Dummies guide to setting up a new Drupal/CiviCRM site from scratch

[ThePayIsLousy]

I'm a dummy, so this was a natural for me...  :-)

Here is my first draft of a guide created from my notes taken during the creation of a brand new CiviCRM 2.2.7 site under a brand new installation of Drupal 6.x.  It's a living document, so I plan to keep updating it.

[Michael McAndrew]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the contribution looks useful for those using the Go Daddy platform.  Did you consider adding this to wiki.civicrm.org?

It would be nice to find a place for it there and have it in an editable form so that others can edit it also and help improve it (a la open source).

Michael

[ThePayIsLousy]

Michael,

I was waiting for at least one person to say that it's worth the trouble...  :-)

Where should I put it?  Also, the instructions are really host-independent -- the Go Daddy references are easy to replace w/ corresponding steps for other shared hosting platforms or VPS setups...

Thanks!

[Eileen]

Mike,

I'd like to give you the thumbs up too then. I've even clicked on the little 'applaud' link to give you a karma point 

[Michael McAndrew]

The questions I would ask are how does this relate to content that is already out there, and following from that, where does it fit?  Should you create a new page, or should you try and integrate this content in other pages?

I have a feeling the answer is both - some of it is go daddy specific and if a go daddy installation page doesn't exist, you can create one, but some of your content is useful regardless of your provider and could be used to improve the installation pages.

It might be useful to try and remember what was missing from the documentation when you went through this process yourself, and where you looked for it; that should guide you as to where to add it.

There's no correct answer so I would have a little look around, make your mind up, be bold (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_bold_in_editing_articles) and feel free to ask for more guidance if you want to.

Here is the obvious place to start:  http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Installation+and+Upgrades - a child page there would be good.  And in case you haven't already, try the different civicrm searches for godaddy (the wiki, forum, googling "site:civicrm.org godaddy", etc.) to get an idea of what is already up there.

PS.  I like the stuff referencing the book - would be great to have more links between the documentation and the book on the wiki.

[ThePayIsLousy]

Eileen, thanks for the encouragement (and karma)!  Michael, thanks for the guidance!

OK, I created a new page and added a link here:
http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Installation+and+Upgrades
[Under "Install CiviCRM for Drupal".]

I also updated the hooks page:
http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/CiviCRM+hook+specification
[Added an intro section that explains the nuts-and-bolts of module writing, and a working example in the postProcess section that adds a last modified timestamp to a saved profile form.]

This forum is littered w/ "Thanks, lobo!" comments, but let me add another...   

[Eileen]

Cool - I like that. Keeping it together as an example is a good way of doing it.

I added this to your bit about creating a module

You can also find examples in your CiviCRM install in civicrm\drupal\civitest.module.sample

[Michael McAndrew]

I really like the introduction to writing a module - that page had been missing a simple introduction to those steps - had been meaning to write something like that for a while

[Dave Greenberg]

Hey mike - nice job with the new "from scratch" guide. As we will be redirecting all documentation wiki traffic to the 3.0 version of the doc shortly, I went a head and created a copy of your page in the 3.0 documentation space:

http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMUPCOMING/Drupal+installation+and+configuration+example

Unfortunately we don't have a way of merging changes from the current stable doc version to the "next" version. SO... if you (or anyone else) has further additions or improvements to this page (or pretty much any other page going forward) - please make the changes in the "upcoming" version of the pages. Start here to find them:

http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMUPCOMING/CiviCRM+Documentation

[ThePayIsLousy]

Thanks much, Dave.  I'll update the hooks doc for 3.0, too.  Look likes someone took part of my addition over, but didn't bring over the example code?

Is there a way (even if it's only w/ a note) of freezing old doc pages when doc pages are brought over to the new repository?  EX:

"This document has been ported to the 3.0 repository.  Any changes made to this doc must also be made there if you want them to persist."

[Dave Greenberg]

Hmm - for now I guess a note on top of the page is good. I'll check w/ Michal on our team about putting up a global notice on the 2.2 doc pages.

[ajameson75]

i read this post, and got excited, after opening the pdf file, unfortunately, the criticism you provided,
was not valid, since your manual can not help someone to use civicrm.

I installed Drupal, Civicrm, and spent the entire weekend. Everything is setup correctly. However i cant get to post the activities, events, campaigns on the home page. This is the missing link. When i finally figure this out, i will create a complete Idiot's guide to civicrm.

And the issue, i have is not related to permissions, because, as stated, i have setup everything correctly

Alex

[Erik Hommel]

Hi Mike,
Great initiative!
Erik

[cesy]

i read this post, and got excited, after opening the pdf file, unfortunately, the criticism you provided,
was not valid, since your manual can not help someone to use civicrm.

I installed Drupal, Civicrm, and spent the entire weekend. Everything is setup correctly. However i cant get to post the activities, events, campaigns on the home page. This is the missing link. When i finally figure this out, i will create a complete Idiot's guide to civicrm.

And the issue, i have is not related to permissions, because, as stated, i have setup everything correctly

Alex

Did you ever get help for this issue, Alex, or are you still struggling?

[ThePayIsLousy]

I'm in the process of updating my doc for 2010 and CiviCRM 3.2 (my project is an annual high school parent teacher assn membership drive -- it's that time of year again).  Just thought I'd mention my pending updates in case anyone else has created a related document(s) that I should reference (or incorporate if other docs do a better job than I did in some areas).  Thanks!