Previously on Drupal 7 for Music series: Basic web-install of Drupal 7

Here I am going to provide a scenario for a basic configuration of the new site, and installing and configuring a WYSIWYG editor. 

A module is being installed so it is first downloaded frrom Drupal.org, unzipped and then uploaded to the web server. The destination for all Drupal modules is the same: /sites/all/modules. I use SFTP via Filezilla for all my uploads. Once a module is uploaded, I need to go to Modules and enable it by clicking the empty check-box next to it. Uninstalling is as simple as unclicking the same check-box. Only after uninstalling, one should delete a module, otherwise the Mysql database gets confused.

To put the site off-line, for a peace of mind while working on it, go to Configuration > Development > Maintenace mode.

Admin Me nu : The first thing I do on a brand new site is to set the Administrative Menu. This module makes life so much easier - it provides an easy, excellent and intuitive navigation through all Drupal's corners. In Drupal 7 there is some basic menu which I personally don't find useful. If you are going to install the Adminstrative Module, please disable the following modules: Dashboard, Overlay, Shortcut and Toolbar. Much better funcionality to all of them is provided by Admin Menu.

Clean urls. Although Drupal 7 supposedly checks and enables clean urls, sometimes this might not happen. I am with 1and1 and I need to enable them manually: Configuration > Search and Metadata > Clean Urls. "Run the clean urls test". Again with 1and1, I get an internal error 500, so I need to change the .htdocs file. I use a modified Drupal 6 file (attached below as htaccess.txt). You can use it on your own risk, if you wish. You'll need to rename the file by removing the .txt extention and add a dot at the beginning: .htaccess. 

PHP.ini: on 1and1 I also use a modified php.ini file, setting greater memory and file size limit than the default 8mb. This is also attached, use it on your own risk. 

Search: in Modules, I enable the Search module and while there, I set the permissions of who can use it.

Contact form: I do the same with the Contact module (not forgetting permissions). Then I go to Structure > Contact form to check that there's the proper email address entered. 

Theme: although this should be last thing to do, I like to play with the themes while building the site, so I can get used to them. And it's more fun:-). Thus, drupal.org/project/Themes is your next step if you are planning to follow me everywhere.
Once I find the theme(s) that I like, I download them and extract the contents. Themes are uploaded at /sites/all/themes. To set up a theme, I go to the Appearance menu item. There I enable and set default a certain theme.
In Structure > Blocks I set the basic layot of the site. Here I can enable/show the Search and Contact links.  

WYSIWYG. What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) is the main module that needs to be uploaded and enabled. This module serves as an API - framework for WYSIWYG modules to work through it. This is the main module that I will use to write my descriptions in the body of the node. WYSIWYG is an HTML editor, the main placeholder where I create text and insert links, pictures, photos - and maybe - one day - music. 

Note: at the time of writing (8 June '11) it's better to download the Dev version of the module, as there migt be some problems with the regular version. 

Configuration > Content authoring > Wysiwyg profiles is my next click. There I will see a choice of wysiwyg editors with handy download links. The most popular are CKEditor and TinyMCE - but you can experiment, of course. 

The Drupal destination for all of those editors is now: /sites/all/libraries. Thus, I will need to create a folder called "libraries" next to my "modules" and "themes" folders. And upload CKEditor (in my case) in that folder. 

Now, CKEditor doesn't need to be enabled, as it is not a module. Rather, I now need to go back to Configuration > Content authoring > Wysiwyg profiles and there automagically I am given the possibity to choose the default Editor for every input format: Plain text, Filtered and Full Html. 

Clicking Save gives me the Edit option besides every format. Not that I enjoy doing this admin work - but if I don't spend some time here, there wont be any useful editor available. As I mainly use the Full Html format, I will edit only that. There, I will need to enable all buttons and plugins (using space and tab is much faster). All else is fine as it is (Editor appearance, Cleanup and output) - Save again.

To test that the editor appears ok - I click on Create new content (the right button on the Admin Menu reveals that link). The new page will have a plain editor without buttons (as it is Filtered Html Input format by default; changing that to Full Html opens the CKEditor in its full glory). Click here for a CKEditor Live Demo.

Next: Install and configure Media module for Music on Drupal 7