again. Turns out the user I created some time ago had no administrative access over the tables (no LOCK TABLE access). Clickety click, sorted. I then tried one last time and all the tables were created and I was told to remove write permission to the settings.php file. I'll leave it read/write for now to see what happens.

6. Welcome To Your New Drupal Website.


7. Unable to stop myself, I follow the link and create myself an admin account, then log in with it.

I now get slightly less than a billion customisation options which scares me off for a bit. I was going to take a backup of the database but considering the amount of effort to get to this point I'll just start from scratch if I need to. Interestingly the status report (shows up when you click Administer) told me about the writable settings.php file and some other things that I'll have to look into (file system can't be written to, no cron). They don't sound big.

Tune in next time when Bob maybe knows something useful about Drupal.

Migrating from Blogger to Drupal

Ok, so Blogger is easy. Think, type, post, you're done. This makes it great for the masses, but if you want to blog on an intranet, or don't like the idea of relying on an external service, or even want a little more than Blogger's feature set then you'll have to go elsewhere.

There are a heap of blogging tools, and a heap of tutorials that will tell you how to make your own blogging tool (a task often used as a web framework "Hello World" project). In the past, I've written my own, used Wordpress and MovableType. Each of these have been good and bad but something has kept me looking elsewhere. The most frustrating things I've found with Wordpress is the lack of native support for multiple blogs (the Wordpress MU extension claims to do it but I couldn't get it to work), and migration problems if you have to shift hosting providers (good luck if you want to change the table prefix, it's not easy).

Anyway, I recently heard about the Drupal Podcast and decided to download an episode and listen to it. It got me fired up to want to install Drupal for my blog and get some experience with it, but before I took that step I had a few questions:

1. I need to migrate my post from Blogger.
2. I want to keep the metadata and comments.
3. I want to retain the URL's to the individual posts.
4. I want it to look pretty much the same, but not at the expense of functionality.

So, four simple requirements but I suspect I'm about to bite off a big chunk. Over the next little while I hope to document my progress here, and bitch about problems on the way, or even fix them and offer advice for others wanting to do the same. Buckle up!

Software Developers Wanted

My workplace is advertising for a couple of software developers. I'm blogging it here because it's free!

Do you want to work for a successful Dunedin based software development company? We specialise in dynamic content creation for the web and print. We are looking for the right person to joun our enthusiastic team in our new purpose build office in the city.

When you're working at SmartMedia, you'll be developing web based applications using the following technologies. You do not need a working knowledge of these, just a passion for learning new things.

• .NET (C#, web services and ASP.NET)
• C++
• XML (XSLT and DOM)
• HTML / JavaScript
• 2D Graphics Processing

The successful applicants will have:

• In-depth knowledge of any third generation language
• Good relational database skills
• Good problem solving skills
• Great communication skills
• The ability to contribute in a team environment

If you are interested in working in a dynamic environment with a diverse range of technologies, and where doing it right the first time is part of the culture, please send a covering letter, your academic record and C.V to us at PO Box 303 Dunedin, or email us at hr@smsolutions.co.nz.