CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Dear CiviCRM community --

I do hope that someone will be able to answer my questions about using PHP & Drupal  with the CiviCRM application.  Please forgive me if some of these questions seem self-explanatory!!  I am new to both Drupal AND CiviCRM!!   

I am the webmaster for a small nonprofit organization in Texas.  Our web site is currently hosted by GoDaddy.com and I have spent considerable amount of time setting up Drupal Content Management System so that our web site can efficiently process subscriptions and annual memberships to our organization.  Last night in my search for a module that would be able to handle a registration form with a large number of fields, I came across the CiviCRM site and it appears to have everything though we need, and then some. There is one major problem though... The version of PHP that is on my GoDaddy.com server is version 4.x.  When I inquired with the GoDaddy tech support Center last night, they stated that was not a problem on their end but rather a problem with the version of PHP that is shipped with Drupal. The only workaround that they could suggest was to obtain a dedicated server and essentially rewrite the entire Drupal application to meet my specific needs.  Even though I am majoring in computer science in college, I am only a sophomore and I will not even pretend to understand enough about programming to tackle kind of massive task. 

The more I thought about what the tech support agent said, the less sense it made.  After I did a little more research in the GoDaddy Hosting Connection, I realized that there is indeed a way to upgrade the version of PHP from 4.x to 5.x.  I also learned, after doing several searches and reading a great deal in the Drupal handbook, that there is now a new version of Drupal (version 6.2) that DOES SUPPORT PHP version 5.x.

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Now that you have the background on my situation, here are my questions... (The 1st couple of questions might actually be more appropriate for the Drupal users forum, but maybe someone here can answer them anyway)I have already made the change in my GoDaddy hosting account from PHP version 4.x to version 5.x, I have not however, installed the new version of Drupal (version 6.2) ...

• Do I have to uninstall my previous version of Drupal (version 5.2) before installing the new version (6.2) ??<br></br>
• Will I lose the admin settings and other data and options that I have configured so far in the previous version (5.2) ?? 

These next few questions are specifically related to in installation and use of CiviCRM with Drupal...

• Once I upgrade to the new version of Drupal and PHP, will I then be able to use the automated installer to install CiviCRM on to my server?
• Last night, in the process of attempting to install CiviCRM, I ran the PHP info test as described in the help section of your web site, I encountered a rather major problem... After uploading PHPinfo.php file to my server my CSS stylesheets that control look and formatting of my entire site went completely BONKERS!! Later, while reading the installation manual for CiviCRM, I noticed in one place that the uploading of the PHP info file can sometimes cause problems in CSS stylesheets and the formatting of your site.  If I simply delete this file, will all of my stylesheets return to normal??  Or will I need to upload new copies of these files?? 

     If there is anyone who can answer my questions ASAP, I would greatly appreciate it!!  I am working on a number grant application deadlines that are coming up very quickly and the panels that will be reviewing our applications will be looking at our web site as a part of the judging process.  I especially need to resolve the issue that the PHPinfo.php file created when it caused so many problems with the CSS stylesheets and the formatting of our site.  One of the criteria that panels will be judging us on, is the quality and ease of use of our web site, so I need be sure that it has a professional appearance, rather than looking as if it was simply "thrown together".

Many thanks in advance for all of your assistance!!

Kathryn M. Archuleta
Co-Founder & Webmaster
Dreams Fulfilled Through Music
Please visit our web site at http://www.alamoangels.org

A few important points...
* Drupal 5.7 "recommends" PHP 5 (as does Drupal 6.2) - http://drupal.org/requirements

* CiviCRM 2.0 is NOT compatible w/ Drupal 6.2 - you need to run it with Drupal 5.7

* CiviCRM 2.1 (due out later this year) will be compatible w/ and require Drupal 6.2