Tutorial

How To Develop a Drupal 9 Website on Your Local Machine Using Docker and DDEV

Published on August 12, 2020
English
How To Develop a Drupal 9 Website on Your Local Machine Using Docker and DDEV

The author selected the Diversity in Tech Fund to receive a donation as part of the Write for DOnations program.

Introduction

DDEV is an open-source tool that uses Docker to build local development environments for many different PHP frameworks. Using the power of containerization, DDEV can greatly simplify how you work on multiple projects that use multiple tech stacks and multiple cloud servers. DDEV includes templates for WordPress, Laravel, Magento, TYPO3, Drupal, and more.

Drupal 9 was released on June 3, 2020 for the Drupal CMS. Known for its ease of use and a massive library of modules and themes, Drupal is a popular PHP framework for building and maintaining various websites and applications of all sizes.

In this tutorial, you will begin developing a Drupal 9 website on your local machine using DDEV. This will allow you to build your website first, and then later, when you are ready, deploy your project to a production server.

Prerequisites

To complete this tutorial, you will need:

Note: It is possible to develop Drupal 9 using DDEV on a remote server, but you will need a solution to access localhost in a web browser. The DDEV command ddev share works with ngrok, which creates a secure tunnel into your server for you and other stakeholders to view your development site. For personal use, you could also install a GUI on your remote server and access your development site through a web browser inside that interface. To do this, you could follow our guide on how to install and configure VNC on Ubuntu 20.04. For an even quicker GUI solution you can follow our guide on how to set up a remote desktop with X2Go on Ubuntu 20.04.

Step 1 — Installing DDEV

In this step you will install DDEV on your local machine. Option 1 includes instructions for macOS while Option 2 provides instructions for Linux. This tutorial was tested on DDEV version 1.15.0.

Option 1 — Installing DDEV on macOS

DDEV advises that macOS users install their tool using the Homebrew package manager. Use the following brew command to install the newest stable release:

  1. brew tap drud/ddev && brew install drud/ddev/ddev

If you prefer the absolute newest version, you can use brew to install ddev-edge:

  1. brew tap drud/ddev-edge && brew install drud/ddev-edge/ddev

If you already have a version of DDEV installed, or if you ever wish to update your version, shut down DDEV and use brew to update your installation:

  1. ddev poweroff
  2. brew upgrade ddev

Once you have installed or updated DDEV, run ddev version to verify your software:

  1. ddev version

You will see an output like this:

Output
DDEV-Local version v1.15.0 commit v1.15.0 db drud/ddev-dbserver-mariadb-10.2:v1.15.0 dba phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin:5 ddev-ssh-agent drud/ddev-ssh-agent:v1.15.0 docker 19.03.8 docker-compose 1.25.5 os darwin router drud/ddev-router:v1.15.0 web drud/ddev-webserver:v1.15.0

DDEV includes a powerful CLI, or command line interface. Run ddev to learn about some common commands:

  1. ddev

You will see the following output:

Output
Create and maintain a local web development environment. Docs: https://ddev.readthedocs.io Support: https://ddev.readthedocs.io/en/stable/#support Usage: ddev [command] Available Commands: auth A collection of authentication commands composer Executes a composer command within the web container config Create or modify a ddev project configuration in the current directory debug A collection of debugging commands delete Remove all project information (including database) for an existing project describe Get a detailed description of a running ddev project. exec Execute a shell command in the container for a service. Uses the web service by default. export-db Dump a database to a file or to stdout help Help about any command hostname Manage your hostfile entries. import-db Import a sql file into the project. import-files Pull the uploaded files directory of an existing project to the default public upload directory of your project. list List projects logs Get the logs from your running services. pause uses 'docker stop' to pause/stop the containers belonging to a project. poweroff Completely stop all projects and containers pull Pull files and database using a configured provider plugin. restart Restart a project or several projects. restore-snapshot Restore a project's database to the provided snapshot version. sequelpro This command is not available since sequel pro.app is not installed share Share project on the internet via ngrok. snapshot Create a database snapshot for one or more projects. ssh Starts a shell session in the container for a service. Uses web service by default. start Start a ddev project. stop Stop and remove the containers of a project. Does not lose or harm anything unless you add --remove-data. version print ddev version and component versions Flags: -h, --help help for ddev -j, --json-output If true, user-oriented output will be in JSON format. -v, --version version for ddev Use "ddev [command] --help" for more information about a command.

