Book Review: A Programmer's Guide to Drupal
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The Good:
A concise introduction of Drupal best-practices for experienced programmers. -
The Bad:
It isn't the magical guide that fills the hole in my heart created by the lack of cTools documentation...perhaps a sequel could remedy this? -
The Unexpected:
Proves that there is something resembling a consensus on Drupal best-practices. Now we just need a client's guide to hiring conscientious Drupal developers.
Drupal and Programmers: Rarely Love at First Sight
Introducing experienced programmers to Drupal in a manner that won't make them consider ritual suicide has been a long-time goal of mine. For most of Drupal's history, the education of a seasoned Drupal programmer is measured in issue queue responses, API pages, and rolled patches. All of these things take time, a commodity which most programmers lack. Wouldn't it be great if someone made a condensed guide to Drupal that skips all that admin-screen junk and gets right to the code?
Enter Jennifer Hodgdon's (jhodgdon on Drupal.org) new book, A Programmer's Guide to Drupal. Hodgdon has written a very concise (the book barely crests 100 pages, code-samples and all) guide to Drupal's basic structure. It doesn't slow for stragglers; this tome is the fast-track to Drupal development standards. This pacing is much appreciated as a veteran Drupal programmer, although I wonder what new inductees might think about the accelerated overview. Nevertheless, I'm confident that, combined with the Drupal API and other, more in-depth resources, this guide is an excellent introduction to Drupal.
Drupal Discontent: What's Missing?
Hodgdon has filled a vital space; my biggest complaint is that her book doesn't go further into exploring some of the contributed libraries that power the some of the most important pieces of Drupal's ecosystem. For those outside of the know, I'm referring to Earl Mile's CTools library, utilized by Views, Panels, and many other modules. From my perspective, this is mostly a failure of the Drupal community as a whole. Although Miles himself published a guide to Drupal's Building Blocks several years back, his book fails to address the needs of programmers, and in many areas his documentation is somewhat lacking. A brief, programmer-readable exploration of the Chaos Wizard's domain would be a welcome addition to A Programmer's Guide to Drupal.
Crash Course: How To Use The Book
Drupal needs new blood. No matter if you run a Drupal shop, are a Drupal evangelist, or are just an interested freelancer, introducing knowledgeable PHP programmers to Drupal helps ensure that the ecosystem will remain viable in the long-run. Once you've made the initial Drupal pitch, this is the book to recommend.
Alec Reynolds
When his long-standing interest in programming and this "internet thing" became relevant to his entrepreneurial inclinations, Alec found himself helping launch a series of startups. This experience has provided Alec with a deep understanding of young businesses and the product development process, where he participates from the code to the customer.
