May 28, 2009
What You Should Know About Drupal's Development Only Modules
Development modules are great when you are building a Drupal deployment. But, there are a few things you should know. You should know ...
How to use devel to its full potential
- see: Devel Project on Drupal.org
- tip: Enable the devel block for quick access to developer features
- tip: Instead of writing code like var_export($node); use the dev render and dev load pages generated by devel. Just log in as admin visit a node and click the tab.
- tip: Unless you really need it ... don't bother with the query logging features of devel. You should turn on the Slow Query Log in MySQL to automatically discover queries that are slowing down your code.
- tip: Learn how to generate users and nodes using devel. It's REALLY handy and you can quickly create data that mimicks a production environment (Instead of nodes that just say 'test this' and 'test that')
How to use coder module
- tip: Validate your custom modules and themes often to ensure your syntax is Drupal standard.
Converting modules from 5.x to 6.x is not that hard with the deadwood module
How to ensure development modules NEVER make it to live
- tip: Use subversion hooks to delete, yes literally delete, the sites/all/modules/development directory every time you do a live release. This ensures that there is no way these modules can be enabled.
Anything to add?
Development modules are great when you are building a Drupal deployment. But, there are a few things you should know. You should know ...
How to use devel to its full potential
- see: Devel Project on Drupal.org
- tip: Enable the devel block for quick access to developer features
- tip: Instead of writing code like var_export($node); use the dev render and dev load pages generated by devel. Just log in as admin visit a node and click the tab.
- tip: Unless you really need it ... don't bother with the query logging features of devel. You should turn on the Slow Query Log in MySQL to automatically discover queries that are slowing down your code.
- tip: Learn how to generate users and nodes using devel. It's REALLY handy and you can quickly create data that mimicks a production environment (Instead of nodes that just say 'test this' and 'test that')
How to use coder module
- tip: Validate your custom modules and themes often to ensure your syntax is Drupal standard.
Converting modules from 5.x to 6.x is not that hard with the deadwood module
How to ensure development modules NEVER make it to live
- tip: Use subversion hooks to delete, yes literally delete, the sites/all/modules/development directory every time you do a live release. This ensures that there is no way these modules can be enabled.
Anything to add?