Part 3 of 4
Installation
So after installing Drupal on the Wamp server on my local machine, I proceeded to construct the site and add pages and content. After testing that the modules work and that the site will behave as I want it to, my next step was to upload the whole site to a web server.
I needed the following to upload and host this site on a web server: a hosting service, a domain name, and a FTP application.
The LIBR 246 class has been using the SJSU Senna server to host our sites for this course but I choose to go a different route for this project. It was my intention to continue learning and using Web 2.0 tools and maybe coding HTML and web design after this class. I also want to continue the WordPress blog that we have for the class and maybe come up with other things as time and interest permit, so I decided to subscribe to a shared server host provider. This was not an impulse decision but something I intend to do for a long time, but did not have the proper motivation to do so before. Anyway, after shopping around and asking some friends what they use I choose Bluehost as my host server. They actually have a great promotion going wherein you only pay $3.95 every month for two years for hosting services, just search for 3.95 and Bluehost and that promotion will come up. The other thing I need before I can upload it to the web server is a domain name. I already own a couple of domain names registered under Namecheap, so all I have to do was change the domain name servers to point to Bluehost. And lastly, I needed a FTP or a file transfer protocol to transfer files from my computer to the web server. I downloaded Filezilla, an open-source software that will work in Windows, Mac, or a Linux OS. It has received great reviews and best of all it is free.
After that I proceeded to upload the Drupal site I built on my local machine following this tutorial. The transfer required creating a new MySQL database on the web server, backing up and exporting the MySQL on the local machine, etc. The tutorial was very precise on how to do it except for a small part. At first I was getting an error message that I was able to trace to putting a different setting on what was mentioned on the tutorials (I now forget which one it is). I was also running into out of memory errors for the installation that a 3:00 AM call to the Bluehost technical support line did not fix entirely. I was actually surprised that there was someone who answered when I call, but I was too clueless and tired by that time that I decided to just do a completely new installation from scratch. I seem to remember reading that Bluehost supports a Drupal installation using Simplescripts right from the control panel of your account. So I installed Drupal using Simplescripts from the control panel and in less than a few minutes I was up and running again. The second time building the site was faster since I already have most of the materials that I used in the local host installation. I again encountered errors of running out of memory and a call to technical support a second time resolved it. The Bluehost techie told me that my install was missing a .htc access file (uh-huh?) and that what he did was create it and increase the value of the memory to 132 MB. After what he did, I did not have any of the memory errors again.
Drupal and MY Library System
The Drupal site is named MY Library System. It is located on this URL http://drupal.thelibrarygeek.com/libr246/?q=user. It will take you to a log in screen and you will need a username and password to enter the site. What I did to accomplish that is to redirect the default main page using the front page module to a front page I designed. I disabled all active links on this front page and allowed only the user log in blocks to be active. I intentionally built it this way as a security feature of this intranet that only authenticated users can enter the site. Another security feature I implemented for the site is to turn off the permissions on admin functions for all users except the admin. And I turned off all permissions for anonymous users.
Authenticated users, on the other hand, can add book pages, and other kinds of content, but cannot delete book pages, or content created by others. They can edit and delete their own content. My intranet project features five tabbed book pages that are the main headings for every department and a general information tab, namely: Circulation, General Information, Library Administration, Reference, and Technical Services. A book page is like the first chapter in a book, it will be the main heading of a page. All pages, blog posts, and story can then be categorized under any of these headings. You can create a blog, a forum, a book page, a poll, a story post on Drupal. All content created on the site is announced on the main page in a descending order just like a blog, but that can be configured by changing blocks via the administration menu. If the system admin wants to create another main heading, that can also be done, but I felt that it is best to limit it to five.
For the sites theme, I am using the Acquia Marina theme but changed the site logo and icon to an image that I created. I have installed several modules on my Drupal site to make it behave the way I want it. I will discuss only three of the modules I installed. I installed admin_menu to install a drop down administration menu at the top of the page. This drop down menu is only available for the admin account. I also installed the WYSIWYG module to automate formatting of text and attaching images and other files. And finally I installed wikitools module provides wiki-like functions to any bookpage, page or posts.
I was able to accomplish the following with the site:
1 I created book pages, pages and posts on those pages to demonstrate that it is easy to create an outline and create headings, sub-headings and topics under those headings and sub-headings.
1. I created blog posts, and stories.
2. I created forums and posted topics on forums. Forums can be used to brainstorm for ideas or solicit discussions among staff members. Forum topics can be library-related or even general human interest stuff.
3. I created two polls to demonstrate another feature of Drupal.
4. I uploaded an image and embed a YouTube video
5. I attached several documents and turned on the revision feature of Drupal.
6. I run cron jobs several times so the site is properly indexed and also did several searches to test if the site is displaying all relevant results. The site searches all text.
7. And I created a user profile template and created several users using the template.
continued on Part 4