Manually Downloading Module or Theme Files
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Manually Downloading Module
or Theme Files
with Joe Shindelar
In this tutorial,
we'll learn how to manually download
and upload a module or theme.
By the end of this tutorial,
you'll be able to manually download
a module or a theme
and upload the files to your site.
If the website or Drush methods
for installing or updating a module
or theme do not work,
or if you're replacing
a custom-written module or a theme,
you'll need to use this process.
Before you get started
with this tutorial, you'll want
to make sure that you know what
modules are and how to find them.
Where as if you're installing a theme
that you know what themes are
and how to find those.
See the written version
of this tutorial for links
to each of these prerequisite tutorials.
If you're installing a module
or theme from drupal.org,
follow the downloading instructions
and then the uploading and
unpacking instructions.
If you created the module or theme,
skip the downloading step.
Instead, create an archive file
that you know
how to extract on the server
and proceed with the steps
in uploading and unpacking,
using whatever method is appropriate
for the way you initially
created the archive file.
Start by opening the project page
for the module or theme
you want to install on drupal.org,
for example, the Admin Toolbar page,
and scroll down to the download
section, near the bottom of the page.
Click on either the tar.gz or zip links
to download the file to your computer.
Next, navigate to the root directory
for your project.
If you're adding a new module or theme,
create subdirectories in your top level
modules and themes directories
if they don't already exist.
Typically people make
a contrib subdirectory
for contributed modules and themes
that are downloaded from drupal.org
and a custom subdirectory for
modules and themes
that are created.
If you replace an existing module
or a theme with an updated version,
put the site into maintenance mode
before doing this.
And, if you're replacing
an existing module
or theme with an updated version,
find and delete
all the existing files and directories
for the existing module or theme first.
Modules are normally located
in directories under the top level.
Modules directory and themes are located
under the top level themes directory.
Upload or copy the files
that you downloaded to your site.
Place it in either the same location
from what you deleted the directory,
if you're replacing
an existing module or theme
with the appropriate subdirectory
of modules or themes
if adding a new module or theme
then extract the file.
After the file's been extracted,
you can delete the archived version,
if your extraction tool
did not automatically delete it for you.
You've now downloaded
and unpacked the files
required to install the new module.
Once you've unpacked it,
you can refer to the module
or theme installation tutorials
to complete the installation or update
of the module or theme.
Start at the step
after the automatic download
has been completed.
In this tutorial,
we looked at how
modules and themes are organized
within your project
and then we walked
through the process
of manually downloading a file
that contains the archive
for the module or themes files,
putting into the appropriate directory
for your project
and unpacking it,
so that it can be installed.