Caching in Drupal
TopicCaching in Drupal is controlled by Drupal's Cache API which is used to store any type of data on a permanent or temporary basis. Some types of data tend to take a long time to compute, but utilizing the Cache API in your module can help your site load data more quickly.
Learn about resources to guide you through the process of updating a module or theme to the latest version of Drupal.
In Drupal’s core library there are a number of utility functions and classes that, as a module developer, you will find make your task easier or less tedious.
Plugins (Plugin API)
TopicPlugins are one of the ways that module developers can write code that extends Drupal. The Drupal Plugin API allows a module to provide functionality in an extensible, object-oriented way.
Upgrading is the process of moving your site from a previous major version of Drupal to a newer version, for example from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 or Drupal 9 to Drupal 10.
The Migrate API can be used to import content from an older Drupal site (Drupal 7 or older), or any other data source, into the current version of Drupal.
Themes provide the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other assets that are responsible for the look and feel of your site.
With so much data in so many places on the web, more and more site builders find that they need to get external data into their Drupal sites. It's a common problem with many ways to solve. One of the best ways to tackle this in Drupal is to use the Migrate module. The new Importing Data With Migrate and Drupal 7 series will teach you how to use the Migrate module to take data that exists in different source locations and import that into a Drupal 7 website.
The Render API consists of a standard format for describing data using structured arrays and a process for converting those arrays into the HTML a user sees when interacting with a Drupal site.
Drupal Core Modules
TopicA module is a set of PHP, JavaScript, and/or CSS files that extends site features and adds functionality. The Drupal core software comes with a set of modules that provide a range of features.
Ever peer at the laptop next to you while flying cross county and wonder how someone can work on developing their website when there is no Internet at 35,000 feet? They are developing it locally! All personal computers can be turned into personal web servers so that you can develop a website on your machine before pushing the code into a production environment. In this set of videos, Addison Berry walks you through how to:
Following on last week's videos about setting up local development web servers on Windows and Mac, we also have one for Ubuntu: Installing a web server on Ubuntu. This video is not explaining how to set up a big, beefy web server where you would host your real website. This video is just like the Mac and Windows ones, in that it helps you get your own personal web server on your desktop or laptop, to use for development and playing around with things.
PHP for Beginners Part 2
CourseDrupal's Entity API
CourseWell, today we finally wrap up our custom entity we've been working with in the Working with Entities in Drupal 7 series. To finish things up, we will be improving our entity property information, so that other parts of Drupal, like Views, can really make the best use of the data we have to present. We'll also explore entity metadata wrappers, which will make it much easier for us, and others, to get access to the info about our entities.
This Friday's podcast, The Mysterious Drupal Entity has Kyle, Joe, and Blake joined by Greg Dunlap to talk about Drupal entities. What are they? Why do we have them? What do they look like in Drupal 8? We look at it from both the developer and site builder sides to try and get a grip on a topic that leaves a lot of people scratching their heads.
Drupal Module Development
CourseOn the eve of DrupalCon Portland, we're happy to be able to get another free community video out, Installing and Using Dreditor. What's more exciting though, is that this video is part of our Community Tools workshop, and in an effort to spread Drupal community involvement further than where we can show up to run this free workshop, we're putting all of our materials and notes online for everyone to use freely, with the Community Tools curriculum.