Drupal is a recognized
open-source content management system (CMS) majorly used for
developing large, high-traffic websites. It is one such platform that
focuses on performance improvements, making it easier for developers
to build robust and feature-rich websites. It is written in PHP and
utilizes MySQL database. It offers an advanced programming interface
to developers, without having them to learn basic website and
installation programming skills.
Drupal can be utilized to build everything from personal blogs to business applications. Even though it is a streamlined platform for web development, it demands enough time and efforts especially if you’ve just got your hands on with it. There are certain best practices that can aid you in faster application development using Drupal development solutions, as well as improving the performance to tackle multiple websites. Let’s take a look at the best practices of Drupal you must keep in mind while deploying a large site.
4 Best Practices of Drupal Website Development
Understand Basic
Requirements: It is necessary to check the requirement
specifications thoroughly before jumping on to website development.
Don’t assume the functionalities on your own. List out all your
doubts and communicate it with your manager or client to have a clear
idea. You should understand what you are going to create – the kind
of content, layout of the site, the number of fields required, etc.
Use Version Control:
The version control under the files you’re working on tracks the
changes automatically. You can modify a file, delete a directory, add
a new file, and move the files or just do anything. But it might
change the state of the file. The version control waits until you
submit the changes altogether rather than recording each change
individually. This collection of actions in version control is called
‘commit’. Version control also offers additional benefits to
manage your code such as multiple people can work together on the
functionality and contribute. These changes are performed in an
orderly manner. You can roll back to the older version when something
is not working as desired. And it always has the history of whatever
you do.
Use Identical
Development Environment: Everyone has their own choice of
operating system and tools they want to use. While you’re
developing the website you have to ensure that it works on
production, which is a specific version of Linux running specific
version of Apache, PHP, and MySQL. While it is possible that the
developer uses MAC to develop the site and the tester uses Windows.
Fixing such platform specific problems is often painful. Also, you
should avoid enforcing similar platform. In such scenarios, using
Vagrant proves beneficial. It is a tool to manage virtual machines
(VM). It allows developers to work on their preferred machines
enabling the same environment for development similar to that of
others in the team.
Use Different
Database Server: Running large Drupal sites demands a lot of
resources on the server. In addition, Drupal stores all the
configuration and the content in the database and runs a MySQL server
on the same machine. This can be overkilling. So, it is recommended
to use a different server for databases keeping the latency issues in
mind.
These best practices of
Drupal development will certainly help you to plan your next Drupal
project effectively.
What are the other
Drupal best practices you are following for your web development?
Leave your comments below.
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