D7 : Upgrading your Drupal Core...

Well this is a topic that is very scary... it took me a lot of guts to upgrade my core without loosing the so many articles, in my case Drupal learning notes, that I had written... being a newbie, they were even more precious...

Coming back to the issue, there are only three things we add to the Drupal installation and this is all we need to take care of when we upgrade the Core. And these three things are:

1. The things that we add to the sites/all directory. 
• These are things in it's sub-directories, such as /libraries, /modules, /themes and /files. 
• Anything else you add also needs to be included. Other sites if you are doing a multisite Drupal deployment.
• All of these things need to copied and backed up for the upgrade. 
• After the upgrade, and we will see shortly how, we will paste all these files to the same folder again.
2. All the content that we add and that is stored in the database. There are 2 ways of achieving this. One is using the PHPMYADMIN webapp for managing the MySQL DB. And the second method is using the BACKUP_MIGRATE module of Drupal. Either ways, we back up all the relevant tables in the Drupal installation and restore the database after the upgrade.
3. The .HTACCESS file. There may be a two of them. One on the root folder of the Apache webserver and the second in the root folder of Drupal. Both of these need to be backed-up and restored in their original folders after the upgrade.

Now the pre-requisites to take care of before undertaking the above steps:

1. Always put your website in the maintenance mode before any upgrade steps.

Restoration is simple... just reverse the process above... and add one step at the top...

1. Download the new Drupal core from www.drupal.org and upzip the folder. In the new folder, delete the /Sites directory. And replace the new .htaccess file with the old .htaccess file at the correct places. One in the root folder of the webserver and the other in the root folder of the Drupal install.
2. Now copy all the new Drupal files into the folder where the older Drupal files resided before.
3. Go to the home page of your Drupal install and type update.php at the end of the URL.
4. Run the update script. It will instruct us to all of the above steps that we have already done.
5. Once done, let the script update the Database. If needed, use the backup_migrate module to restore the Database.
6. Well this should have your site up and running on the new core. We can always go to the /reports/status.php and see the upgraded status.

Do let me know your feedback and if you liked this posting. Thanks for reading and your time.

Setting up a Apache multi-site SOLR on Tomcat & Windows (localhost)

In the Drupal world, it is very common to find SOLR deployments on Ubuntu or Debian. I have also seen comments that SOLR needs only one of the above Operating Systems for deployment.

D7 Modules - Login Modules & related use cases....

As a newbie, part of the challenge is to know the use cases and the modules that are provide them. Modules that are not buggy, are regularly maintained and have stable releases. 

Below are a bunch on User Login related modules and their use cases that may be applicable in many scenarios. Most of these appear to be stable. This blog only summarizes them at one place. The same info is also available on  the www.drupal.org/project/<module> pages.  You may also find additional screenshots for easier understanding or links to related screencasts if you are lucky.

Best Sources of learning all about using DRUSH in Drupal

Slowly but surely I have come to a stage and after a lot of struggle where I think I am ready for DRUSH now... part of the challenge has been knowing that very good documentation exists everywhere on the internet that is yet unexplored... and then knowing where it is... and then to filter out the better sources of newbie learning from the could-be-better ones... So here is the list of my favourite sources of learning about DRUSH for a newbie...

Feeds Module - Compilation of learning resources on the web...

This is a little departure from the Blogging approach per se` as I will refer to the great resources on the web that I discovered while learning about topics... In the article, I will cover the feeds module in Drupal 7. Topics covered here are mentioned in the beginning. I will also try and mention some of the key things I noted along the learning path.

Drupal Commerce Entities, Fields and References

One of the key things a Drupal newbie realizes very late in the cycle is the fact that when you add any module or feature to your site, it comes with it's own Entities, Fields and probably Reference. Drupal Commerce is no different.

It is extremely important to understand what the various pieces of Drupal Commerce are, before trying to figure out how it all works. So this article covers the various entities, fields and references there are in Drupal Commerce.

Understanding Product Display in Drupal Commerce

Everything you do with the products with respect to configuring the Product and the Product Type starts with how you want your Product to display on your website. There are basically two things you need to think about the Product Display,

The Drupal Commerce Glitch....

It is important to note a small glitch in the Navigation and URL naming convention in Drupal Commerce for creating Product types

Taking the plunge - The Drupal Newbie

As a Drupal newbie, one goes through the so called a long and a painful drupal learning phase. The period is long because of various reasons.

Sources of learning Drupal Commerce in D7

As a newbie, I have struggled finding sources of learning Drupal Commerce or even Drupal 7 as such. I have since discovered some sources of learning about Drupal Commerce and would like to share these with you.

Understanding the Product and the Product Type in Commerce (Part-1 of 2)

Welcome back... the coverage on this blog will include:

1. Prerequisites for understanding of the Drupal Commerce Product and Product Type.
2. Drupal Commerce URL paths for the Product and the Product Type.
3. Setting up / Defining of the Product Type.
4. One example and a case Study (Part - 2/2).

Setting up a Categories based Product Catalog ( Drupal Commerce) - the first approach

Setting up a Drupal Commerce Catalog based on Categories is one of the most important things in learning about Drupal Commerce. There are basically two methods or approaches of doing it. In this blog we will discuss the first method. In this method, there are basically three steps to it.