[documentation] [Documentation task] Newbie using drupal-5.0-beta1

Sat Nov 4 08:03:09 UTC 2006

Issue status update for 
http://drupal.org/node/92710
Post a follow up: 
http://drupal.org/project/comments/add/92710

 Project:      Documentation
 Version:      <none>
 Component:    Installation
 Category:     tasks
 Priority:     minor
 Assigned to:  joncli
 Reported by:  joncli
 Updated by:   sime
 Status:       active

Heya

The cache expiry can be manually overridden in settings.php.

For most sites I do I see it as a users responsibility to log out. For
sites where this is a particular problem, we change the setting.

For those sites that want to value-add by offering users this setting,
they could do it quite easily (I believe) with some custom code.

HTH
.s

sime

Previous comments:
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Fri, 03 Nov 2006 11:24:43 +0000 : joncli

Goal: Set up my first website.

I have never used Drupal.
I'm a total newbie at websites.
Research, I have spent two days searching the internet for the best
solutions.
I found WAMP5 - http://www.wampserver.com/en/
At first I did plan to use another CMS, but why not start with the best
- Drupal?
And why not give something back, so I decided to start with
drupal-5.0-beta1.
I will try to document all difficulties I have installing Drupal.

First I downloaded wamp5_1.6.5.exe
Apache 2.0.59
PHP 5.1.6 + PECL
SQLitemanager
MySQL 5.0.24a
Phpmyadmin
Installed WAMP5 on my OS:Windows XP service pack 2 computer.

Downloaded drupal-5.0-beta1
Extracted it to wamp\www\drupal-5.0-beta1\
What now? I like to read documentations so I know that
http://localhost/drupal-5.0-beta1/ should work.
It works! Now it says I need to create a database.
I have no idée what to do = google!
www.lullabot.com/videocast/installing-drupal-4.7
So I have created a database in Phpmyadmin, and I just typed in that
information.
It works!

"To begin, create the first account. This account will have full
administration rights and will allow you to configure your website."
Times up. Let’s do this!

At Status report
I don’t remember what the error sad exactly – it was that GD
Library was not enabled.
Searching google! – After some research I found the solution - at
wamp5 (down left) - PHP settings – PHP extensions – php_gd2 –
enable

At Status report
Cron maintenance tasks
Used “run cron manually” Will try to set up “cron”? later…

I have familiarized myself with the setup of drupal, it is pretty
strait forward. As with all new thins you have to start with an open
mind. It did take me some time, but now it feels safe and I will start
to set the settings to my preference.

Problem 1 SMTP
I tried do make a new account. It worked but I got this error.

SMTP
”mail() [function.mail]: Failed to connect to mailserver at
"smtp.gmail.com" port 25, verify your "SMTP" and "smtp_port" setting in
php.ini or use ini_set() in
C:\wamp\www\drupal-5.0-beta1\includes\common.inc on line 1731.”

*Is the “&quot” stuff suppose to be there?*

Find the solution!
php.ini - at wamp5 (down left) – Config files – php.ini
Added at ln 604
SMTP = smtp.gmail.com
smtp_port = 587

The “ini_set()” stuff made me almost go insane, I still have no
idée what that is.

Problem 1 SMTP.2

“mail() [function.mail]: SMTP server response: 530 5.7.0 Must issue a
STARTTLS command first 28sm636178ugc in
C:\wamp\www\drupal-5.0-beta1\includes\common.inc on line 1731.”

“As for as gmail and STARTTLS...  that means that gmail is expecting
a secure (SSL) connection.”
Ok. What to do? - Let's have a look at google!
Will update when I have the solution.

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Fri, 03 Nov 2006 11:47:59 +0000 : joncli

I need SSL so I'm just changing from WAMP5 to XAMPP for Windows 1.5.4a
Apache HTTPD 2.2.3, MySQL 5.0.24a, PHP 5.1.6 + 4.4.4 + PEAR + Switch,
MiniPerl 5.8.7, Openssl 0.9.8d, phpMyAdmin 2.9.0.1, XAMPP Control Panel
2.3, Webalizer 2.01-10, Mercury Mail Transport System für Win32 und
NetWare Systems v4.01a, FileZilla FTP Server 0.9.18, SQLite 2.8.15,
ADODB 4.91, Zend Optimizer 3.0.1, XAMPP Security. For Windows 98, 2000,
XP.

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Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:44:11 +0000 : joncli

Okej, now it is done.

The cron problem.
"Cron has not run. It appears cron jobs have not been setup on your
system. Please check the help pages for configuring cron jobs. You can
run cron manually." I ran it manually.

