Contributing to Drupal
TopicAs an open source project, Drupal depends on community contributions in many forms including documentation, code, translation, speaking, organizing events, mentoring others, and even donating money.
Development environments provide a sandbox where you can work on your application without affecting the live site.
Drush
TopicDrush is a command line interface that enables you to interact with your Drupal site without clicking around the graphical user interface (GUI).
Blocks
TopicA block is a reusable widget that is placed inside regions (layout containers) of your theme. Blocks can be used by site administrators on the Block layout admin page or provided by a module using the Plugin API.
Content Modeling
TopicContent modeling consists of identifying and constructing the different building blocks of data that compose the information on your site.
Layouts
TopicA layout can describe how various components are arranged on various levels—from an entire page from the header to the footer, to just the “middle” where the dynamic content goes, to individual components. It can apply to templates for managed content or one-off designs for landing pages.
Content Types
TopicA content type is a subtype of the [content entity](link to Entity topic). When a content creator goes to add new content to the site, they are presented with a list of content types to choose from to get the appropriate form to fill out.
Comments
TopicComments are a content entity type that allows users to leave commentary associated with a specific piece of content.
Cron
TopicTo ensure that your site and its modules continue to function correctly, a set of administrative operations should be performed periodically. These operations are referred to as cron tasks. Examples of cron tasks are: checking for module and theme updates, indexing content for search, or cleaning up temporary files.
Drupal manages information and access for all visitors to your site, called users, through a system of roles and permissions.
Menus
TopicA site’s main navigation elements, whether they be in the header, footer, or sidebar, are composed of links built using Drupal's menu system. Drupal allows site administrators to build menus while also allowing module developers to add and alter menus in code.
Views Module in Drupal
TopicLearn to use data from your Drupal site to create customized lists in various forms, such as bulleted lists, grids, calendars, or sliders.
Entities are the fundamental building blocks that make up any Drupal site. Having a good understanding of the Entity system is an important part of ensuring the data model of your Drupal site is set up properly.
Every Composer project is made up of a few standard files and directories. This tutorial provides an overview of the anatomy of a Composer project, and the essential files and directories used by Composer, including:
- What are composer.json and composer.lock files?
- What is in a composer.json file?
- What is the /vendor directory?
By the end of this tutorial you should be able to recognize the standard files and directories in a Composer project and know what they are each used for.
This tutorial demonstrates the value of using Composer. This demonstration will employ the most basic use case of using Composer to create a new, non-Drupal application that writes a message to the system log. It will encompass the fundamental concepts of Composer installation, requiring (installing) a new dependency, autoloading it, and implementing it.
In this tutorial we'll:
- Install Composer
- Use Composer to start a new project
- Use Composer to require a 3rd party dependency
- Use the required code in an example application
By the end of this tutorial you should be able to explain the value of Composer, and have Composer installed and working on your local machine.
This tutorial provides an overview of the concept of an "artifact" and provides step-by-step instructions for deploying a Composer-managed Drupal application to a hosting environment.
In this tutorial we'll:
- Define what an "artifact" is
- Look at how to use Composer and a build process to create and deploy an artifact
- Talk about the benefits of this approach
By the end of this tutorial you should have a general understanding of the steps required in order to deploy a Composer-managed project into production.
You will inevitably encounter Composer issues that require troubleshooting. This tutorial aims to provide some general troubleshooting advice for common Composer issues.
In this tutorial we'll look at:
- Common issues you'll encounter when using Composer
- Solutions to these common issues
By the end of this tutorial you should have some ideas of how to solve common issues that you might encounter when using Composer to manager your application's dependencies.