5 Important Tools for Drupal Development

5 Important Tools for Drupal Development July 14, 2011

5 Important Tools for Drupal Development
Overview
A talk of 5 tools to aid you in developing, administering, and maintaining Drupal sites.
Goals
Spark an “ ah hah! ” moment
Introduce new ideas and techniques
Get you excited about Drupal
ANTHOLOGYMARKETING.COM

DRUPALCONTRIB.ORG
TOOL #1

Contrib is
how Drupal is extended and customized.
made up of 8292 modules today.
written by the community and shared under the same GNU Public License (GPL) as Drupal.
not shipped with Drupal core releases.
shaping future releases of Drupal.

drupalcontrib.org
Search contrib modules

Contrib API reference ANTHOLOGYMARKETING.COM

Add modules to documentation ANTHOLOGYMARKETING.COM

ADMINISTRATION MENU
TOOL #2

A simple administrative interface
The menu is theme independent
CSS-based drop down style menu
Eliminates unnecessary page loads and clicks
For D6, D7

A comparison
Create a new CCK field for a custom content type
Workflow #1 – without administration menu
Workflow #2 – with administration menu

Workflow example #1
Click on Administer

Workflow example #1
Click Content Types

Workflow example #1
Click manage fields

Workflow example #1
Find desired field row and click on configure

Workflow example #2
Navigate the admin menu until you find the desired field and click on configure

DRUSH
TOOL #3

What is drush?
Dru pal + sh ell = Drush
Drush is a command line shell and scripting interface for installing, developing, and maintaining Drupal sites.
Intended Users
Developers
Admins

Requirements
Server
CLI-mode capable PHP binary, PHP 5.2 or greater
Drupal 5.x-2.5 or later
SSH access

Installation
Download (and extract):
~ $ wget http://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/drush-7.x-4.4.tar.gz
ANTHOLOGYMARKETING.COM Make sure drush is executable: ~ $ chmod u+x /path/to/drush/drush Add Alias to ~/.bashrc: ~ $ alias drush= ‘ /path/to/drush/drush ’ Reload bash and type drush: ~ $ drush

Using Drush
Navigate to Drupal site folder:
~ $ cd /path/to/drupal/web
ANTHOLOGYMARKETING.COM Check site status: ~ $ drush status Drupal version : 6.22 Site URI : http://default Database driver : mysqli Database hostname : localhost Database username : drupaluser Database : Connected Drupal bootstrap : Successful etc…

Example use cases
Download (and extract) views module:
~ $ drush dl views
ANTHOLOGYMARKETING.COM Clear site cache: ~ $ drush cc Run cron: ~ $ drush cron Update core, enabled modules, and database: ~ $ drush up

DEVEL THEMER
TOOL #4

Devel Themer
Theming tool
Depends on Devel
No current stable release due to erratic behaviors in less stable browsers
Turn on/off with drush
For D6, D7

Drupal Theme ANTHOLOGYMARKETING.COM http://drupal.org/node/173880

Devel Themer in action
Theme hierarchy
Template information
Link to template source file
Possible names of overriding template files

Remember
Enable/Disable devel_themer with drush
After enabling, refresh your browser to load the themer
Check box turns themer on
Hover over elements on the page
Use suggested overrides and naming conventions
Clear cache and test theme

DRUPAL FOR FIREBUG
TOOL #5

Drupal for Firebug
Extends the Firefox browser plugin, Firebug
http://getfirebug.com/
Enhancing Drupal debugging through the browser console.
Provides insight into node, form, user objects
Works with Devel module to display SQL queries and execute PHP from the browser
Also works with Views if installed

Installing Drupal for Firebug
Install Firebug
http://getfirebug.com/
Install Drupal for Firebug Add-on:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/drupal-for-firebug/
Install Drupal for Firebug module:
http://drupal.org/project/drupalforfirebug

Viewing objects
Visualize the processing of objects
First the node is loaded
Then ready to be viewed
Then altered by modules

Helping developers
Developers can write to firebug log!
Example use in custom module:
ANTHOLOGYMARKETING.COM function firep($element, $title = NULL) http://jbenner.net/blog/drupal-for-firebug

Now available for Chrome!
Use your preferred developing browser!

Resources
Drupal API Reference
Drupal core: http://api.drupal.org
Drupal contrib: http://drupalcontrib.org
Administration Menu
Project page: http://drupal.org/project/admin_menu
Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YgnIFi73QI

Resources
Drush
Project page: http://drupal.org/project/drush
Home page: http://drush.ws
Installation: http://openspring.net/tip/how-to-install-drush-serverwide-in-less-than-one-minute
Devel Themer
Project page: http://drupal.org/project/devel_themer
Themable output: http://drupal.org/node/173880
Template preproccess: http://drupal.org/node/223430

Resources
Drupal for Firebug
Firebug: http://getfirebug.com/
Firefox Add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/drupal-for-firebug/
Chrome Add-on: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/imlijcpfmhmifofiihbofoamohkdbblc
Project page: http://drupal.org/project/drupalforfirebug
Review: http://jbenner.net/blog/drupal-for-firebug

Questions? ANTHOLOGYMARKETING.COM

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5 Important Tools for Drupal Development

by jcarrig on Jul 14, 2011

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