drupal not installing

1. If there is a previous website at the installation URL, make a backup of the code and database, then delete both.
2. Install the composer utility. Make sure PHP is set to allow at least 1 gigabyte of ram and has at least 10 minute script timeout.
3. Download the desired Drupal 8 core code and unzip it in the site's server directory.
4. Make sure the desired database exists in phpmyadmin but is EMPTY!
5. DO NOT populate the database array in the settings.php like one does for Drupal 7.
6. Run the sitename/install.php
7. The Drupal 8 install script will prompt you for the database information and it will modify the settings.php for you.
7. The Drupal 8 install script will prompt you for the admin name and password (be sure to write all information down).
8. Now login to Drupal 8 as admin user and run the status report to check everything.
9. In Windows/MacOS file explorer, place a composer.json file in the D8 site's root directory (see sample contents below)
10. run - composer install - in the D8 website's directory, which will tell composer to check all the installation files.
11. run - composer require drupal/core - which will cause composer to check the status of all drupal and install anything needed.
12. run - composer update - this will double check that all dependencies are up to date.

- the only successful way to maintain a D8 installation is using the composer utility.
- You can add modules to a D8 either using composer require drupal/{module-name}, or by adding lines to the require section of the composer.json and running composer update.
- If any module updates during D8 composer utility update or require, you must still enable the module in the admin UI and run the {sitename}update.php script as well.

(note that I added the admin_toolbar module to the require section of the composer.json, but it is optional.)

{
    "name": "drupal/drupal",
    "description": "Drupal is an open source content management platform powering millions of websites and applications.",
    "type": "project",
    "license": "GPL-2.0+",
    "require": {
        "composer/installers": "^1.0.21",
        "wikimedia/composer-merge-plugin": "~1.3",
        "drupal/core": "8.3.2",
   
        "drupal/admin_toolbar": "1.19.0"
    },
    "replace": {
    },
    "minimum-stability": "dev",
    "prefer-stable": true,
    "config": {
        "preferred-install": "dist",
        "autoloader-suffix": "Drupal8"
    },
    "extra": {
        "_readme": [
            "By default Drupal loads the autoloader from ./vendor/autoload.php.",
            "To change the autoloader you can edit ./autoload.php."
        ],
        "merge-plugin": {
            "include": [
                "core/composer.json"
            ],
            "recurse": false,
            "replace": false,
            "merge-extra": false
        }
    },
    "autoload": {
        "psr-4": {
            "Drupal\\Core\\Composer\\": "core/lib/Drupal/Core/Composer",
            "Drupal\\composer_manager\\Composer\\": "modules/composer_manager/src/Composer"
        }
    },
    "scripts": {
        "pre-autoload-dump": "Drupal\\Core\\Composer\\Composer::preAutoloadDump",
        "post-autoload-dump": "Drupal\\Core\\Composer\\Composer::ensureHtaccess",
        "post-package-install": "Drupal\\Core\\Composer\\Composer::vendorTestCodeCleanup",
        "post-package-update": "Drupal\\Core\\Composer\\Composer::vendorTestCodeCleanup",
        "drupal-rebuild": "Drupal\\composer_manager\\Composer\\Command::rebuild",
        "drupal-update": "Drupal\\composer_manager\\Composer\\Command::update"
    },
    "repositories": {
        "drupal": {
            "type": "composer",
            "url": "https://packages.drupal.org/8"
        }
    }
}