Installing Drupal 11.1 with DDEV: A Step-by-Step Guide

Published: at 04:00 PM

DDEV is a powerful open-source tool that makes it easy to set up PHP development environments. In this guide, we’ll walk through the process of installing Drupal 11.1 using DDEV, creating a perfect local development environment for your Drupal projects.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, ensure you have:

Step 1: Install DDEV

If you haven’t already installed DDEV, follow these installation commands based on your operating system:

For macOS (using Homebrew):

brew install ddev/ddev/ddev

For Linux:

curl -LO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ddev/ddev/master/scripts/install_ddev.sh
bash install_ddev.sh

For Windows, use Chocolatey:

choco install ddev

Step 2: Create Project Directory

Create a new directory for your Drupal project and navigate to it:

mkdir d11-last
cd d11-last

Step 3: Initialize DDEV Project

Initialize a new DDEV project with Drupal configuration:

ddev config --project-type=drupal --php-version=8.4 --docroot=web

Step 4: Install Drupal using Composer

Start DDEV and use Composer to create a new Drupal project:

ddev start
ddev composer create drupal/recommended-project

Step 5: Install Drush

Install Drush for command-line management:

ddev composer require drush/drush

Step 6: Install Drupal

You can install Drupal using Drush with either default or custom credentials:

Default installation:

ddev drush site:install -y

Custom administrator credentials:

ddev drush site:install --account-name=admin --account-pass=admin -y

Step 7: Additional Configuration

Access Your Site

Launch your new Drupal site:

ddev launch

Generate a one-time login link for the administrator account:

ddev drush user:login

The local site should be look like this:

Drupal 11 runnin on local

Common DDEV Commands

Here are some useful DDEV commands for managing your environment:

For instance, describe command shows project information

ddev describe

ddev describe

ddev logs            # View logs
ddev ssh             # SSH into container
ddev import-db       # Import database
ddev export-db       # Export database
ddev drush cr        # Clear cache
ddev stop            # Stop environment

Always, you can run the help command to see more: ddev --help.

Troubleshooting

Common Issues and Solutions

  1. Database Connection Issues

    • Verify DDEV is running: ddev status
    • Check database credentials in settings.ddev.php
    • Restart DDEV: ddev restart

  2. Permission Issues

    • Reset file permissions: ddev auth ssh
    • Fix Drupal files directory: ddev exec chmod -R 755 web/sites/default/files

  3. Composer Memory Issues

    • Increase PHP memory limit: ddev config --php-version=8.4 --php-memory-limit=4G

Conclusion

You now have a fully functional Drupal 11.1 development environment using DDEV. This setup provides a consistent, Docker-based environment that’s perfect for Drupal development. Remember to check DDEV’s documentation for more advanced features and configurations.

Additional Resources