Drupal 7 Uploading Modules and Themes
In Drupal 6, uploading modules and themes was often troublesome for beginners. They would have to follow a confusing process:
- Download the files
- Uncompress them
- Make sure there was a /sites/all/modules/ or /sites/all/themes/ folder on their site
- Upload the files manually to the /sites/ folder. Few beginners remembered that folder name – they just uploaded to the /modules/ and /themes/ folder which would be more logical.
- Go to Site building > modules and enable them
If you’d like to, you can still install modules the old way, but Drupal 7 also offers a much simpler process:
- Download the files
- Upload them using a graphical installer
- Go to Modules and enable them
Let’s walk you through the new upload process in Drupal 7:
Enable the Update Manager Module
The new graphical installer for themes and modules is actually handled by a module called Update Manager. So the first thing we need to do is check that it’s enabled. Go to Modules, scroll down and make sure there’s a check next to Update Manager.
You’ll know that you’re ready to upload if you see the Install new module link at the top of the Modules page:
Click on that link and you’ll see the graphical installer screen:
Download the File
Now let’s go and download the files for our new module or theme. The screenshot below is from Drupal.org:
There’s no need to uncompress the download files. Just leave them as they are and go to the Module installer screen.
Click Browse to find the downloaded file and then click Install:
Hopefully you’ll now get the message: “Installation was completed successfully”.
That’s it. Much easier than Drupal 6. You can now click on “Enable newly added modules” and turn on your new module.
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Thanks Steve. Is there also supposed to be a way for the UM to install directly from [url=http://drupal.org]drupal.org[/url] over sftp/ssh to our drupal7 website server? If not, is there a way for us to install the downloaded module over sftp/ssh from our browser machine to the webserver, instead of using FTP? Which users do we need to create on the webserver to get that working? Thanks!
I tried to install the Date Module, as part of building my first site, Drupalville; I got an error which (sorry, forgot to save). After looking for some insite, I verified my system status and tried to Reload the Date module; it said it was already installed
How do I delete the Date module, so I can try a new, clean install?