Newbie to Ninja... Drupal development training
http://drupal5.xcarnated.com/drupal-ninja-training
http://drupal5.xcarnated.com/node/22/s5
Your destination...
Overview
- Drupal basics
- Setting up a working development stack
- Editors, IDE's
- Coding standards
- Resources
- Helper modules
- Tips
Drupal basics
- Drupal is modular
- Core/Contributions
- Uses a hook system
- Content separate from presentation
Drupal hooks 101
- Core 'invokes' a hook.
- Modules implement the hook via a naming convention: modulename_hookname
- In module's hook code it can:
- Take actions pertaining to the module
- Return information to core
- Alter information or data from other modules
hook_menu()
- Maps a URI to the code needed to build the page
- Determines if the URI is accessible to a user
- Records the URI into a menu "tree" of related URIs and paths
- Adds a link to the "navigation" menu
- Remembers the paths that lead to a given URI for generating breadcrumbs
hook_form_alter()
- Forms represented as nested arrays
- After core builds a form, it passes the array around to other modules
- Modules can alter parts of the array (form), add to it, or delete it
Content != Presentation
Generally what happens is:
- Content is stored in the database
- When a page is requested, the content is retrieved from the database
- The content is processed and run through Drupal's theming system
- The HTML is built for the page
What Drupal needs
- Web Server (Apache, IIS)
- PHP (scripting language)
- Database server (MySQL, PostgreSQL)
The easy way – using *AMP
- Windows – WAMP
http://www.wampserver.com - Mac – MAMP
http://www.mamp.info - Linux – XAMMP
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xampp - Sun Solaris – SAMP
http://cooltools.sunsource.net/coolstack
Advantages
- Simple to download and install
- Mostly pre-configured for development needs
- Standalone (easy to uninstall)
- Other goodies (phpMyAdmin)
Video tutorials of MAMP/WAMP installation:
http://drupal.org/node/159534
Editors
Talking about 'the best editor/IDE' can often lead to a lot of different opinions...
An ideal editor/IDE would
- Load quickly
- Be intuitive/fast to navigate/use
- Cost nothing
- Be widely available
- Offer the ability for customization
- Color-code your programming language
- Support code completion
- Include a step debugger
Editors
- vi/vim: http://www.vim.org
- emacs: http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs
- Textmate: http://macromates.com (Mac)
- TextWrangler/BBEdit: http://www.barebones.com (Mac)
- EditPlus: http://www.editplus.com (Win)
- Notepad++: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net (Win)
- UltraEdit: http://www.ultraedit.com (Win)
- Kate: http://kate-editor.org (KDE)
- Quanta: http://quanta.kdewebdev.org (KDE)
IDEs
IDE = Integrated Development Environment
- Eclipse
http://www.eclipse.org
PDT (PHP) plugin: http://www.eclipse.org/pdt - Komodo
http://www.activestate.com/Products/komodo_ide - Zend Studio
http://www.zend.com/products/studio
Coding standards
Two kinds of standards:
Why?
- More consistent between developers
- Easier to read
- Allows for automated code documentation
- More secure
- Critical for getting core patches accepted
I'm stuck -- now what??
IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
- #drupal
General advocacy, development questions & discussion - #drupal-dev
Developer-centric -- lot's o' ninjas around... - #drupal-support
General support questions - #drupal-themes
Specific help for Drupal themers
Full Drupal IRC chatroom list: http://drupal.org/node/108355 -- or make your own!!
drupal.org Forums
- Support forum
http://drupal.org/forum/18 - Module development
http://drupal.org/forum/4 - Theme development
http://drupal.org/forum/3
Other resources
- Drupal Dojo
- Beginner lessons -- screencasts by ninjas
- http://drupaldojo.com
- #drupal-dojo
- http://lullabot.com -- consulting and training
- Hands-on articles
- Videos
- Podcasts
- Trainings/workshops
- Videocasts: http://drupal.org/videocasts
- Books: http://drupal.org/books
Helper modules
API module
- Code documentation
- Functions/hooks
- Files
- Constants
- Globals
- General topics (database layer, menu system, etc...)
- http://api.drupal.org
Devel module
- Cache clearing
- Variable inspection
- Catch outgoing e-mails
- Log database queries
- View page load time/memory usage
- Trace errors
- Theme editor
http://boston2008.drupalcon.org/session/themeing-theme-developer-module - Generate dummy users, nodes, and taxonomy terms.
Coder module
- Drupal coding standards
- Automatic module upgrade
- Secure text handling checker
- Performance review
Simpletest module
- Automated unit tests for Drupal
- Comes with a set of tests for core
- Writing tests for your module
http://drupal.org/simpletest
Tips
Master CVS/Project management
- CVS handbook
http://drupal.org/handbook/cvs - Project management/Release system
http://drupal.org/handbook/cvs/projects - DrupalCon session
http://boston2008.drupalcon.org/session/maintain-contributions
Tips from a super-ninja (chx)
- Use test scripts
Copy first two lines of index.php, then paste in your code. - Examine your variables
print_r(), var_dump(), var_export(), step debugger - exit() is your friend
Great for tracing down a crash.
Bisect your code flow with exit() calls until you locate the problem line. - Study core's code
More tips
- Clear your cache!
- Learn vi/vim
http://www.apmaths.uwo.ca/~xli/vim/vim_tutorial.html - Install API module locally
http://drupal.org/project/api - Document your work
- Take the next step on the ninja journey
http://boston2008.drupalcon.org/session/zen-and-art-drupal