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Drupal Development Tips

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Chris Tankersley
Chris Tankersley

Chris Tankersley has been doing PHP development for 9 years and has experience with both Drupal and non-Drupal projects. He discusses various tools for local Drupal development including Acquia Dev Desktop, Vagrant, Drupal SimpleTest, Drush, Backup and Migrate, Devel, and Features. He emphasizes writing tests before coding, using caching, and leveraging these tools to improve performance, portability, and the development workflow.

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May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 1 E-mail: chris@ctankersley.com Twitter: @dragonmantank App.net: @ctankersleyhttps://joind.in/8153
 ChrisTankersley  Doing PHP for 9Years  Lots of projects no one uses, and a few that some do  TL;DR https://github.com/dragonmantank  Heavy Drupal Development for 2 years May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 2
 Don’t use Drupal May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 3
 Don’t abuse Drupal May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 4
What powers your site May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 5
 Pre-built *AMP Stack  Available for Drupal 6 or 7  Install and Ready to Go May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 6 Advantages Disadvantages  Not built for multiple installs  Can’t use for existing sites  Only forWindows and Mac
 Best to use for module or theme development  I don’t like it for full site development May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 7
 Make use of the “Sites” option to help separate work  On Mac, only the /sites/all/ folder is writable  Even Sites you create are not writable  Don’t put the entire stack inVC, just your work May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 8
May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 9  Full server to run code  Self contained and can be replicated  Most modern machines can doVM Advantages Disadvantages  Uses more resources  Easier to break
 Best to use for full site development  Or use it all the time, it’s nice to have an environment you control May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 10
 Try and pick a distro that is close to your production setup. If you are running Redhat in production, set up an CentOS box  Set up the document root for your web server to be the /vagrant folder (or sub folder, depending on your site layout).This way your site will run automatically.  If you are running CentOS and Apache, disable SELinux so that Apache will use the /vagrant folder  Don't use PHP 5.4 with Drupal 7 or lower  Make sure APC, or some opcode cache, is installed  Provide lots of RAM, at least 1GB May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 11
 Run everything off of your local machine!  Great if you can do it, I like vagrant better May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 12
@grmpyprogrammer will track you down if you don’t May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 13
Automatically making sure your code works May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 14
 Write your tests before you code  Watch it fail  Write code to make your tests pass  Feel better May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 15
 Drupal ships with SimpleTest baked in  Supports unit testing and functional testing  Unit tests are done by extending DrupalUnitTestCase  Functional tests are done by extending DrupalWebTestCase May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 16
May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 17
 Unit tests do not bootstrap Drupal, so are very quick  FunctionalTests bootstrap Drupal, so are very slow May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 18
 The test runner is AJAX, so it can break very easily  Debugging can be hard since extra output breaks the test runner, and since the DB is destroyed watchdog() is useless  You can use $this->verbose(‘message’) or debug(‘message’) though May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 19
Your command line friend May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 20
Dump your database to an SQL file $ drush sql-dump --result-file=/PATH/TO/dump.sql Back up the entire site to a tarball $ drush archive-dump default View watchdog entries $ drush watchdog-list Update Drupal and modules $ drush pm-update Download module $ drush pm-download [module_name] May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 21
I couldn’t think of a good tagline that should go here May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 22
 Allows you to quickly back up the DB and move it  No need to use a DB GUI  Can do automatic local or remote backups  Useful for moving databases from one server to another May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 23
 Exposes a lot of the structure of Drupal  Things like nodes can be clicked through to see their object structure  Can auto-generate dummy content  Better debugging output  dpm() and dvm() for pretty output  dpr(), kpr(), and dvr() will dump to the page header May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 24
 Package system for Drupal  Takes a lot of stuff in the DB and makes it exportable and portable via code  Lot of stuff works out of the box, extra modules like UUID, boxes, and features_extra pick up the slack  ftools makes updating features easy May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 25
Understand it and harness its power May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 26
 Page caching for full output caching  Block caching so that dynamic content can still update if it needs to  You can configure how long to cache things for May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 27
 In Full Page Caching, most of the PHP isn’t run  Effectively turns your site into a static site (kind of)  With block caching, not all blocks will cache. What and when to cache is up to the block May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 28
It’s kind of like nuclear fusion, but without all the explosions May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 29
 Will group needed JS and CSS files together, reducing the number of HTTP requests  Will minify CSS, reducing some of the transmission size YOU have to make your modules take advantage of it, though May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 30
 Let Drupal know about your files  drupal_add_js()  drupal_add_css()  Add the files to your .info file  Don’t just add JS and CSS files via <script> and <style> tags in your theme May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 31
Really, ask. May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 32
 Acquia Dev Desktop  vagrant  Drupal SimpleTest  drush  Backup and Migrate  Devel  Features May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 33
May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 34 E-mail: chris@ctankersley.com Twitter: @dragonmantank App.net: @ctankersley https://joind.in/8153

