How can I enable HTTP Secure (HTTPS) for a Drupal 7 site I am working on?

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jeremy_steel
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I am working on a Drupal 7 site that has some basic e-commerce functionality. I want to enable the entire site to be HTTPS. The plan is Business Class Hosting Launch. I have read how to obtain a shared SSL certificate. However Drupal instructions mention "configuring the server" and apparently the hosting company does this.

Can you advise me what I need to?

Thanks in advance... :)
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Arn
Hello Jeremy_steel, Thanks for the question! Yes, you can use a shared SSL certificate. The Shared SSL certificate is preset, so there is no configuration done on the server side. Please review our article on Shared SSLs in order to determine the URL that you would use for your site. Note that a shared SSL is NOT the same URL as the URL that you have setup for your site initially. So, you may need to also set a base URL setting in the settings.php file of your Drupal installation. I found the following instructions with someone who had also asked the same thing in forums online:
  1. Determine your shared SSL (as per the article above)
  2. Once you know your Shared SSL URL, you will need to determine your Drupal installation directory as it applies to the shared SSL. For example: If your ssl path is https://bizXXX.inmotionhosting.com/~username, and you installed your Drupal site in a folder called 'Drupal', then your path would be https://bizXXX.inmotionhosting.com/~username/Drupal. If you installed your site to the default directory (public_html), then you would not need to change the shared SSL path - it would remain https://bizXXX.inmotionhosting.com/~username.
  3. Edit the settings.php file in your sites/default folder
  4. Follow the directions to allow Drupal to use SSL (Drupal HTTPS information
  5. Add the following line (there should be an example of it in the file already): $base_url="https://bizXXX.inmotionhosting.com/~username/...)
NOTE: Make sure to use the correct shared SSL path - the URL I used in the steps above is simply an example and not the actual path. That should be all you need to make it work. It's highly recommended that you simply purchase an SSL since the actual secure path is not the same as your URL, so it may look suspect for some users. SSLs are not as expensive as they once were and are well worth their cost, especially if you are conducting any type of ecommerce. I hope this helps to answer your question! If you require any further assistance, please let us know. Regards, Arnel C.