OMG I'm a Drupal developer, now what? Tips for Drupal Newcomers.

Posted Apr 16, 2009 // 10 comments

Drupal is becoming more popular every day.  And with that, the Lumberghs of the world  are going to pick Drupal and then drop it in your lap, simply because the company needs a CMS (say the letters, not “SeeMess”).  So now what?  Where do you start?  What's important?  What's not?  Auaughgh! 

OK, take a breathe, the panic is over, the fear has subsided.  I'm here to say that in a week or two, you will hit your stride, and you just might secretly have to thank Lumbergh.  Heh.  But for now, lets get you headed in the right direction.

Increasing your chances of success with Drupal is easy.  To start out, you have to get an understanding of what Drupal can and can not do.  You don't get in a car and try to fly it do you? Or go underwater with it?  No.  Same holds true with Drupal.

Now, if you are already working on your first site, that's OK.  You are in the water already, you might as well start swimming, take a few hours and look over this stuff to make sure you are not re-inventing the wheel.

Here is the breakdown of what I think a Drupal developer should know to hold his or her own.

Read about and understand:

• Preprocessing
• How hooks work
• Callbacks
• FAPI
• Taxonomy
• Overall structure

Know the difference between a:

• node
• region
• block
• view
• theme
• menu

Check out these modules:

• views
• pathauto
• cck
• flag
• imagecache
• devel

Of course, this just touches the surface, but it will get you going.

Another point I'd like to convey is that you can not be afraid of core or someone else's' code.  Hacking core is bad, but poking around in it to understand how things work is good.  There is nothing wrong with digging through someone's module to find out how it works.  Again, don't be afraid.

When you are starting out on a project, probably 95% of what you want to do has already been done.  Start simply.  Don't over think a solution.  Use what Drupal gives you.

Know this, you are going to be taking two steps forward, one step back (and sometimes three) but half the battle with any piece of software is knowing where to look, how to look for it, and who can help you.

For Getting Help:

• Check for Drupal meet ups in your area.
• Visit former Drupalcon sites (boston, DC), Lullabot for instructional screen casts, presentations, and video.
• Utilize the Drupal support IRC channel, and fellow developers in your company.
• Have the php.net, mysql docs, JQuery reference, and Drupal API urls handy.
• Joing a group at groups.drupal.org
• Use the issue queue if you need support with a module.
• Google and Drupal.org search.

Lastly, You are not alone.  Drupal is growing very fast.  That means more support for you, more people that are probably having the same problems.  But since it's a community, you can't always take, you also have to give back.

Make use of the Drupal community,  get on drupal.org, post, answer, get involved.