For more information about using the DDEV CLI, visit the official DDEV documentation.

With DDEV installed on your local machine, you are now ready to install Drupal 9 and begin developing a website.

Option 2 — Installing DDEV on Linux

On a Linux operating system, you can install DDEV using Homebrew for Linux or using the official installation script. On Ubuntu, begin by updating your list of packages in the apt package manager (you can use apt in Debian, otherwise use the equivalent package manager associated with your Linux distribution):

  1. sudo apt update

Now install some prerequisite packages from Ubuntu’s official repository:

  1. sudo apt install build-essential apt-transport-https ca-certificates software-properties-common curl

These packages will allow you to download the DDEV installation script from their official GitHub repository.

Now download the script:

  1. curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/drud/ddev/master/scripts/install_ddev.sh

Before running the script, open it in nano or your preferred text editor and inspect its contents:

nano install_ddev.sh

Once you have reviewed the script’s contents and you are satisfied, save and close the file. Now you are ready to run the installation script.

Use the chmod command to make the script executable:

  1. chmod +x install_ddev.sh

Now run the script:

  1. ./install_ddev.sh

The installation process might prompt you to confirm some settings or to enter your sudo password. Once the installation completes, you will have DDEV available on your Linux operating system.

Run ddev version to verify your software:

  1. ddev version

You will see an output like this:

Output
DDEV-Local version v1.15.0 commit v1.15.0 db drud/ddev-dbserver-mariadb-10.2:v1.15.0 dba phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin:5 ddev-ssh-agent drud/ddev-ssh-agent:v1.15.0 docker 19.03.8 docker-compose 1.25.5 os linux router drud/ddev-router:v1.15.0 web drud/ddev-webserver:v1.15.0

DDEV is a powerful CLI, or command line interface. Run ddev without anything else to learn about some common commands:

  1. ddev

You will see the following output:

Output
Create and maintain a local web development environment. Docs: https://ddev.readthedocs.io Support: https://ddev.readthedocs.io/en/stable/#support Usage: ddev [command] Available Commands: auth A collection of authentication commands composer Executes a composer command within the web container config Create or modify a ddev project configuration in the current directory debug A collection of debugging commands delete Remove all project information (including database) for an existing project describe Get a detailed description of a running ddev project. exec Execute a shell command in the container for a service. Uses the web service by default. export-db Dump a database to a file or to stdout help Help about any command hostname Manage your hostfile entries. import-db Import a sql file into the project. import-files Pull the uploaded files directory of an existing project to the default public upload directory of your project. list List projects logs Get the logs from your running services. pause uses 'docker stop' to pause/stop the containers belonging to a project. poweroff Completely stop all projects and containers pull Pull files and database using a configured provider plugin. restart Restart a project or several projects. restore-snapshot Restore a project's database to the provided snapshot version. sequelpro This command is not available since sequel pro.app is not installed share Share project on the internet via ngrok. snapshot Create a database snapshot for one or more projects. ssh Starts a shell session in the container for a service. Uses web service by default. start Start a ddev project. stop Stop and remove the containers of a project. Does not lose or harm anything unless you add --remove-data. version print ddev version and component versions Flags: -h, --help help for ddev -j, --json-output If true, user-oriented output will be in JSON format. -v, --version version for ddev Use "ddev [command] --help" for more information about a command.

For more information about using the DDEV CLI, you can visit the official DDEV documentation.

With DDEV installed on your local machine, you are now ready to deploy Drupal 9 and begin developing a website.

Step 2 — Deploying a New Drupal 9 Site Using DDEV

With DDEV running, you will now use it to create a Drupal-specific filesystem, install Drupal 9, and then initiate a standard website project.

First, you will create a project root directory and then move inside it. You will run all remaining commands from this location. This tutorial will use d9test, but you are free to name your directory something else. Note, however, that DDEV doesn’t handle hyphenated names well. It is considered a best practice to avoid directory names like my-project or drupal-site-1.

