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Drupal

Requirements

Disk space

A minimum installation requires 15 Megabytes. 60 MB is needed for a website with many contributed modules and themes installed. Keep in mind you need much more for the database, files uploaded by the users, media, backups and other files.

Web server

Apache, Nginx, Microsoft IIS or any other web server with proper PHP support.

Database

• Drupal 8:
  • MySQL 5.5.3/MariaDB 5.5.20/Percona Server 5.5.8 or higher with PDO and an InnoDB-compatible primary storage engine,
  • PostgreSQL 9.1.2 or higher with PDO,
  • SQLite 3.6.8 or higher

• Drupal 7:
  • MySQL 5.0.15/MariaDB 5.1.44/Percona Server 5.1.70 or higher with PDO,
  • PostgreSQL 8.3 or higher with PDO,
  • SQLite 3.3.7 or higher

• Drupal 6:
  • MySQL 4.1.1 or higher,
  • PostgreSQL 7.1

Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle are supported by additional modules.
More details about database requirements.

PHP

• Drupal 8: PHP 5.5.9 or higher
• Drupal 7: PHP 5.2.5 or higher (5.4 or higher recommended).
• Drupal 6: PHP 5.x only (5.2.5 or higher recommended). Warning: support for PHP 4.x has been dropped. Drupal core should work with PHP 5.3.x, but PHP 5.3.x and higher may produce errors or unexpected behavior especially for contributed modules and themes.

Is Drupal the right tool for the job?

Drupal is a powerful and flexible content management system for building virtually any kind of website. What are you looking for Drupal to do for you? The following are some areas that Drupal champions:

• Custom Functionality: Are you frustrated with web site builders or limitations of Wordpress? Drupal may be the answer. Drupal is highly customizable and even allows the integration of web applications and mashups using third party APIs.
• Flexible Implementation: Drupal allows your website to evolve in any direction. For example, you may start with a blog but then want the option of adding other features like a wiki, electronic commerce, forums, multiple content types, etc.
• Complex Components: Complex forms, workflows, multilingual sites, and multi-sites can be set up easily with Drupal. There are also over 16,000 Drupal modules available to provide excellent functionality for your website, from commerce to directories and image galleries.
• Configurable Website: Drupal can easily be configured to interact with other sites or technologies. If you want, you can even configure it to interact with another Drupal site!
• Customize-able Content Types: With Drupal, you have ability to create your own content types. For example, you can create a custom format for directory listings or add a custom field to a page(CCK module prebuild in drupal7 etc). This is one of the most used features of Drupal.
• List, Sort, & Search Information: You can quickly organize and display lists of information.

On the other hand, for certain limited uses, Drupal may not be the best choice. If your only requirement is to:

• Write a personal blog: You may want to consider using a more specialized blogging platform like WordPress or a hosted blogging solution like Blogger. Although Drupal can serve as a blogging platform out-of-the-box, blog-specific software may have a less technical administration interface and allow for simpler customization and posting.
• Create a wiki: You should probably consider using dedicated wiki software like MediaWiki or a hosted wiki solution. You can configure Drupal so that anyone can edit content (and even enable advanced wiki features with the help of several contributed modules like wikitools and Diff), but it may be simpler for you to use a more specialized solution.
• Host discussion forums: You should consider a system such as SimpleMachines, phpBB, or Vanilla. These all have a mature set of Forum features and many plug-ins. If you need a custom forum, however, Drupal’s forum module with forum enhancement modules like Advanced Forum may be worth considering.

Important note: When evaluating any software, the user should always do due diligence and ensure that the software is properly maintained with regular security fixes and updates. Drupal.org is not responsible for any of the above software hosted on external websites. Read more about Drupal security and how to get involved.

With every release, Drupal is becoming easier to use, but like most powerful tools, it will always have a learning curve. Drupal takes time and commitment. If you or your organization are not prepared to invest the time learning how Drupal works (or if you are not able to hire Drupal expertise), it may not be your best option.

Which version of Drupal core should I install?

In brief, you should always run one of the recommended official releases. These can be found at the Drupal Project page.

At any given time, there are two major release series of Drupal which are supported. Currently, these are Drupal 7 and Drupal 8. Updated versions of each of these are issued on a regular basis. For example, within the Drupal 7 series, several versions have been and will continue to be released: 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, etc. These versions are sometimes collectively referred to as “7.x”; however, they are not all equal. The newest version in each series fixes problems that were discovered since the previous version, and these fixes sometimes include critical security updates. Thus, regardless of whether you are using Drupal 7 or 8, you should always run the most current version in the series.

In deciding between Drupal 7 and Drupal 8, several factors should be taken into consideration. Drupal 8 is newer, will be supported longer, and contains more features and enhancements than Drupal 7; therefore, if all else is equal, use Drupal 8. However, the releases of contributed modules, themes, translations, and installation profiles compatible with each major Drupal release series sometimes lag behind Drupal itself, so if the functionality you need is not yet available for Drupal 8, this may affect your decision.

Tested & Working

This label indicates that I could install the script without major problems and I could run the script without the need for major modifications to the original code (except for the usual configuration, of course). The label does, on the other hand, not indicate that scripts without this label would not work properly. The missing of the „tested & working“-label just indicates that I did not yet test these scripts.

Webmaster’s Choice

This label indicates that the owner of this website uses this script / application for his own projects with success and satisfaction. This does, however, not indicate that these projects could not have been realized using other scripts / applications as well or that other scripts would not fit the demands of other projects as well or even better.