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Learning Drupal 8
Learning Drupal 8

Learning Drupal 8: Create complex websites quickly and easily using the building blocks of Drupal 8, the most powerful version of Drupal yet

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Learning Drupal 8

Chapter 2. Installation

This chapter takes you through the steps for installing Drupal 8 using a local development environment. At the time of writing, the most up-to-date version of Drupal 8 is the 8.01 release, which can be downloaded from:

https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal

System requirements

Drupal 8 is a PHP-based software application and as such requires the following:

PHP

The following PHP version is required for the installation of Drupal 8:

  • PHP 5.5.9 or higher

Web server options

One of the following:

  • Apache
  • Nginx
  • Microsoft IIS

Database options

One of the following:

  • MySQL 5.5.3 or above with PDO
  • PostgreSQL 3.6.8 or above with PDO
  • SQLite 3.6.8 or above
  • MariaDB 5.5.20 (or greater)
  • Percona Server 5.2.8 (or greater)

Browser options

One of the following:

  • Internet Explorer 9.x and above
  • Firefox 5.x and above
  • Opera 12 and above
  • Safari 5.x and above
  • Google Chrome

Up-to-date system requirements can be found at https://drupal.org/requirements.

Setting up a development environment

When you are getting started with Drupal, you may not have access to a web server in order to install it.

Often it is much easier at first to work on your own computer rather than have to worry about setting up an internet-hosted server environment by setting up a local stack of Apache, MySQL, PHP, which are often referred to generically as AMP stacks and as LAMP, WAMP, or MAMP stacks on Linux, Windows, or Mac, respectively.

Full instructions for installing Drupal manually into local stack can be found at: https://www.drupal.org/documentation/install but if you are not super confident at installing things like this manually, we recommend that you go for the Acquia Dev desktop method described below.

Free cloud hosting

Acquia is a company founded by the creator of Drupal, Dries Buytaert, which specializes in Drupal. Pantheon is another company which specializes in Drupal. Both of these offer a free sandbox hosting for Drupal.

https://www.acquia.com/free and https://www.getpantheon.com are cloud offerings which allow you to host and develop a Drupal 8 site on a hosted Internet-based web server. Both services offer a one-click install of Drupal. If you choose to use one of these, you can skip directly now to the section entitled Installing Drupal 8.

Acquia Dev Desktop

Acquia offers a free local development environment for Windows and Mac called Acquia Dev Desktop that you can download and install on your own local machine in order to run Drupal 8 in the shortest possible time.

Download either the Windows or Mac version of the Acquia Dev Desktop from https://www.acquia.com/downloads and install it selecting the defaults for the various settings.

Once you have completed the installation, you...

Installing Drupal 8

Now that you have your server environment configured, whether it be a cloud sandbox, your own web server, or the Dev Desktop, the steps to install Drupal 8 are the same, only the URL will be different. In the case of the Dev Desktop, go to http://drupal-8.dd:8083/install.php in your web browser.

Tip

Note that the Dev Desktop adds on the '.dd' suffix to the domain.

The Dev Desktop makes launching your new site very easy because it provides a shortcut link from within the control panel window:

Installing Drupal 8

You will see a number of option screens during the installation process, each of which we will walk through now.

Select the language you want to install and click on Save and continue. This is the language the user interface will be presented in:

Installing Drupal 8

Next, you will be asked which of two built-in installation profiles you wish to use.

Installing Drupal 8

Note that if are using the Dev Desktop then the Standard profile will be chosen automatically and so the whole step will be omitted.

If you have installed...

Troubleshooting your installation

If your site does not install correctly, there are some configuration tips that you might want to check.

Tip

Note that if you are using the Dev Desktop, you need not do any of this.

Memory settings

Sometimes, memory settings may need to be adjusted to get your site running correctly. Here are some suggestions on things to adjust.

If you are getting out of memory errors during installation, you can try increasing the memory available to Drupal.

When you imported the Drupal 8 site, the Dev Desktop will have created a site folder, which contains a settings file specifically. The site-specific settings file is called settings.php and can be found in the default folder.

Note that the default folder is also linked to the drupal-8.dd symlink.

Locate and edit the file:

/sites/default/settings.php

Add a new line:

ini_set('memory_limit', '128M');

This increases the memory allocated to PHP when running your site. 128M should be sufficient, but if you still...

