This blog will be used to demonstrate how to use Drupal v 5.x (the content management system used for Chingri Maachh) can be used to create a variety of websites. In order to use Drupal, you need to the following dependencies in place:

• a web server (e.g. Apache HTTP server) + PHP
• a RDBMS (e.g MySql)

If you don't have these already installed, the cleanest option is XAMPP, an all-in-one easy-install for Windows, Linux, Mac, etc. XAMPP also includes phpMyAdmin, the user-friendly, web-based MySql administration tool.

If you already have a server (e.g. MS IIS, Apache Tomcat) installed, be sure to stop it/turn it off, and follow the simple XAMPP install steps.

Once you've got the web, PHP, MySql dependencies in place, install Drupal v 5.x:

• Download Drupal 5.x (e.g. Drupal 5.1)
• Decompress the downloaded file into <your install path>/xampp/htdocs. If your unzip/decompression software does not handle tars and gzips, use 7-zip file manager (for Windows). The result should be <your install path>/xampp/htdocs/drupal-5.1
• Create the database to be used with your Drupal install:
  
• Create the database user:
  
  Provide the new database user name
  
  Select the database to associate the new user's priveleges with
  Give all priveleges except for 'Grant' to the new user
  
• And use Drupal's install script by visiting http://localhost/drupal-5.1

Once everything is installed, create your first Drupal user (the first user has root/super/admin privileges). Explore the administrative options following initial install:

Once your Drupal sandbox/playground is in place, we can proceed to the examples (subsequent posts in my blog).