I set up drip systems this year for my plants. It's so much easier than I thought it would be. You can set the timer and go away for weeks and not worry about your plants. You can buy a kit that gets you started pretty easily or just buy the parts. You can pick better quality parts if you buy them individually as the kit parts seemed kinda cheap to me.

In case it helps, I'll list the parts I bought for my most basic setup for watering container plants. With these parts all you need is a hose bib outside the house:

Timer

I like this timer because it lets you set low intervals for 10 min watering session for potted plants up to many hours for in ground plants. The batteries have lasted over a year in them too.

Tube Adapter

You need an adapter to go from the 3/4" hose connector on the timer to the 1/2" distribution hose.

1/2" Tubing

This is 500 feet of 1/2" tubing. You can buy it for less than half that that price for 100 feet, but I definitely needed all 500 feet for my projects. You can bury this or leave it out in the sun if you want. I've only had it for a year and it shows no sign of aging in sun. It's easier to control where it goes if you use garden staples. They have adapters for splitting the tubing at a T and L shaped tubing connectors (You can bend the tubing but not too much or it kinks). The cheaper T connectors are much harder to push into the tubing but they are very secure (using heat on the tubing helps). Also, you'll need the end closure for the end of the 1/2" tubing.

1/4" Tubing

I didn't need much of this stuff because I ran the 1/2" tubing close to plants that needed it. This is what brings the water from the 1/2" tubing to the plants. You use emitters to slow the rate to what you want each plant to have.

Barbed Connectors

I forgot about these initially, but they are pretty important. You need these to connect the 1/4" tubes to the 1/2" tube. You can also use a T connector into the 1/2" tube to have 2 lines coming off right away.

.5 gph emitters

These are perfect for 1-3 gal containers. I kinda cheat and just use 1 line from the 1/2" tubing to water a few plants (no more than 4 or so). I use the small T connectors to split the 1/4" tube a few times. I still test to make sure the flow is okay if I do that, because you're supposed to only use 1 emitter per tube. If you have a lot of big containers, I'd get 1 gph or even 2 gph emitters.

Backflow Preventer

These are optional, but I feel better with these if I'm leaving the valve open on the hose all the time. Your outside bibs might already have these on them. All they do is prevent water from going back into the bib if there is more pressure on the outgoing side of it.

Some instructions say you need a filter and a "pressure regulator" but I've found you don't need either. The pressure regulator especially. All the cheap "pressure regulators" are is flow regulators and you can do the same thing by just not opening the valve on the hose bib all the way. The expensive ones are overkill for a small project like this. Just keep an eye on the emitters every few months to make sure they aren't getting clogged and you don't need a filter (you should do this anyway even with a filter).

That's pretty much all you need to get an automatic drip system for containers. The only difference I did with my in ground plants is I buried the 1/2" tubing all over the yard for them and that took a lot longer, it's really not necessary but it makes the yard look better.