Use the Configuration API to access configuration data stored by a module, provide default configuration, create settings forms, and other tasks such as overriding settings for a local environment.
Security
TopicKeeping a Drupal site secure requires monitoring security announcements, performing regular updates, and knowing how to properly use Drupal’s APIs to write secure code.
YAML
TopicYAML, which stands for YAML Ain't Markup Language, is a human-readable data serialization format that's been widely adopted in a variety of use cases in Drupal.
Learn about resources to guide you through the process of updating a module or theme to the latest version of Drupal.
The Migrate API can be used to import content from an older Drupal site (Drupal 7 or older), or any other data source, into the current version of Drupal.
Drupal Core Modules
TopicA module is a set of PHP, JavaScript, and/or CSS files that extends site features and adds functionality. The Drupal core software comes with a set of modules that provide a range of features.
Web services allow two or more applications to share data and instructions with one another across the Internet.
PHP namespaces provide a way in which to group related classes, interfaces, functions and constants. Drupal uses PSR-4 namespaces to autoload the correct PHP class from a file, accommodating variations in site structures.
Twig is a template engine for PHP, which is the language used in Drupal. Twig can be used to design templates in generic PHP applications as well as Drupal themes.
Learn Drupal
Guide
Drupal Console
TopicDrupal Console provided a command line utility for performing common site administration tasks, code generation scaffolding, and a Read-Evaluate-Print-Loop for interacting with your Drupal site.
It is no longer actively maintained. Use Drush instead.
YAML, which stands for YAML Ain't Markup Language, is a human-readable data serialization format that's been widely adopted in a variety of use cases in Drupal. Anyone wanting to write modules, or themes, for Drupal will need to understand YAML syntax. Even site builders are likely to encounter YAML at least in passing as YAML is the data-serialization format of choice for Drupal's configuration management system. Good thing it's pretty easy to learn even with the most basic of programming backgrounds.
This tutorial will look at the YAML data format and provide examples of how to write and read YAML. Starting with an introduction to the language's syntax and some of the strengths of YAML. Then looking at the difference between scalar data types like strings and integers, and collection data types like lists and associative arrays.
Since YAML in the Drupal world is read into PHP and ultimately becomes a PHP data structure that we can use in our own code we'll also look at how the YAML we write in a .yml file is represented in PHP data types. To do this we'll use the YAML Sandbox module that provides a handy textarea into which we can type YAML and have it parsed into PHP data structures.
Learning objectives
- Explain what YAML is and its strengths as a data serialization format
- Create scalar key/value pairs in YAML
- Create lists, and associative arrays using YAML collections
- Understand how the YAML you write is represented in PHP
Tips
- In Drupal, use the .yml extension and not .yaml
- Ensure your code editing application is configured to use spaces (preferably 2 spaces, as per Drupal coding standards), not the tab character when the TAB key is pressed. If you have tab characters in a YAML file within a Drupal environment, a fatal PHP error will be thrown and you'll see a White Screen of Death (WSOD).
- Copy and paste from an existing YAML file to ensure the formatting is correct, and edit from there.
Additional resources
- http://www.yaml.org
- YAML Sandbox module
- Find other tutorials and external resources related to YAML on our YAML topic page (Drupalize.Me)
Object-Oriented PHP
TopicObject-oriented PHP utilizes classes and objects to organize code into reusable chunks. This approach helps us organize complex applications, such as Drupal, into modular code called classes that can be reused across the entire system.
Caching in Drupal
TopicCaching in Drupal is controlled by Drupal's Cache API which is used to store any type of data on a permanent or temporary basis. Some types of data tend to take a long time to compute, but utilizing the Cache API in your module can help your site load data more quickly.
Performance and scalability determine how fast your application can serve a page and to how many users at a time.
Symfony
TopicSymfony is a set of reusable PHP components, and a framework for building PHP applications. Drupal makes use of various Symfony components.