By martinkong on

I have installed Drupal and installed a fair number of modules, and set up a simple intranet site for information sharing.

Now I would like to use Drupal as a development platform for our web application projects.

I've finished reading the "About Drupal", "Getting Started" and "Customization - Tutorials, Snippets and HowTo" handbooks, it all seems to make sense so far (though some articles are way over my head :). But I still find it hard to wrap my mind around the whole thing as to how to use Drupal as a development platform. All the examples I have seen so far mainly revolve around node presentation and editing. I have yet to find any good info. on the subject of "development platform":

- How do I insert some custom HTML/PHP pages into an existing Drupal site? These pages are not node related, in fact, these pages will need to get data from a remote NON-DRUPAL database. There will be forms (with Javascript) on these pages also. On the other hand, I would like to make use of Drupal APIs (e.g. check access, DB APIs) when building these pages.

- Say we want to develop a ERP module with its own DB schema. According to my understanding, a module will contain all the necessary back-end APIs, but where do I put all the screens? I know there is this theme engine stuff, but again, it seems very node/content type oriented. And how do I control the interaction and flow between the different screens?

- Does it make sense to just put our own .php files in the Drupal root directory, include the necessary boot strap, then just use Drupal's APIs directly. Therefore, bypassing Drupal index.php and probably forgoing a lot of Drupal's unique features like the hooks, theming, etc.

Hope someone can help here. Thanks!

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

ugerhard’s picture

ugerhard commented

You should have a look at the "Module developer's guide" in the Drupal documentation: http://drupal.org/node/508

What you want to do can be very probably be done by creating custom modules that hook your custom functionality into Drupal. I suggest you also pick up the book "Pro Drupal Development", http://www.drupalbook.com/, which will give you a structured and somewhat detailed look at how Drupal internally works and how to leverage the power of its internal APIs and functionality for your own custom applications.

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

This may be of interest as well
How to connect to multiple databases within Drupal

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

kaffeen’s picture

kaffeen commented

I am in somewhat of the same position as you. I am currently digging in to some very good books that I would recommend to anyone wanting some development help.

Pro Drupal Development
JQuery In Action

In addition, for a development overview (internal tools), I recommend this podcast (and the website too)...

http://www.lullabot.com/audiocast/drupal_podcast_no_31_drupal_developmen...

For me, these have been very good resources to date. I will expand my knowledge in other areas soon. I'm new to web development, but am an application programmer for over a decade. These books, website, and podcasts have been very beneficial so far. Highly recommended.

If you understand, things are just as they are. If you do not understand, things are just as they are. ~ Zen Proverb

martinkong’s picture

martinkong commented

Thanks to all the suggestions! Looks like more reading to do :)

I guess on the other hand, I'm also looking for reassurance that choosing Drupal as a development platform for web application is a good choice. Sometimes, it gets quite discouraging when going through those endless documentation on theming, FAPI, etc. It just seems overly flexible BUT complicated. And I know my application will need to be changed when I decide to migrate to D6.