Making TheDrupal PillEasier ToSwallow
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Twitter@philipnorton42
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Philip Norton
Helpful Modules
Devel
A set of functions and callbacks that allow you to inspect what
Drupal is doing
Good for seeing what is being loaded on a node or what is going
on during the page load
dpm(), dvm(), dargs()
Plenty more at http://bit.ly/qKVAc6
Project Page http://drupal.org/project/devel
Devel Themer
Devel submodule
Allows inspection of the theme layer
Shows all hooks and template files were (or can be) used to
generate the element
Project Page http://drupal.org/project/devel_themer
Drupal For Firebug
Inspect your Drupal/Devel output using Firebug extension
(http://bit.ly/ofkgaJ)
View debug information without printing it to screen
Also available for Chrome (http://bit.ly/pEnZI4)
Project Page http://drupal.org/project/drupalforfirebug
Advanced Help
Some projects implement a hook_help() hook.
Advanced help is for more detailed help documentation.
Good example is the Views module.
Project Page http://drupal.org/project/advanced_help
UnderstandingHow Drupal Works
Examples Module
A set of example modules for different parts of Drupal
Everything from AHAH to XMLRPC
Many examples come with unit tests
Project Page http://drupal.org/project/examples
Schema Module
Helps when learning about the schema api
Inspect your database structure
Project Page http://drupal.org/project/examples
Unit Testing Drupal
Tricky to set up on Drupal 6, but Drupal 7 now has SimpleTest
built in
Every test installs Drupal with no settings so you have to set
everything up before you test
Essential skill to have for module developers
Great way to learn how Drupal really works
Project Page http://drupal.org/project/simpletest
Xdebug
PHP debugging tool
Turn it on and watch how Drupal bootstraps and loads a page
Add breakpoints to make sure your hooks are being fired
Nice alternative to print_r()/dpm() when inspecting variables
(especially Views)
Get Your Hands Dirty
The best way to learn is to jump in and have a go
Set up a localhost Drupal site and try one or more of the
following (no core hacks allowed):
- Change the title of the 'Vocabularies' section on the node
form to read 'Details'- Add a dynamic set of links to a menu
option- Change the message the user sees when logging in- Install
the WYSIWYG module and set the height of each element to be half of
the default
Community
Drupal.org
Commonly known as 'd.o'
The Drupal community starts here
Not just somewhere to find documentation
Join some groups and get involved!
IRC
Internet Relay Chat
#drupal Everything Drupal
#drupal-uk Drupal in the UK
Drop in and join in on the chat
Common Etiquette
Don't ask to ask, just ask
Contribute bug reports and patches back to module developers
tl;dr
Be nice!
Other Resources
Books
Pro Drupal (7) Development
Blogs
Drupal Planetdrupal.org/planet
NodeOne Bloggnodeone.se/blogg
Lullabotwww.lullabot.com/ideas/blog
#! codewww.hashbangcode.com
Extra Tips
If a user can't do something, check permissions
If the user can't edit a node or weird things are happening to
the HTML then check the input filters
Make absolutely sure that the code you think is running is, in
fact, running
Download modules and see how they did it
Don't be afraid of maintenance mode
Stay calm and clear cache
Bottom Line?
Drupal isn't hard, you just need to know what you are doing.
Which is the hard bit...
Questions?
Philip Nortonwww.hashbangcode.com
#!
