Beginning Drupal 8

Chapter 21 ■ Building a Community Site
After expanding the archive file, you’ll note that what you have is a top-level directory named something
like commons-8.x-3.12. You will need to move all of the files up one directory to keep from having to enter
example.com/commons-8.x-3.12 to get to your site. On Linux or OS X, you can move the files by navigating
to the commons-8.x-3.12 directory (note your directory will likely be named something different depending
on the version that you’ve downloaded) and using the following commands:
mv * ../
mv .* ../
It’s important to note that using mv * ../ does not move key files like .htaccess. The second move
command does move those hidden files up a level.
After moving all the files, you are free to delete the distribution directory that was created when you
expanded the Drupal Commons archive file. While working with the files, you’ll also need to create a
settings.php file. Navigate to your site’s site/default directory and copy the default.settings.php file
to settings.php. You also need to create a files directory. For both of these items, you’ll also need to set
the permissions so that the web server can read and write to the file and directory.
After getting the files in place, it’s time to create a new empty database, database user ID, and password,
and assign the rights to the user so that they can modify the content and structure of the database. Check
with your hosting provider’s documentation or, if you’re installing the site locally, the LAMP, MAMP, or
WAMP stack provider’s documentation on how to create a new MySQL database and create users (e.g., using
PHPMyAdmin).
After performing the preliminary setup tasks, it’s time to install Drupal Commons. The installation
process for Commons begins the same as with Drupal 8 core, visiting the URL of where the site is installed.
You may encounter an error stating that the PHP Max Execution Time value is too low. If you are using a
typical MAMP, LAMP, or WAMP stack, the PHP Max Execution Time is often set to 30 seconds. Due to longrunning
jobs that are associated with the tasks performed on a Drupal Commons site, that value will need to
be increased to 120 seconds. You can make that change through several venues, but the easiest is to add the
following line of code to the bottom of your sites/default/settings.php file:
ini_set('max_execution_time', 120);
The first form that appears in the installation process is the standard Drupal 8 installation form for
setting database information (Set up the database). Enter the appropriate values in the Database name,
Database username, and Database password fields and click the “Save and continue” button.
The next form is the standard Drupal 8 site information configuration form (Configure site). Enter the
appropriate values for the Site name, Site e-mail address, Site maintenance account, Default country, and
Timezone. The Site maintenance account is equivalent to the standard Drupal 8 administrator’s account but
with a larger role in managing the community as a whole.
The next step is to pick the color palette for the site (Choose site color palette). This is the first major
deviation from the standard Drupal 8 core installation process. Pick the palette and save it to continue to the
next step.
Next you are prompted to enter the welcome text for the homepage (see Figure 21-1). On this page
you are prompted to enter a Welcome headline, Welcome body text, and determine whether to install the
example content. For demonstration purposes, I’m going to install the example content, but when you
are creating a new site, if you don’t want to try out Commons with content, uncheck the “Install example
content” check box.
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