Create your project root directory and navigate inside:

  1. mkdir d9test
  2. cd d9test

DDEV excels at creating directory trees that match specific CMS platforms. Use the ddev config command to create a directory structure specific to Drupal 9:

  1. ddev config --project-type=drupal9 --docroot=web --create-docroot

You will see an output like this:

Output
Creating a new ddev project config in the current directory (/Users/sammy/d9test) Once completed, your configuration will be written to /Users/sammy/d9test/.ddev/config.yaml Created docroot at /Users/sammy/d9test/web You have specified a project type of drupal9 but no project of that type is found in /Users/sammy/d9test/web Ensuring write permissions for d9new No settings.php file exists, creating one Existing settings.php file includes settings.ddev.php Configuration complete. You may now run 'ddev start'.

Because you passed --project-type=drupal9 to your ddev config command, DDEV created several subdirectories and files that represent the default organization for a Drupal website. Your project directory tree will now look like this:

A Drupal 9 directory tree
.
├── .ddev
│   ├── .gitignore
│   ├── config.yaml
│   ├── db-build
│   │   └── Dockerfile.example
│   └── web-build
│       └── Dockerfile.example
└── web
    └── sites
        └── default
            ├── .gitignore
            ├── settings.ddev.php
            └── settings.php

6 directories, 7 files

.ddev/ will be the main folder for the ddev configuration. web/ will be the docroot for your new project; it will contain several specific settings. files. You now have the initial scaffolding for your new Drupal project.

Your next step is to initialize your platform, which will build the necessary containers and networking configurations. DDEV binds to ports 80 and 443, so if you are running a web server like Apache on your machine, or anything else that uses those ports, stop those services before continuing.

Use the ddev start command to initialize your platform:

  1. ddev start

This will build all the Docker-based containers for your project, which include a web container, a database container, and phpmyadmin. When the initialization completes you will see an output like this (your port number might differ):

...
[secondary_label Output]
Successfully started d9test
Project can be reached at http://d9test.ddev.site http://127.0.0.1:32773

Note: Remember that DDEV is starting Docker containers behind the scenes here. If you want to view those containers or verify that they are running, you can always use the docker ps command:

  1. docker ps

Alongside any other containers that you are currently running, you will find four new containers, each running a different image: php-myadmin, ddev-webserver, ddev-router, and ddev-dbserver-mariadb.

ddev start has successfully built your containers and given you an output with two URLs. While this output says that your project “can be reached at http://d9test.ddev.site and http://127.0.0.1:32773,” visiting these URLs right now will throw an error. Starting with Drupal 8, the Drupal core and the contrib modules function like dependencies. Therefore, you’ll first need to finish installing Drupal using Composer, the package manager for PHP projects, before anything loads in your web browser.

One of the most useful and elegant features of DDEV is that you can pass Composer commands through the DDEV CLI and into your containerized environment. This means that you can separate your machine’s specific configuration from your development environment. You no longer have to manage the various file path, dependency, and version issues that generally accompany local PHP development. Moreover, you can quickly context-switch between multiple projects using different frameworks and tech stacks with minimal effort.

Use the ddev composer command to download drupal/recommended-project. This will download Drupal core, its libraries, and other related resources and then create a default project:

  1. ddev composer create "drupal/recommended-project"

Now download one final component called Drush, or Drupal Shell. This tutorial will only use one drush command, and this tutorial provides an alternative, but drush is a powerful CLI for Drupal development that can improve your efficiency.

Use ddev composer to install drush:

  1. ddev composer require "drush/drush"

You have now built a default Drupal 9 project and installed drush. Now you will view your project in a browser and configure your website’s settings.

Step 3 — Configuring Your Drupal 9 Project

Now that you have installed Drupal 9 you can visit your new project in your browser. To do this, you can rerun ddev start and copy one of the two URLs that it outputs, or you can use the following command, which will automatically launch your site in a new browser window:

  1. ddev launch

You will encounter the standard Drupal installation wizard.

Drupal 9 installer from browser

Here you have two options. You can use this UI and follow the wizard through installation, or you can return to your terminal and pass a drush command through ddev. The latter option will automate the installation process and set admin as both your username and password.

