Installing Drupal locally with WampServer

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This page is about the preparation of your computer for a local installation of Drupal with WampServer.

WampServer (2.0) will install an Apache-server, SQL, PHP and phpMySQL on your computer. With those tools you can install Drupal locally.

Instaling Drupal locally is considered to be Best Practice

Setting up the test-site requires some extra steps compared with installing Drupal directly on the net: making that your computer can act like a server and creating a database locally. Later, when you feel your site is ready, you also have to migrate it to the web.

Set up WampServer

Download and install WampServer

Download WampServer from their website. You will receive an .exe file. Run that file, and you end up with the WampServer icon on your desktop. Standard, WampServer is installed just under your C-directory. (picture right)

Start-up Wampserver

  • Click on its icon on your desktop
  • Left-click on the dial-icon in the system-tray, and choose Put Online. The system should start after a couple of seconds. You should see a little dial going from left to right.

Tweak WampServer

Important for Drupal for creating clean URL's: control the settings of Apache by Left-click>>Apache>>Apache modules, and see of rewrite_module is checked. If not, check it.

Important for Drupal for uploading files: control the settings of PHP by Left-click>>PHP>>php.ini. A texteditor should open, with php.ini in it. Change 2 settings here if necessary (and save php.ini afterwards) (for more help, look at the article from drupal.org):

  • Look for upload_max_filesize (hint: use 'search' in your texteditor), and set it to minimum 10M
  • Look for post_max_size, and set it to a minimum of 12M

Create the database

  • Left-click on the WampServer-icon in the system-tray, and choose phpMyAdmin. phpMyAdmin is a utility that manages databases. You should see the database-screen by now.
  • On the screen look for Create new database. Fill in a name you want to use. You can give it any name you want, but don't use spaces or special characters.  Underscore is allowed. Keep in mind that the database is where everything concerning your new site is stored. When migrating your database to the web, you may give it an other name. Don't change anything else, just click Create

After installing WampServer, you find a new directory under your C-drive, called wamp. This one has another directory called www (look for C:\wamp\www\). Standard, WampServer looks for your website under that directory.

Create a new directory under www, and give it the name of your testsite. I used Drupaltist, but you can use any name you want. The root of your local site will then be under that directory (Drupaltist, for me), and you will be able to go to that site by typing http://localhost/yoursite in your browser (http://localhost/Drupaltist in my case).

You can continue with the installation of Drupal

Further links and help for WampServer

On the website of WampServer:

 

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