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Getting Started 5 min read

Installing Your First DrupalReady Template

Step-by-step guide to installing any DrupalReady template using Composer, setting up local development, and applying recipes.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

  • PHP 8.3+ with extensions: gd, xml, mbstring, curl, zip
  • Composer 2.x installed globally
  • Lando or DDEV for local development
  • Git for version control

Step 1: Create Your Project

Choose a template and run the Composer create-project command:

composer create-project drupalready/starter-business my-site

Replace starter-business with any template slug (e.g., starter-healthcare, starter-legal).

Step 2: Start Local Development

Navigate to your project and start the local environment:

cd my-site
lando start

This spins up PHP, MariaDB, and all required services.

Step 3: Install Drupal

Install Drupal with the exported configuration:

lando drush site:install --existing-config -y

Step 4: Apply the Base Recipe

Apply the template's base recipe to configure content types, views, and modules:

lando drush recipe recipes/base

You can also apply optional recipes like recipes/blog or recipes/performance.

Next Steps

Your site is running! Log in at /user/login and explore the custom dashboard. From here you can create content, customize the theme, and configure your site.

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