More Drupal nuggets
One of the things I find the most frustrating about Drupal and most pieces of software is that they have their own lingo, and functions. Working with Drupal code for a bit now, I’ve always wondered what the t() and l() functions did. t(‘some text’) facilitates string translation and makes translation to other languages easier.
l() is used to create links. so l(‘Library Web Chic’, ‘http://www.librarywebchic.net’) would create a text link saying “Library Web Chic” which linked to this site. This method is a lot quicker to use than writing up a href tags, particularly if you are in the middle of PHP code.
These are just a couple of examples of Drupal learning curve things, that once you know make your life easier. How am I learning about this stuff you ask? Well a colleague of mine, Mark Jordan at Simon Fraiser, recommended the book Pro Drupal Development. Its a very dense 600+ page beast, which is meant for people who want to develop Drupal modules. However, reading it has given me tremendous insight into how Drupal actually works. Chapter 1 & 2 were awesome and gave me a much better sense of how Drupal works. I’m re-reading Chapter 3 right now which is on Hooks, Actions, and Triggers. I’m pretty sure when I’m done with that chapter I’ll be able to write my own custom Actions/Triggers which will be a huge plus. I’m taking in other parts of the book in bits and pieces. As a mass it is sort of coma inducing. I mean please how much code can one read in a given sitting?
A few other Drupal books I’d highly recommend are the ones published by Packt. These are smaller, more compact and digestable. I’ve read Building Powerful and Robust Websites with Drupal 6, Drupal 6 Themes, and Drupal Multimedia. Building Powerful and Robust Websites with Drupal 6 was a little too simple for me by the time I picked it up, but I gosh I really wished I’d had it when I started working with Drupal. Drupal 6 Themes is good, a solid overview of theming both the coding parts and the point and click parts. I liked it a lot. My favorite of the bunch has been Drupal Multimedia, because I learned the most from it. I really hadn’t spent much time thinking about how Drupal could/would handle media. This book started me on the path of believing that Drupal would make a really good platform digital library stuff. O’Reilly also has a Drupal book out but I haven’t seen it yet.
There are also really cool and helpful videos about Drupal out there. My favorites are the Drupaltherapy ones. Using Drupal is a neverending learning process. The more you explore the more you find and the more you want to know.