Learning Drupal 6 Module Development

A practical tutorial for creating your first Drupal 6 modules with PHP.

With great power comes... tremendous flexibility. Drupal is an award-winning open-source Content Management System, and the feature-packed sixth release is right around the corner. It's a modular system, with an elegant hook-based architecture, and great code. These are a few of the perks that make Drupal a choice platform for developers who want the power of an established CMS, but the freedom to make it work for them. From social networking to AJAX to e-commerce, the hundreds of existing modules attest to Drupal's flexibility. When you create a new module for Drupal, it fits seamlessly into the look and feel of your overall site. If you can think it in PHP, you can code it as a Drupal module.

Build and extend flexible Drupal sites and applications with this up-to-date, expert guide to Drupal 9 module development Key FeaturesExplore the essential Drupal 9 APIs for module developmentLearn how to implement data modeling, caching, architecture, and much more in your Drupal applicationsDiscover what’s new in the latest Drupal core releasesBook Description With its latest release, Drupal 9, the popular open source CMS platform has been updated with new functionalities for building complex Drupal apps with ease. This third edition of the Drupal Module Development guide covers these new Drupal features, helping you to stay on top of code deprecations and the changing architecture with every release. The book starts by introducing you to the Drupal 9 architecture and its subsystems before showing you how to create your first module with basic functionality. You’ll explore the Drupal logging and mailing systems, learn how to output data using the theme layer, and work with menus and links programmatically. Once you’ve understood the different kinds of data storage, this Drupal guide will demonstrate how to create custom entities and field types and leverage the Database API for lower-level database queries. You’ll also learn how to introduce JavaScript into your module, work with various file systems, and ensure that your code works on multilingual sites. Finally, you’ll work with Views, create automated tests for your functionality, and write secure code. By the end of the book, you’ll have learned how to develop custom modules that can provide solutions to complex business problems, and who knows, maybe you’ll even contribute to the Drupal community! What you will learnDevelop custom Drupal 9 modules for your applicationsMaster different Drupal 9 subsystems and APIsModel, store, manipulate, and process data for effective data managementDisplay data and content in a clean and secure way using the theme systemTest your business logic to prevent regressionStay ahead of the curve and write PHP code by implementing best practicesWho this book is for If you are a Drupal developer looking to learn Drupal 9 to write modules for your sites, this book is for you. Drupal site builders and PHP developers with basic object-oriented programming skills will also find this book helpful. Although not necessary, some Symfony experience will help with understanding concepts easily.

Pro Drupal 7 Development updates the most popular development reference for the release of Drupal 7. With several new and completely-rewritten essential APIs and improvements in Drupal 7, this book will not only teach developers how to write modules ranging from simple to complex, but also how Drupal itself works. Learn the Drupal APIs and major changes in Drupal 7 Learn how to write Drupal modules using the APIs Learn proper development practices and how to become a contributing community member

"This hands-on tutorial will teach Drupal developers across the experience spectrum how to use Attachment displays in Views, to make quick progress in functionality and added-value to users! Views are a common way to display a collection of similar content types on one page. This book provides several examples of introducing additional displays onto a web page, and having them interact with each other. The result is pages that provide several types of information and behave more like a desktop application, increasing the value to your site visitors"--Resource description p.

“Even if you’re already a seasoned Drupal user of CCK, Views, or Panels, I’ve no doubt that this book will provide you with several new techniques and methods for getting the most out of these extremely essential modules. It certainly has for me.” —Dries Buytaert, founder and project lead of Drupal, and CTO of Acquia With Drupal, Web professionals can create full-featured Web sites with just a few clicks. Drupal’s core is compact and well documented, but much of Drupal’s immense power lies elsewhere—in external modules. Drupal’s Building Blocks is an authoritative tutorial, reference, and cookbook for Drupal’s most valuable modules. The authors are Drupal insiders who’ve spent years creating and supporting these modules—Earl Miles, developer of the Views and Panels modules, and Lynette Miles, Drupal documentation team member. They’ve brought together indispensable information you won’t find anywhere else, as well as extensive sample “recipe” code designed for easy adaptation and reuse. Learn how to Use Content Construction Kit (CCK) to customize your data input forms around your needs Improve site flexibility with Drupal’s node system Add optional field types, including PHP-based fields Customize themes to display data more attractively and legibly Build powerful Views query displays Integrate with SQL databases Customize Views with relationships, arguments, and filters Optimize query performance Add custom styles with the Panels module Maintain full control over sites as you deploy into production This book will help you create more powerful, flexible, usable, and manageable Web sites—whether you’re a Web developer, designer, administrator, architect, or consultant. The accompanying Web site contains all examples, code, and themes presented in this book.

