The Recipe for Drupal Module Development

A module is a bundle of PHP code and supporting files that use Drupal’s APIs and architecture to integrate new functional components into the Drupal framework.The Drupal site will have three kinds of modules:

1. Core modules that ship with Drupal and are approved by core developers and the community
2. Contributed module which is written by Drupal community and shared under the same GPL as Drupal
3. Costom modules created by website developers

Drupal Module Architecture

Drupal’s module mechanism is designed to provide a uniform method of extending Drupal’s capabilities. To create a Drupal module, one must first be familiar with Drupal framework and its APIs. The files that make up modules are grouped into specific locations under Drupal’s directory structure. During the Drupal installation on a server’s file system, Drupal modules must reside in a few specific locations. When Drupal needs any information about its modules, it will look into these pre-specified locations.

Each Drupal module contains in its own directory and has at least two files –

1.       One describing module content
2.       One or more files containing code and other supporting material

Once the module has been created, it has to be enabled by the Drupal administrator before it can be used.

Developer Module

The Devel Module on Drupal offers several tools that are extremely useful in Drupal development, including cache management, SQL debugging tools, investigation tools, module reinstaller API reference tool among others.  Devel module provides these tools as items in a block. Once the module has been installed, the developer goes to-

Administer | Site building | Modules and enable the module, and then go to Administer | Site building | Blocks to tell Drupal where to display the new content.

The Devel module also includes tools for building themes, a macro generator to simulate form data entry and a tool to generate testing data. As the module continues to improve, new features will be added.

Coder Module

Drupal developers have to follow rigid conventions in their code and the Coder Module has been designed to locate and fix codes that do not adhere to these conventions.  Coder module also helps in doing some basic security auditing regarding how text is handled which is useful for spotting mistakes before they become security risks.

Coder can also help in developing “Drupalish” code which adheres to coding guidelines and makes use of data structures common in Drupal.

Drupal’s architecture is very rigid and the developers adhere to certain styles, practices and approaches that mesh well with Drupal philosophy.

Few interesting facts about Drupal

Drupal is a popular open source content management system that is being used by a plethora of webmasters for an efficient website control. It is a free to download software with numerous useful functions that make it a powerful database driven system. Features and functionalities that make Drupal so popular and attractive are:

• Drupal is an open source application, so, it is highly flexible and open to customization without extensive code rewriting.
•  Drupal is open to all sorts of customization like appearance, theme, content presentation, color combination, etc. to meet all the user preferences
•  Adding required features is also very easy in Drupal. The basic Drupal system has many modules, building blocks, theme templates, etc. over which customization could be easily conducted for the desired look and feel of your site
•  Managing the roles and authority is also very convenient in Drupal. User groups with desired permission and role could be set so that no any individual without required permission views, edit, upload or manipulate the website content.
• ‘Built-in Search’ features in Drupal application that make it easy for any user to search and locate the content uploaded on the site CMS
• Promoting articles are also very convenient using Drupal CMS. Initializing discussion and comments on published content, voting on items and other such publicity tricks could be easily implemented.
• Tracking of content details like creation, upload, update, edit and any other change is very systematic. Tracing the individual responsible for any particular content related issue is also possible.
• Drupalapplication supports RSS content syndication, so anyone with an RSS reader can visit your site feed
•  Drupal’s permalink feature is very useful in linking other sites from your site. This feature creates a permanent link with each content uploaded to the CMS
•  Drupal is a multi-platform compatible application. It can run on Apache, Microsoft IIS, Unix/Linux, Windows, Mac, and others
•   It is also multi-language platform that can attract international audience and allows by supporting multi-lingual web site
• Drupal has tools for analysis and tracking of information related to your websites. Option of taking printout of vital statistics is also embedded
• It is administered by an assigned administrator who can login and manage the site from any place where internet is available

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