General Drupal Development

In this tutorial we're going to look at one the first files you will need in order to create a Drupal module: the info file. Each module is required to have a MODULE.info.yml file to help Drupal identify that a bundle of code is a unique module. This specially-formatted YAML file not only tells Drupal about the module, but also allows us to provide other useful metadata. In this tutorial, we'll walk through all of the metadata possibilities that can be included in an info file.

YAML, which stands for YAML Ain't Markup Language, is a human-readable data serialization format that's been widely adopted in a variety of use cases in Drupal. Anyone wanting to write modules, or themes, for Drupal will need to understand YAML syntax. Even site builders are likely to encounter YAML at least in passing as YAML is the data-serialization format of choice for Drupal's configuration management system. Good thing it's pretty easy to learn even with the most basic of programming backgrounds.

This tutorial will look at the YAML data format and provide examples of how to write and read YAML. Starting with an introduction to the language's syntax and some of the strengths of YAML. Then looking at the difference between scalar data types like strings and integers, and collection data types like lists and associative arrays.

Since YAML in the Drupal world is read into PHP and ultimately becomes a PHP data structure that we can use in our own code we'll also look at how the YAML we write in a .yml file is represented in PHP data types. To do this we'll use the YAML Sandbox module that provides a handy textarea into which we can type YAML and have it parsed into PHP data structures.

Learning objectives

• Explain what YAML is and its strengths as a data serialization format
• Create scalar key/value pairs in YAML
• Create lists, and associative arrays using YAML collections
• Understand how the YAML you write is represented in PHP

Tips

• In Drupal, use the .yml extension and not .yaml
• Ensure your code editing application is configured to use spaces (preferably 2 spaces, as per Drupal coding standards), not the tab character when the TAB key is pressed. If you have tab characters in a YAML file within a Drupal environment, a fatal PHP error will be thrown and you'll see a White Screen of Death (WSOD).
• Copy and paste from an existing YAML file to ensure the formatting is correct, and edit from there.

Additional resources

• http://www.yaml.org
• YAML Sandbox module
• Find other tutorials and external resources related to YAML on our YAML topic page (Drupalize.Me)

Annotations are specially-formatted PHP docblock comments that are used for class discovery and metadata description. While it is technically possible to use annotations for other purposes, at the moment Drupal only uses them for the plugin system.

In this tutorial we'll look at:

• What annotations are
• The use case for annotations
• How to figure out what you can put into an annotation

By the end of this tutorial you should understand how annotations are used in Drupal and how to write them in your own code.

Today's Drupal developer needs more than just a text editor and FTP. Best practice Drupal development involves a suite of tools, processes, and more than one server environment.

This tutorial is directed toward an audience that is not familiar with best practices in Drupal Development and methods involving version control with Git, IDEs, local development environments, and deployment environments (i.e. stage, live). Here we're providing a high-level overview of these topics with links to dive deeper if you need more information.

In this tutorial, we'll cover:

• Introduce Version Control Systems such as Git
• Discuss how Git can be used to deploy to remote web servers
• Review programming-centric text editors and Integrated Development Environments
• Identify the need for a local development environment.
• Explain shared deployment environments including production and stage.