I wrote a post quite a while back about Drupal & Ubercart and got an overwhelming response. So apparently my audience loves Ubercart! Which is a good thing considering Ubercart is “da bomb.com” if you know what I mean. So I wanted to take some time and put together a tutorial on how to Install Drupal & Ubercart and get it up and running. In this case I am using a Dreamhost server which works perfectly with Drupal and Ubercart.

Step 1: Download Drupal version 5 and Ubercart 1.7

At the time I am writing this tutorial, this is the most recent production version of Ubercart. And it requires version 5 of Drupal.

Let’s Install Drupal!

Step 2: Upload the Drupal contents into your directory of choice via FTP.

In this case I created a new directory called “Ubercart” and uploaded all files located in the “drupal” folder into it.

Step 3: Go to your Dreamhost Control Panel and login

Step 4: Go to Goodies >> MySQL Databases

Step 5: Create Database, Add database to a Hostname and MySQL User

In this step, we are creating a MySQL database. Then connecting that database to a hostname and MySQL user. Then jot this information down as you will need it when running the Drupal installation wizard.

Step 6: Run The Drupal Installation Wizard

To run the Drupal installation wizard, go to your directory via your web browser. Drupal will now direct you to a screen which asks you for your database details that you just setup in Dreamhost. Fill those out and hit the “save configuration” button. With Dreamhost, remember that “Localhost” will not work and that you need to click the “Advanced Options” link below and fill out your specific host name.

Step 7: Create The First Drupal Account To Finish Drupal Installation

The image below highlights the link that you are then directed to to create the first main user for your new Drupal installation. This is an important step to finishing your Drupal install. Once you do this a password will be auto generated for you. Be sure to change this password to your password of choice.

Now Let’s Install Ubercart!

Step 8: Upload the required Drupal modules for Ubercart to work properly

Next you need to install a few modules. Create a directory called “modules” inside the sites/all directory. Download, extract, and upload the following modules into your new “modules” directory.

• Tables API (TAPIr)
• uBrowser
• Token
• Workflow-ng

Step 9: Active these new modules in your module administration

Go back to your new Drupal installation and go to the Module administration page. Now you want to activate the modules exactly how you see the image below.

Step 10: Upload image modules for image capability

Next we probably want to show images with our products. To do this we need to install a few more modules to allow Ubercart to do this. Download, extract, and upload the following modules into your sites/all/modules directory.

• Content Construction Kit (CCK) Only the Content module is needed.
• Image Field
• Imagecache
• Thickbox

Step 11: Active these modules in your Module Administration page

Now we want to go back to the Module Administration page and activate these modules. For the CCK, all we need to activate is the module called “Content” to make Ubercart work properly.

Step 12: Upload and Activate the Ubercart Module

Now it’s time to finally upload and activate the Ubercart module. Take your Ubercart folder and upload it just like you have been uploading your other modules. Go back to your module administration page and activate the REQUIRED ubercart modules as shown below.

Step 13: Activate other useful Ubercart Modules and customize your theme

You will notice that there are dozens of other modules that you can activate that are optional with Ubercart. These modules extend Ubercart’s functionality. Go through these and start activating the ones you are going to need. Then start customizing your Drupal theme and start making your site look more like an online store!

That’s it! You now have Drupal and Ubercart working perfectly on a Dreamhost web hosting server. I picked Dreamhost because their control panel is very user friendly, and their servers come with all the necessary requirements to make Drupal and Ubercart run correctly. For making Drupal and Ubercart “look good” check out my article on Premium Drupal Themes.