Back to the mail problem. I guess that you think you should already
have set up you’re SMTP stuff before installing drupal.

“warning: mail() [function.mail]: Failed to connect to mailserver at
"localhost" port 25, verify your "SMTP" and "smtp_port" setting in
php.ini or use ini_set() in
C:\xampp\xampp\htdocs\drupal-5.0-beta1\includes\common.inc on line
1731.”

Changing php.ini
And in XAMPP there is more then one!
The “right” one is located in \xampp\apache\bin\php.ini

Well installing XAMPP with SSL did not help
warning: mail() [function.mail]: SMTP server response: 530 5.7.0 Must
issue a STARTTLS command first m1sm880985uge in
C:\xampp\xampp\htdocs\drupal-5.0-beta1\includes\common.inc on line 1731.

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Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:25:21 +0000 : oadaeh

If you haven't seen it, there is a Handbook which goes into installing
and setting up an AMP server on Windows here: http://drupal.org/node/263
I don't know if anything there answers your STARTTLS problem, though.
The first time I did a WAMP server, I used Apache2Triad, as the others
wouldn't work correctly for one reason or another.

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Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:38:26 +0000 : joncli

I used the following guide at
http://drupal.org/node/7294

got error Fatal error: Call to undefined function drupal_mail_wrapper()
in C:\xampp\xampp\htdocs\drupal-5.0-beta1\includes\common.inc on line
1699

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Fri, 03 Nov 2006 14:24:33 +0000 : solipsist

joncli: If you want to keep things simple initially, get a hosting
company account and install Drupal there. You said you know nothing
about websites, perhaps it is better then to focus on getting the site
working rather than figuring on Apache on Windows.

Once you got Drupal up and running, this short tutorial I wrote may be
of help:
http://www.jakob-persson.com/myblog/drupal_for_solid_lifeforms

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Fri, 03 Nov 2006 14:31:27 +0000 : joncli

I think I know what the problem is! – I need the smtp.module
And I can’t make it work on 5.x... hehe

The problem is that the SSL “stuff” is not working with drupal 5.x
And gmail need SSL so if someone puts the "STARTTLS command" somewhere
in drupal and a place where you can put you’re username and password. 

Like at Site configuration -> Site information
E-mail address: myemail at whatever.com
Username:
Password:

Then no one would need to get this problem. I have no knowledge of php
or any other programming so it would probably take me a lot of time to
do that. But if no one does it I will do it! (ETA – 1year)
If someone else like do it faster and think that it can contribute to
drupal I will donate $50 to that person for helping the drupal project.

I don’t know if gmail just need the “250 STARTTLS” command or/and
authenticate with username and password as well.

Well if the smtp server do not need your username and password, can’t
just pretend I’m sending a email from someone I’m not? That can be
weird.

For now - I will use another smtp server.

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Fri, 03 Nov 2006 14:37:37 +0000 : joncli

Thanks for the replies
Just what I needed, there is just so much information out there –
hard to filter and find what you need.

solipsist: That might be a good idée.

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Fri, 03 Nov 2006 15:06:52 +0000 : joncli

It works!
Well my advice to anyone having the SMTP problem is for not to use
smtp.gmail.com
Use another SMTP server. 

Just change the php.ini file:
[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
SMTP = mySMTP.server.com
smtp_port = 25

; For Win32 only.
;sendmail_from = my at email.com

It first I feel overwhelm by drupal - now I’m starting to like the
simple brilliant design.

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Fri, 03 Nov 2006 16:01:52 +0000 : odoketa

I thought this was an excellent idea, simply having a walk through of
the installation process, and rather than start a new topic I'm going to
just add to the one already posted, which has such an excellent title.
If it would be better to have this as a separate thread, please feel
free, o moderator, to move me.

I downloaded drupal 5 beta 1 to our development box, running Red Hat
Linux enterprise edition. I unzipped/untarred it. Then, because I fear
documentation, I went to the index page with my browser. It asked me for
a db, so I popped over to mysql and created a db and a user, granting
all on the db. I went back to the install page, put in the info,
clicked, and viola! I was informed I had a site up.

The new web page has instruction on what to do next. Excellent! So I
created a drupal user, which was immediately active. This was quick and
painless, and nothing blew up. So far, so good.

Step two took me to the admin section, where I was greeted with a 'One
or more problems were detected with your Drupal installation. Check the
status report for more information.' Uh oh. So I clicked the status
report link.