More Related Content

Drupal Development Tips

  • 1. May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 1 E-mail: chris@ctankersley.com Twitter: @dragonmantank App.net: @ctankersleyhttps://joind.in/8153
  • 2.  ChrisTankersley  Doing PHP for 9Years  Lots of projects no one uses, and a few that some do  TL;DR https://github.com/dragonmantank  Heavy Drupal Development for 2 years May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 2
  • 3.  Don’t use Drupal May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 3
  • 4.  Don’t abuse Drupal May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 4
  • 5. What powers your site May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 5
  • 6.  Pre-built *AMP Stack  Available for Drupal 6 or 7  Install and Ready to Go May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 6 Advantages Disadvantages  Not built for multiple installs  Can’t use for existing sites  Only forWindows and Mac
  • 7.  Best to use for module or theme development  I don’t like it for full site development May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 7
  • 8.  Make use of the “Sites” option to help separate work  On Mac, only the /sites/all/ folder is writable  Even Sites you create are not writable  Don’t put the entire stack inVC, just your work May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 8
  • 9. May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 9  Full server to run code  Self contained and can be replicated  Most modern machines can doVM Advantages Disadvantages  Uses more resources  Easier to break
  • 10.  Best to use for full site development  Or use it all the time, it’s nice to have an environment you control May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 10
  • 11.  Try and pick a distro that is close to your production setup. If you are running Redhat in production, set up an CentOS box  Set up the document root for your web server to be the /vagrant folder (or sub folder, depending on your site layout).This way your site will run automatically.  If you are running CentOS and Apache, disable SELinux so that Apache will use the /vagrant folder  Don't use PHP 5.4 with Drupal 7 or lower  Make sure APC, or some opcode cache, is installed  Provide lots of RAM, at least 1GB May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 11
  • 12.  Run everything off of your local machine!  Great if you can do it, I like vagrant better May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 12
  • 13. @grmpyprogrammer will track you down if you don’t May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 13
  • 14. Automatically making sure your code works May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 14
  • 15.  Write your tests before you code  Watch it fail  Write code to make your tests pass  Feel better May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 15
  • 16.  Drupal ships with SimpleTest baked in  Supports unit testing and functional testing  Unit tests are done by extending DrupalUnitTestCase  Functional tests are done by extending DrupalWebTestCase May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 16
  • 17. May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 17
  • 18.  Unit tests do not bootstrap Drupal, so are very quick  FunctionalTests bootstrap Drupal, so are very slow May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 18
  • 19.  The test runner is AJAX, so it can break very easily  Debugging can be hard since extra output breaks the test runner, and since the DB is destroyed watchdog() is useless  You can use $this->verbose(‘message’) or debug(‘message’) though May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 19
  • 20. Your command line friend May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 20
  • 21. Dump your database to an SQL file $ drush sql-dump --result-file=/PATH/TO/dump.sql Back up the entire site to a tarball $ drush archive-dump default View watchdog entries $ drush watchdog-list Update Drupal and modules $ drush pm-update Download module $ drush pm-download [module_name] May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 21
  • 22. I couldn’t think of a good tagline that should go here May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 22
  • 23.  Allows you to quickly back up the DB and move it  No need to use a DB GUI  Can do automatic local or remote backups  Useful for moving databases from one server to another May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 23
  • 24.  Exposes a lot of the structure of Drupal  Things like nodes can be clicked through to see their object structure  Can auto-generate dummy content  Better debugging output  dpm() and dvm() for pretty output  dpr(), kpr(), and dvr() will dump to the page header May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 24
  • 25.  Package system for Drupal  Takes a lot of stuff in the DB and makes it exportable and portable via code  Lot of stuff works out of the box, extra modules like UUID, boxes, and features_extra pick up the slack  ftools makes updating features easy May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 25
  • 26. Understand it and harness its power May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 26
  • 27.  Page caching for full output caching  Block caching so that dynamic content can still update if it needs to  You can configure how long to cache things for May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 27
  • 28.  In Full Page Caching, most of the PHP isn’t run  Effectively turns your site into a static site (kind of)  With block caching, not all blocks will cache. What and when to cache is up to the block May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 28
  • 29. It’s kind of like nuclear fusion, but without all the explosions May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 29
  • 30.  Will group needed JS and CSS files together, reducing the number of HTTP requests  Will minify CSS, reducing some of the transmission size YOU have to make your modules take advantage of it, though May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 30
  • 31.  Let Drupal know about your files  drupal_add_js()  drupal_add_css()  Add the files to your .info file  Don’t just add JS and CSS files via <script> and <style> tags in your theme May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 31
  • 32. Really, ask. May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 32
  • 33.  Acquia Dev Desktop  vagrant  Drupal SimpleTest  drush  Backup and Migrate  Devel  Features May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 33
  • 34. May 16th, 2013 php|tek 2013 34 E-mail: chris@ctankersley.com Twitter: @dragonmantank App.net: @ctankersley https://joind.in/8153

Editor's Notes

  1. Show the acquiadev desktop
  2. Show the directory structure