By arthurhanlon on

Hi guys,

Am loving Drupal and have started using D7 to build some sites but I'm really interested in the guts of it from the ground up. I would really like to understand how it's put together right from the initial hit on the index.php.

I realise there is the API docs but I really want to figure out how the system works as a whole. My question is to all the new developers that have come to use and develop on the whole Drupal framework or any framework for that matter, what do you guys do with the codebase to understand how it's all put together, which files run when etc. Visually draw it out or is it like a Neo from the Matrix type thing ;)?

To give you an idea, I have a background in PHP programming and a firm understanding of what's what but have never really been involved in the development of anything remotely as large as Drupal.

Thanks in advance for any insights you can provide.

Cheers,
Arthur

⋅ Categories: Drupal 7.x

Comments

sjugge’s picture

sjugge commented

Hey,

I can recommend the Pro Drupal 7 Development book out on Apress, good stuff.

You should also check into the Devel module, it offers quite some insight to what is going on with the pages Drupal outputs and what happens to make that happen. There are other tools for benchmarking and profiling that will offer some insight to what goes on within Drupal.

I hope that sort of answers your question and gets you on the way to a better understanding of the Drupal code base.

arthurhanlon’s picture

arthurhanlon commented

Of course, the Devel module, I hadn't even considered that so thanks for the reminder. I think you're right on some kind of book, I think that will be my next step.

Thanks again,
Arthur

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

yes... 'pro drupal development' is the best by far imo. highly recommended.