Configuring your site for the first time

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The first step in the creation of a Drupal-site.

For first-time users, it's a great way to get used to the Administration-pages, and to learn more about how Drupal works.

Here you configure the basic site information (name of the site, slogan,...) and user registration (to avoid people registering to our site while we're testing), and we add some functionality to the site by first enabling some optional core modules, then setting the right permissions and finally configuring them.

Site information

Administer>>Site configuration>>Site information

  • Name: The name that appears on the website. Clicking on that name will bring you back to the home-page
  • E-mail address: The address for automated messages. When new upgrades for modules, themes or Drupal are available, a message is send to that address
  • Slogan: can appear on the website, normally next or under the site-name. Depends on what theme is used.
  • Mission: can appear on the website. Depends on what theme is used
  • Footer message: appears standard on every page at the bottom of the website. Depends on what theme is used
  • Anonymous user: How anonymous users appear in comments, etc.
  • Default front page: In a later stage you will be able to make a certain page your home-page

Registration options

Administer>>User Management>>User settings

  • User registration settings:
    • Public registrations: If a user can register with or without the approval of the administrator, and if email-verification is needed

To start with, use Only site administrators can create new user accounts. It means that as long you're testing the site, nobody can add him- or herself as a new member. And it gives you the opportunity to test-out different kind of users (anonymous, authenticated,...). The other settings don't matter for the moment.

The modules

Modules add extra functionality to your website. In the initial set-up, only the core-modules are installed, but later you can add contributed modules. There are hundrends of them to choose from.

To make a module work properly, we first have to enable it so it can work, then we need to give permissions to the right kind of users (not everybody will be allowed to write a blog, for example), and finally we need to configure it so it performs how we want it to (what is the minimum length of a word we want to index for 'search', for example).

Enable the modules you need

Administer>>Site building>>Modules

Before a module can be used, it needs to be enabled. The more modules you enable, the more processes, the more time a site needs to upload. To start, enable Blog, Search, Path and Taxonomy.

  • Blog will add a content-type to the ones that are standard: Page and Story
  • Search will make the site searchable.
  • Path allows you to rename URL's
  • Taxonomy will give you a powerfull instrument to categorize content.

Set the permissions

Administer>>User Management>>Permissions

With Permissions you determine what access you give to different kinds of people, based on roles. (anonymous user is not logged in, authenticated user is logged in, the 1st user who can do everything is not mentioned. The role Administrator is a role you can create later, but will be always a level under the 1st user). Every time you add a module, permissions for that module need to be set. First-time users don't need to change the settings for now.

Configure the modules

click Administer and choose the label 'By module' next to Administer on top of the page

First-time users don't need to change anything for now, but it's good to run through the page and open the different links.

 

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