System requirements


Drupal 8 is a PHP-based software application and as such requires the following:

PHP

The following PHP version is required for the installation of Drupal 8:

  • PHP 5.5.9 or higher

Web server options

One of the following:

  • Apache

  • Nginx

  • Microsoft IIS

Database options

One of the following:

  • MySQL 5.5.3 or above with PDO

  • PostgreSQL 3.6.8 or above with PDO

  • SQLite 3.6.8 or above

  • MariaDB 5.5.20 (or greater)

  • Percona Server 5.2.8 (or greater)

Browser options

One of the following:

  • Internet Explorer 9.x and above

  • Firefox 5.x and above

  • Opera 12 and above

  • Safari 5.x and above

  • Google Chrome

Up-to-date system requirements can be found at https://drupal.org/requirements.

Setting up a development environment


When you are getting started with Drupal, you may not have access to a web server in order to install it.

Often it is much easier at first to work on your own computer rather than have to worry about setting up an internet-hosted server environment by setting up a local stack of Apache, MySQL, PHP, which are often referred to generically as AMP stacks and as LAMP, WAMP, or MAMP stacks on Linux, Windows, or Mac, respectively.

Full instructions for installing Drupal manually into local stack can be found at: https://www.drupal.org/documentation/install but if you are not super confident at installing things like this manually, we recommend that you go for the Acquia Dev desktop method described below.

Left arrow icon Right arrow icon

Key benefits

  • Build complete, complex websites with no prior knowledge of web development entirely using the intuitive Drupal user interface
  • Follow a practical case study chapter-by-chapter to construct a complete website as you progress
  • Ensure your sites are modern, responsive and mobile-friendly through utilizing the full features available in Drupal 8

Description

Drupal 8 sets a new standard for ease of use, while offering countless new ways to tailor and deploy your content to the Web. Drupal 8 allows user to easily customize data structures, listings, and pages, and take advantage of new capabilities for displaying data on mobile devices, building APIs, and adapting to multilingual needs. The book takes you step by step through building a Drupal 8 website. Start with the basics, such as setting up a local “stack” development environment and installing your first Drupal 8 site, then move on to image and media handling, and extending Drupal modules. Push your knowledge by getting to grips with the modular nature of Drupal, and learning to extend it by adding new functionalities to create your new modules. By the end of the book, you will be able to develop and manage a modern and responsive website using Drupal.

Who is this book for?

If you want to learn to use Drupal 8 for the first time, or you are transitioning over from a previous version of Drupal, this is the book for you. No knowledge of PHP, MySQL, or HTML is assumed or required

What you will learn

  • Set up a local “stack” development environment and install your first Drupal 8 site
  • Find out what is available in Drupal 8 core
  • Define content types and taxonomies—and find out when you should do so
  • Use the powerful Views module
  • Get hands-on with image and media handling
  • Extend Drupal using custom community modules
  • Develop the look and feel of your website using Drupal themes
  • Manage site users and permissions

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Jan 30, 2016
Length: 328 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782168751
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Product Details

Publication date : Jan 30, 2016
Length: 328 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782168751
Languages :
Concepts :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

15 Chapters
1. Introduction Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Installation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Basic Concepts Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Getting Started with the UI Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Basic Content Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Structure Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Advanced Content Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Configuration Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Users and Access Control Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Optional Features Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
11. Reports Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
12. Extending Drupal Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
13. Theming Drupal Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
14. Getting Support Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.1
(8 Ratings)
5 star 50%
4 star 25%
3 star 12.5%
2 star 12.5%
1 star 0%
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Amazon Customer May 10, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book was great! It helped me understand the basics of Drupal 8. I would recommend this book to anyone who has not used Drupal before, it is a beginner book.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Bryan Sep 15, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
While I admit that there have been some changes to the Drupal 8 admin UI since this book was written, it is still quite relevant and easy to read in my opinion. This book not only incrementally built up my knowledge about Drupal 8 through each chapter, but it also built my confidence to a point where I was comfortable enough to venture past what was presented in the book and create more complex websites.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
James Roughton Mar 22, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I was one of the reviewer during the development phase and found this book was quite interesting to read.If you are new to Drupal and want some basic concept with some advance featues, this is a good book to have for your library.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
cdric May 05, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Livre intéressant, cependant les notions mentionnées sont trop basiques pour quelqu'un qui maitrise la programmation.Il convient parfaitement pour quelqu'un qui veut découvrir le CMS.Je le conseille ++
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Peter H. Elias Sep 06, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
Was clear and concise. My only complaint is that it doesn't make it clear enough that (1) Drupal 8 is a ways away from having the robust set of modules to extend its function; and (2) it is slower than D7 and requires more work (tweaking settings, etc) to make it perform well. But the book is solid and accurate and clear.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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