I like the status report link. GD, MySQL, PHP, Apache all nice and
green with check boxes. Cron, of course, is the problem, as it hasn't
been set up yet. Fair enough. It might be better to put the cron task on
the front page as a step, rather than making it look like there's a
problem with the install. I ran cron manually to see if it would run (it
did).  Oh dear. First problem - once I run cron, the link to 'how to
configure cron' went away, and I'm left only with 'run cron manually'.
So now I don't know what the job is called, to enter it in crontab. I
hunted around for a while before finding it in the online documentation.
That should be linked somewhere quite clearly, so that people who do
what I did don't then have to wander around in the desert to find the
cron instructions.

Hm. Another difficulty/bad behaviour - I can't seem to get back to the
pretty interface with the green yellow and red indicators. I'm pretty
sure the link I clicked on the front page, 'administration section',
used to take me to the simple interface, but now it takes me to a
massive administration section. Two complaints about that - one, I
wasn't finished with the 'stoplight' section - it was telling me php
needed a module. Two, I liked it - I thought it offered a nice overview
of the system, telling me what version of all my software drupal thought
I was running. I finally found it in the admin section 'status report',
but it would have been better if the behaviour hadn't changed - that was
confusing.

The php error I was getting is 'Operations on Unicode strings are
emulated on a best-effort basis. Install the PHP mbstring extension for
improved Unicode support.' I'm not sure why I'm seeing this error - I
assume my php isn't configured to do unicode, which I would find odd, as
ezpublish hasn't said anything about our unicode support. Is mbstring a
fairly standard library? I hope so, because I hate adding random modules
to php. Regardless, it seems to be getting by on emulation, so I'll
leave it for now.

I'm going to stop here, because I seem to have a working install. Next
step will be trying to make it look like something other than a
bone-stock install.

Thanks for reading, comments welcome,
David

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Fri, 03 Nov 2006 16:04:21 +0000 : odoketa

Whups - on re-reading I see that I had actually clicked from the admin
interface to the status report - perhaps it would be better to place the
'status report' link more prominently in some way.
David

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Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:16:10 +0000 : joncli

Well written David.
Nice to see I'm not totally alone here. 

Actually I haven’t had any more problems. 

Well just one very small issue.
I have added the “block”? Who’s new
And when I changed one of the new user’s names it did not update on
that list.
Changed user “knog” to “pelle” have restarted updated
everything.

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Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:17:58 +0000 : joncli

Ignore my last post...
Now when I ran cron manually - it updated...
(I have the cash function on.)

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Sat, 04 Nov 2006 07:36:21 +0000 : joncli

One tiny issue, when I woke up this morning and refreshed
http://myip/drupal-5.0-beta1/?q=admin I was still logged in.
And that got me think, what if I was using a public computer, and I did
not logout.
Even if I close the browser and opened it again - type in
http://myip/drupal-5.0-beta1/?q=admin I’m still logon.
I’m I still logon if the computer crashes? I will test this by
manually turning off the power, later today.

So my solution to this small issue is:
1. Under User management -> User settings
Add something that will enable the user to be logout automatically if
that user has not used the site for like ~10 min. The admin will set up
a customizable time limit – of no communication for the user – and
then the user is automatically logout.

2. In My account -> Edit
There can be a checkbox:
•“Remember me next time I visit this site from this computer”
And If I have not clicked in that checkbox I will not be remembered.

Both of the suggestions can be utilized and work together, I believe
that this will make drupal more secure.

I hope that someone finds that my infantile drupal experiences are
helpful.

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Sat, 04 Nov 2006 08:01:34 +0000 : joncli

Problem 2.

Okej. I want to be able to restrict access to the forum (access
content).
I do not want anonymous user to access the entire forum.
If I make anonymous user able to access content they can view the
entire forum, polls, blogs and all the stuff I have on the site.
I still want them to acces some stuff but I want to be able to restrict
that access.

Even if I remove anonymous user access to the 'Navigation' block, so
they just can se “User login” block - and the front page. They can
still access my entire site by just typing in
http://my/drupal-5.0-beta1/?q=poll ,forum, whatever.

Possible solution – have tried a lot of things.
First I tried to duplicate the forum module; I could not make it work.
Then I tried to add a new block “Public” and tried to add menus to
the Public block; I could not make it work. I was not able to see the
menus.

I can’t make the new menu correlate to the new block.
I have one block called Public and one (like Navigation) called Public
but I do not think they are connected. Even if I made this work, still
anonymous user can access my whole site. I need to add a new way to
restrict access to the node module.

Right now I feel a bit lost.