Option 1 — Using the Wizard

Return to the wizard in your browser. Under Choose language select a language from the drop-down menu and click Save and continue. Now select an installation profile. You can choose between Standard, Minimal, and Demo. Make your choice and then click Save and continue. Drupal will automatically verify your requirements, set up a database, and install your site. Your last step is to customize a few configurations. Add a site name and a site email address that ends in your domain. Then choose a username and password. Choose a strong password and keep your credentials somewhere safe. Lastly, add a private email address that you regularly check, fill in the regional settings, and press Save and continue.

Drupal 9 welcome message with a warning about permissions

Your new site will load with a welcome message.

Option 2 — Using the Command Line

From your project’s root directory, run this ddev exec command to install a default Drupal site using drush:

  1. ddev exec drush site:install --account-name=admin --account-pass=admin

This will create your site just like the wizard will but with some boilerplate configurations. Your username and password will be admin.

Now launch the site to view it in your browser:

  1. ddev launch

You are now ready to begin building your website, but it is considered best practice to check that your permissions are correct for the /sites/web/default directory. While you are working locally, this is not a significant concern, but if you transfer these permissions to a production server, they will pose a security risk.

Step 4 — Checking Your Permissions

During the wizard installation, or when your welcome page first loads, you might see a warning about the permissions settings on your /sites/web/default directory and one file inside that directory: settings.php.

After the installation script runs, Drupal will try to set the web/sites/default directory permissions to read and execute for all groups: this is a 555 permissions setting. It will also attempt to set permissions for default/settings.php to read-only, or 444. If you encounter this warning, run these two chmod commands from your project’s root directory. Failure to do so poses a security risk:

  1. chmod 555 web/sites/default
  2. chmod 444 web/sites/default/settings.php

To verify that you have the correct permissions, run this ls command with the a, l, h, and d switches:

  1. ls -alhd web/sites/default web/sites/default/settings.php

Check that your permissions match the following output:

Output
dr-xr-xr-x 8 sammy staff 256 Jul 21 12:56 web/sites/default -r--r--r-- 1 sammy staff 249 Jul 21 12:12 web/sites/default/settings.php

You are now ready to develop a Drupal 9 website on your local machine.

Step 5 — Creating Your First Post in Drupal

To test some of Drupal’s functionality, you will now create a post using the web UI.

From your site’s initial page, click the Content button on the upper menu’s left-hand edge. Now click the blue add content button. A new page will appear. Click Article, and another page will appear.

Drupal 9 Create Article Prompt

Add whatever title and content you like. You can add an image, too, like one of DigitalOcean’s wallpapers. When ready, click the blue save button.

Your first post will appear on your website.

Drupal 9 Created Post

You are now developing a Drupal 9 website on your local machine without ever interacting with a server, thanks to Docker and DDEV. In the following step, you will manage the DDEV container to accomodate your workflow.

Step 6 — Managing the DDEV Container

When you have finished developing your project, or when you want to take a break, you can stop your DDEV container without worrying about data loss. DDEV can manage rapid context-switching among many projects; this is one of its most useful features. Your code and data are always preserved in your project directory, even after you stop or delete the DDEV container.

To free up resources, you can stop DDEV at any time. From your project’s root directory, run the following command:

  1. ddev stop

DDEV is available globally, so you can run ddev commands from anywhere, as long as you specify the DDEV project:

  1. ddev stop d9test

You can also view all your projects at once using ddev list:

  1. ddev list

DDEV includes many other useful commands.

You can restart DDEV and continue developing locally at any time.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you used Docker and the power of containerization to develop a Drupal site locally, with the help of DDEV. DDEV also integrates well with numerous IDEs, and it provides built-in PHP debugging for Atom, PHPStorm, and Visual Studio Code (vscode). From here, you can also learn more about creating development environments for Drupal with DDEV or developing other PHP frameworks like Wordpress.

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About the authors
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Drupal Architect

PHP Senior Developer for Drupal based projects. Focused in backend. Bartender and writer in therussianlullaby.com



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One note for others finding this, this will install the latest version of Drupal which is now 10. Drupal 10 requires PHP 8.1 this install used PHP 8.0. To fix this issue goto d9test/.ddev/config.yaml and change the PHP version to read



php_version: "8.1"

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