There are two types of mistakes, errors of ignorance (mistakes we make because we don’t know enough), and errors of ineptitude (mistakes we make because we don’t use of what we know). No matter how much of an expert you are, a well-designed checklist can improve outcomes. A checklist is a written guide that walks you through the key steps of a complex procedure. This session builds on popular presentations I’ve given multiple times including, “10 Steps Not To Forget After Installing Drupal” and “The Ultimate Drupal Launch Checklist” to provide tools to better manage Drupal projects. Taking inspiration from Atul Gawande’s “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right”, this session presents 4 checklists to improve results.

1. 4 Essential Checklists
to Manage Drupal Projects
Daniel Schiavone

2. Outline
Why checklists
Pre-development checklist
Buildout checklist
Launch checklist
Post launch checklist

3. There are two types of mistakes, errors of ignorance (mistakes we make because
we don’t know enough), and errors of ineptitude (mistakes we make because we
don’t use of what we know). No matter how much of an expert you are, a
well-designed checklist can improve outcomes. A checklist is a written guide that
walks you through the key steps of a complex procedure.

4. ❏ Pre-development - Dev Environment
● Drush
● Composer
● Git
● Gulp
● Php.ini (extra credit) – memory_limit and
upload_max_filesize settings

5. ❏ Pre-development - Modules
● Admin Toolbar
● Devel
● Display Suite
● Pathauto
● Redirect (For migrations)
● Reroute_email
● SMTP
Your list may vary...

6. ❏ Pre-development - Settings
● settings.php.local
○ Logging
○ Caching
● development.services.yml
○ Debug
○ Cache
● Configuration management
$config_directories[CONFIG_SYNC_DIRECTORY] =
'sites/default/sync';

7. ❏ Buildout - Users
● Account settings
● picture - (now a field)
● Emails
● Login/Logout destination
(Rules, LoginToboggan,
login_destination)
● Roles & Permissions

8. ❏ Buildout - Authoring
● Text formats (Served up by role and by the order they are
in)
● Plain text (For anonymous e.g. comments)
● Filter HTML (For regular users)
● Full HTML (For power users)

9. ❏ Buildout - Authoring - CKEditor
● Available buttons
● Filters

10. ❏ Buildout - Content Types
● Submission form settings
● Display settings (Doh! default is display author and date)
● Comments
○ Now a field (no longer enabled by default)
○ Disqus Module (turn off the reveal ads)

11. ❏ Buildout - Paths
● Install and enable Pathauto
● Setup default aliases
● The default is content/[node:title] (Nice try but...)
● Usability and SEO (Make it friendly for human beings, the
robots will understand it better)

12. ❏ Buildout - Displays
● Form Displays
○ Body field summary behavior
■ Smart Trim module
○ Assign image styles
○ Media browser settings
● View Displays
○ Add Display Suite Module

13. ❏ Buildout - Views - UI
● Pre configured views (e.g. Front Page, Content, Glossary)
● Do you know there are settings? Like...
● Show SQL query
● Show performance stats
● Always show advanced settings (Why not?)

14. ❏ Buildout - Media
● File System (public/private) – It will matter
● Image styles
○ Configure display sizes here and use them in displays everywhere
(nodes, views, etc.)
○ Media has view modes too now
● While you're at it configure Date and Time formats

15. ❏ Buildout - Notifications
● SMTP module
● Rules
● Reroute Email Module
○ $conf['reroute_email_enable'] = 1;
○ $conf['reroute_email_address'] = “developer@”
○ $conf['reroute_email_enable_message'] = 1;

16. ❏ Pre-launch - Performance
● Cache settings
● Aggregate js and css
● Views caching

17. ❏ Pre-launch - Details
● Login/Reset New Password/Sign up
− Themed?
● Registration
− Check email notification text
● Error Pages
− 403 Error (Access denied)*
● Redirect to Login?
− 404 Error (Page not found)*
− Customize → Chance to be creative and user friendly

18. ❏ Pre-launch - Cleanup
● Remove test data
● Check file security
● Run link checker (e.g. validator.w3.org/checklink,
linkchecker module)
● Content revisions?
● Backups?

19. ❏ Pre-launch - Admin Interface
Site Admin Experience (should have been done in development)
● Redirect to dashboard on login based on role (Rules)
● Buttons to add content (did you theme standard
markup?)

20. ❏ Pre-launch - Cross Browser Testing
● First with Firefox Dev Tools “View responsive layouts”
● Then with BrowserStack, Sauce Labs or Other
● Retina Support (Retina Image Module, svg, Borialis server)
● Mobile and Tablet Testing
(should be part of development)

21. ❏ Pre-launch - SEO
● Schema_Metatag module
● Automatic path configurations
● Simple Sitemap or XML Sitemap
● Other tools
○ SEO Tools
○ Intelligence

22. ❏ Pre-launch - Cleanup
● Check status report and logs
○ Latest release?
○ Fix what's causing log entries / switch to syslog server
○ Lots of modules available for improved logging
● Disable devel modules

23. Pre-Launch Check
Other Testing Tools
● Notifications
− Litmus – Test and track emails
● Powermapper – Website tools

24. ❏ Launch
● Redirect to www via settings.php
● SSL Certificate + settings.php
● Point DNS (Use TTL setting for faster update)
● Test, test, test
Never on a Friday (don't spoil your weekend)

25. ❏ Launch - settings.php magic
if (!isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_SSL']) ||
(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_SSL']) &&
$_SERVER['HTTP_X_SSL'] != 'ON')) {
header('HTTP/1.0 301 Moved Permanently');
header('Location: https://www.yoursite.com'.
$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
exit();
}

26. ❏ Launch - Almost there
● Optimize performance settings
● Logging and errors
○ Users should not see error display
○ admin/config/development/logging
● Mail delivery
○ Server vs SMTP vs Mandrill / Sendgrid
○ reroute_mail module – Reroute all site mail based on environment for
testing

27. ❏ Post Launch
● Daily backups
● Google Analytics
● Configure Google Webmaster and Bing Webmaster Tools
● Submit to search engines
● SEO Checklist Module

28. ❏ Post Launch - Brag!
● Client
● Will there be a press release (to who)?
● Industry media?
● Agency
● Have you prepared?
● Where?
● Blog
● Social Media
● Newsletter
● DDO Marketplace

29. References

30. Pay it forward
Get to the checklist https://tinyurl.com/ydcmk7xp and contribute

31. Questions
Daniel Schiavone
www.SnakeHill.net
Daniel@SnakeHill.net
@schiavo
@Snake_Hill
DDO: schiavone