Learn to create and customize impressive Drupal 8 modules to extend your website's functionalities Key FeaturesExplore a plethora of Drupal 8 APIs and get the best out of them using the power of PHP codingLearn to implement efficient data management and data security by creating dedicated modules for it.Stay up to date with the changes introduced in the new Drupal 8 releasesBook Description Drupal 8 comes with a release cycle that allows for new functionality to be added at a much faster pace. However, this also means code deprecations and changing architecture that you need to stay on top of. This book updates the first edition and includes the new functionality introduced in versions up to, and including 8.7. The book will first introduce you to the Drupal 8 architecture and its subsystems before diving into creating your first module with basic functionality. You will work with the Drupal logging and mailing systems, learn how to output data using the theme layer and work with menus and links programmatically. Then, you will learn how to work with different kinds of data storages, create custom entities, field types and leverage the Database API for lower level database queries. You will further see how to introduce JavaScript into your module, work with the various file systems and ensure the code you write works on multilingual sites. Finally, you will learn how to programmatically work with Views, write automated tests for your functionality and also write secure code in general. By the end, you will have learned how to develop your own custom module that can provide complex business solutions. And who knows, maybe you’ll even contribute it back to the Drupal community. Foreword by Dries Buytaert, founder of Drupal. What you will learnDevelop Drupal 8 modules that do all the things you wantMaster numerous Drupal 8 sub-systems and APIs in the process Model, store, manipulate and process data to serve your purposesDisplay data and content in a clean and secure way using the Drupal 8 theme systemTest your business logic to prevent regressionsStay ahead of the curve and write code following the current best practicesWho this book is for The primary target of this book is Drupal developers who want to learn how to write modules and develop in Drupal 8. It is also intended for Drupal site builders and PHP developers who have basic Object Oriented Programming skills. A little bit of Symfony experience is helpful but not mandatory.

Learn to create and customize impressive Drupal 8 modules to extend your website's functionalities About This Book Unleash the power of Drupal 8 programming by creating efficient modules and extensions Explore a plethora of Drupal 8 APIs and get the best out of them using the power of PHP coding Learn to implement efficient data management and data security by creating dedicated modules for it. Who This Book Is For The primary target of this book is Drupal developers who want to learn how to write modules and carry out development in Drupal 8. It is also intended for Drupal site builders and PHP developers who have basic Object Oriented Programming skills. A little bit of Symfony experience is helpful but not mandatory. What You Will Learn Write a Drupal 8 module with custom functionality and hook into various extension points Master numerous Drupal 8 sub-systems and APIs Model, store, and manipulate data in various ways and for various purposes Display data and content in a presentable and secure way Learn about the theme system and render arrays In Detail Drupal is an open source web-based content management system (CMS) that can be used for building anything from simple websites to complex applications. It enables individuals and organizations to build platforms that engage users and deliver the right content at the right time. Drupal 8 is an exciting new development in the Drupal community. However, the differences from the previous version are substantial and this can put quite some pressure on Drupal 7 developers that need to catch up. This book aims to help such developers in getting up to speed with Drupal 8 module development. The book first introduces you to the Drupal 8 architecture and its subsystems before diving into creating your first module with basic functionality. Building upon that, you will cover many core APIs and functionalities available to module developers. You will work with the Drupal logging and mailing systems, learn how to output data using the theme layer and work with menus and links programmatically. Then, you will learn how to work with different kinds of data storages, create custom entities, field types and leverage the Database API for lower level database queries. Moreover, you will learn about the Drupal 8 access system and caching layer as well as the APIs used for data processing (queues and batches). You will further see how to introduce javascript into your module, work with the various file systems and ensure the code you write works on multilingual sites. Finally, you will learn how to programmatically work with Views, write automated tests for your functionality and also write secure code in general. By the end of the book, you will have learned how to develop your own custom module from scratch that can help solve a small problem or even provide complex functionality. And who knows, maybe you'll even contribute it back to the Drupal community. Style and approach This book aims to introduce PHP developers to programming concepts specific to Drupal 8 to get them started on writing their own functionality with Drupal 8 and create efficient Drupal 8 modules and extensions.