Drupal has an amazing community of people who create the software and help each other make the best use of it. This is one of the main benefits of using Drupal — and everyone should take advantage of that.

Hooks allow modules to alter and extend the behavior of Drupal core, or another module. As a Drupal developer, understanding how to implement and invoke hooks is essential.

A site’s main navigation elements, whether they be in the header, footer, or sidebar, are composed of links built using Drupal's menu system. Drupal allows site administrators to build menus while also allowing module developers to add and alter menus in code.

A block is a reusable widget that is placed inside regions (layout containers) of your theme. Blocks can be used by site administrators on the Block layout admin page or provided by a module using the Plugin API.

A layout can describe how various components are arranged on various levels—from an entire page from the header to the footer, to just the “middle” where the dynamic content goes, to individual components. It can apply to templates for managed content or one-off designs for landing pages.

Development environments provide a sandbox where you can work on your application without affecting the live site.

A reliable backup will allow you to restore your site if something goes wrong.

The PhpStorm integrated development environment (IDE) contains dozens of useful features that make working with a Drupal codebase easier.

JavaScript files are included by a module or a theme by creating an asset library. Using this asset library system you can selectively choose which files to load, overwrite existing files, or customize them to suit your needs.

Drush is a command line interface that enables you to interact with your Drupal site without clicking around the graphical user interface (GUI).

Drupal provides a standard, secured method for module developers to add forms to a Drupal website. Learn how to use the Form API to build, validate, and submit a custom form.