Back up Your Drupal Site
TopicA reliable backup will allow you to restore your site if something goes wrong.
JavaScript in Drupal
TopicJavaScript files are included by a module or a theme by creating an asset library. Using this asset library system you can selectively choose which files to load, overwrite existing files, or customize them to suit your needs.
Drush
TopicDrush is a command line interface that enables you to interact with your Drupal site without clicking around the graphical user interface (GUI).
Forms (Form API)
TopicDrupal provides a standard, secured method for module developers to add forms to a Drupal website. Learn how to use the Form API to build, validate, and submit a custom form.
PhpStorm
TopicThe PhpStorm integrated development environment (IDE) contains dozens of useful features that make working with a Drupal codebase easier.
Hooks
TopicHooks allow modules to alter and extend the behavior of Drupal core, or another module. As a Drupal developer, understanding how to implement and invoke hooks is essential.
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.
Every Drupal module needs a *.info.yml file; the basic structure of a form controller class and related routing is the same for every form; and much of the code required to create a custom content entity type is boilerplate annotations and extending base classes. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to automate some of that repetitive work? Drush can be used to speed up module development by generating scaffolding code for event subscribers, forms, services, module files, routing, and much more. These generators are provided by the Drupal Code Generator project. They're neatly bundled up in Drush under the drush generate
command.
Before Drush 9, there were no code generators in Drush, but the Drupal Console project provided them. That project and its code generators, have languished since the release of Drupal 9. While it can still be used, and is often referenced in tutorials about Drupal, we much prefer the code generated by Drush at this point.
In this tutorial we'll:
- Learn about the Drupal Code Generator project
- Learn how Drush integrates with this project
- Demonstrate the
drush generate
command and its options
By the end of this tutorial, you'll know how to use the drush generate
command to speed up development for your Drupal modules.
Installing Drupal using the instructions in this tutorial will give you a working Drupal site that can be used for learning, or real-world project development.
Before you can work on a Drupal site locally (on your computer), you'll need to set up a local development environment. This includes all the system requirements like PHP and a web server, that Drupal needs in order to run. Our favorite way to accomplish this is using DDEV.
In this tutorial we'll learn:
- How to install and configure DDEV for use with a Drupal project.
- How to use DDEV's integrated Composer to download Drupal and Drush.
- How to install Drupal inside DDEV so you can access the site and start doing development.
By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to set up a local development environment for learning Drupal or working on a new Drupal project.
Standardized documentation is crucial to a project, whether it is just you or an entire team working on it. In this tutorial we're going to look at:
- Standards for
@docblock
comments - Standards for inline comments
- Why standards for documentation and comments are as important as standards for the rest of your code.
By the end of this tutorial you'll know how to add inline documentation for all the PHP code that you write for Drupal.
Formatting standards cover things like the use of whitespace, how to format control structures, and other aspects that affect your code's appearance and format.
In this tutorial we’ll talk specifically about standards regarding formatting. This is by no means an exhaustive list of PHP syntax rules, but rather is focused on formatting standards for Drupal.
By the end of this tutorial you'll know about the most common Drupal code formatting standards as well as where to find more information when questions arise.
Translations have their own special functions in both Drupal 7 and 8, and there are some rules for standardizing how they are used that make things clearer for everyone.
In this tutorial we'll look at:
- When to use, and when not to use, translation utilities to output translatable strings
- How placeholders work in translatable strings
- Tips for creating links inside of translatable strings
By the end of this tutorial you should know when, and how, to make strings in your code translatable using Drupal's translation utility functions.
Once you know what code standards are and why you should use them, you need to learn how to implement Drupal coding standards in your projects. This tutorial will walk through some of the steps you can take to make this as easy as possible. We'll cover:
- Configuring your editor or IDE to warn you of coding standards violations
- Setting up the Coder module and phpcs to scan and review your code
- Performing team code reviews
By the end of this tutorial you should be able to configure your development environment and implement processes in your workflow that help to ensure your code meets Drupal's coding standards guidelines.
Drupal core uses object-oriented programming (OOP). This method of programming introduces new coding standards to the project. In this tutorial we'll cover the Drupal coding standards that relate to object-oriented PHP code.
By the end of this tutorial you should know how to implement the Drupal coding standards related to OOP, and where to find more information when you've got questions about the standards.
Before you dive into using coding standards it makes sense to understand exactly what they are and why they’re important, generally and specifically in the Drupal community. In this tutorial we will look at:
- What coding standards are
- Why following coding standards is a good idea
- Where coding standards come from
By the end of this tutorial you'll have a better understanding of what coding standards are, and why you should be adhering to them when you write 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.