Drupal - Introduction to Drupal Creating Modules

Introduction to DrupalIntroduction to Drupal
Creating ModulesCreating Modules

Drupal Best PracticesDrupal Best Practices
Q. Why Is it important to practice good
programming habits?
A. Following best practices, and thoughtful
planning from the beginning, will ensure a well
received project outcome, limiting mistakes
while speeding development.

Organize your URLsOrganize your URLs
When creating views, set the paths for views pages according to your
architecture
When constructing sites with custom node types, user's blogs, or a neat
taxonomy use pathauto patterns to keep your url's organized.

Organize your file systemOrganize your file system
Create separate folders in your system for attachments
to each of your content types, users, taxonomy terms

Multisite installsMultisite installs
Along with the default site which should be the master in a multisite,
each site has to have it's own directory in sites/
that is the full name of the site
if each is a subdomain of the default site, some hosting
control panels create a sub directory for you, you
have to then delete that directory then create a
symlink in the docroot that points back to the
docroot so Drupal can handle addressing it
ln -s /var/www/html/ sub.sitename.com

In sites/all and/or sites/sitename create a modules and themes directory,
then in modules create custom and contrib
to keep drupal from slowing down keep this in mind drupal will read the
directory structure it needs to build each page, so only keep what is being
used by all your sites in sites/all
for instance, if one of the sites is ecommerce, put those modules in that sites
sites/sitename/modules/contrib directory
so that other sites don't read it, but any common modules, like views, token
… belong in
sites/all/modules/contrib

on that note, only put custom mods in sites/all/modules/custom if they are
being used by more than one site otherwise put them in
sites/all/sitename/modules/custom
the same can be said for custom themes although, I've never heard of them
having custom and contrib in themes it's sufficient to put master themes
in sites/all/themes and custom themes in sites/sitename/themes
if using the libraries module put your libraries directory into sites/all so they
are available everywhere
There's one GOTCHA you should be aware of, DON'T name your module
the same as your theme. Unusual behavior may ensue.

Indispensable ToolsIndispensable Tools
- Drush, GIT & Project Management Software
INSTALL DRUSH
Use Git
registry_rebuild
git hosting, there are a few choices, github, beanstalk,
assembla
some also offer issue tracking and project management

ModuleModule musts!musts!
you should be using almost all the top ten modules views, token,
ctools, pathauto, admin_menu
and some not so top ten that are just good suggestions like jquery_update,
context, entity, module_filter, libraries, profile2, realname, file entity
Advanced_help, google_analytics, workbench, rules, features and strongarm
may be good ideas as well

Honorable mentionsHonorable mentions
calendar, ckeditor, logintoboggan, display suite, seo_checklist,
seo_checker if your not using seven as your admin theme you
might want to add quicktabs module
development mods include devel, coder, devel_themer, variable,
drupal for firebug
Security mods security review, password_policy
some more suggestions FAQ, string overrides, "terms of use" or legal
in other words there's a mod for that

ThemingTheming
if you're creating a subtheme make your directory
outside of the master theme's directory but you don't
have to enable the master, but I think it would be a
good idea so if there's any updates available to the
master, drupal updates will let you know
copy the .info file and keep certain parts plus add base
theme = mastertheme so it knows where to inherit
things from
If you declare a region you have to declare all that you
want from core too
Stark and Garland don't declare any regions and inherit
drupals core regions

ThemingTheming
Seven declares 5
Content
Help
Page top
Page bottom
First sidebar
then hides one (regions_hidden[] = sidebar_first) I imagine only during
certain circumstances
and doesn't print or allow blocks to be entered into Page top and Page
bottom and it doesn't inherit the others from drupal core
This tells us that if you want to add your region to your theme, you have to
re-declare the drupal core regions that you want to keep

Code standards and secure codeCode standards and secure code
http://drupal.org/coding-standards
http://drupal.org/writing-secure-code
http://api.drupal.org/api/drupal
http://www.php.net
The best way to fix your site if it's broken is Googling it
Google site:drupal.org “your warning or error message here”

Some last thoughtsSome last thoughts
Don't hack core, but use it to learn how to add to it properly, inspect the
code and the api to add functionality in your theme or module.
If you want to modify an existing module, look through the issue queue for
that mod, create a “feature request” issue or offer your modifications
as patches.
If you are going to hack an existing module to customize it to your needs
and it would be too custom to give back to the community, that's ok
just namespace it. If your project is acme.com (some short but
descriptive name, not more than one word or acronym/abbreviation
without the .com) add that to the name of the module and global
replace the module's name in the code with the same convention
Files get renamed acme_example.module acme_example.info
acme_example.install
Functions get renamed acme_example_theme()
acme_example_render() acme_example_form_alter()
This way you can leave the original in your module directory and receive
updates to the module to adjust your version with whatever patching
to remain secure and updated

Some last thoughtsSome last thoughts
Most Drupal code (core and contrib) is well documented and a lot of the
community is working just as hard on that as on the code itself. Look in the
code of the modules/themes you want to use, a lot of them have comments
that are very revealing on how it gathers and displays it's variables. Views is well
commented especially the template files. Themers that have to craft views
template files should copy the appropriate tpl.php file from the views/theme
directory.
In the views ui, expand the advanced tab on the right. At the bottom now is the
theme info link, click it and an over lay will appear with the different template
filenames available for each output. The one's in use are in bold, the others are
suggested names for better targeting of that output. Choose the one filename
that's as specific as you need, copy the bold tpl.php file from the views/theme
to your custom theme and rename it with your selecion, and edit the markup
and variables in that file to suit your needs. Use dsm() or dpm() to print variables
you want to inspect while building the template.
One gotcha, clear the cache twice to see the results of any template changes.

ThankThank You !!!You !!!
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Drupal - Introduction to Drupal Creating Modules

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