Drupal is among the powerful CMS which is used to create a variety of websites without the need of knowing coding. Drupal is an open source like WordPress and supports modules instead of plugins as in WordPress to extend the functionalities.
The useful way a Drupal can be utilized is by creating an e-commerce website. In this blog guide, I am going to use Drupal 7 since it is one of the widely used versions of Drupal. The two ways through which a Drupal e-commerce website can be made are:
Drupal commerce is not just a framework. It is an application since it is made on the ideology of what can be built using it.
Drupal commerce lets you build from scratch and takes an in-depth knowledge as you have to configure every aspect and module of it.
Drupal commerce kickstart is a Drupal distribution. Distribution offers site features and functions for the specific site since a single download contain the Drupal core, shared modules, themes, and pre-defined configuration. Making it possible to quickly set-up complex, use-specific site in fewer steps if you are installing and configuring elements individually.
This is very helpful for any user who wishes to kick-start their e-commerce website and run in short period of time and do not wishes to go in depths of Drupal.
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I am going to use Drupal commerce Kick start in this blog after all this is specifically for users who are new to Drupal. So let’s not wait and dive right into it.
A distribution is installed in a similar way as of Drupal’s core installation. The step involved in the installation of Drupal Commerce Kickstart are:
Check the Commerce Kickstart site and read the whole page. The download links can be seen on the bottom of the page. Click on this highlighted link to get more detailed download links.
Here you will get an option to download the distribution with or without the Drupal core. I am downloading it with Drupal core as it is the simpler method. This will install the distribution along the Drupal core. The installation is done in the same way as the Drupal core would.
Decompress the file you downloaded into the website’s root folder. And ensure to place the entire folder, and not to forget the hidden .htaccess file.
Go to database manager and create a new database.
Don’t forget the name you keep for the database and remember it during installation of the distribution.
Once you are done with this, open the web browser and navigate to the root folder (as we are building the website on the root folder, go to http://localhost/). If you follow these steps rightly and get the things correctly done then you will be presented with this screen (below).
Agree to all the terms and click on the “let’s get started”
After verifying all the requirements, a “set-up” database screen will pop up. Here you have to set up your database name. The name should be same as you set earlier for the database created in the database manager. Set the database username and password as well.
Fill out all the required fields and click on the “save and continue” button.
This will install Commerce Kick start 2 and a configure site screen will appear.
Here you have to enter your site information, site maintenance account and server settings. After filling out all the required details, click on the below blue button.
Now, time to configure the store. You will get an option to download the demo store, but do remember once you install the demo store, you cannot remove it without reinstalling the entire site again.
Additional features will also be presented to enable modules which allow various functionalities like setting slide show for front page, enabling of social media connections etc. Set all these options according to your choice and proceed to the next step.
The screen will display a simple progress bar, indicating the import of contents on your site.
Once you are done with this, you will be transferred to “Get Started” screen, where a short intro of the website you created will be given to you. And if you got any queries then navigate to the “help” tab.
That’s all. You are done! You have finally created your first Drupal commerce site. This above guide is for beginners so we used a distribution with Drupal core which is already included in it. This is the simplest method to install Drupal commerce kick start. I hope this blog guide will help you.