How to develop Drupal on multiple machines

By Vigile on 27 May 2008 at 21:25 UTC

I travel quite a bit and will be on a flight to Asia for 14 hours (28 hours round trip) next week and I'd like to spend that time working on the Drupal project. I have setup WAMP on my notebook with PHP, Apache and Mysql working just fine. What I need:

* An easy way to transfer the database (files are already really easy) from our dev server to my notebook and then back again.
* Any resources that I might want to reference while disconnected? (Any permanent version of Drupal APIs perhaps)?
* Any editing tools that make editing PHP code and template files easy (maybe even easier for mobile machines)?
* Anything else that you guys might suggest!

Comments

I guess this thread should

Vigile commented 27 May 2008 at 21:27

I guess this thread should be titled "help me work on the road" but I couldn't find the thread editing button. :D

Depending on your dev server

gpk commented 27 May 2008 at 22:48

Depending on your dev server setup you would use phpMyAdmin or mysqldump (?) to get a DB copy then use your local phpMyAdmin to import.

Don't forget you may need the whole of your sites/ folder, not just files.

http://drupal.org/project/api.

Some people like to code in Notepad, others like Eclipse (which integrates with Xdebug to give you full PHP debugging if you need it).

One of the textbooks on Drupal module development might provide light relief ;)

BTW first make sure you can run a clean Drupal install locally.

gpk
----
www.alexoria.co.uk

Thanks for the feedback!

Vigile commented 27 May 2008 at 23:08

Thanks for the feedback! The development server is a Fedora 8 box so phpmyadmin should work.

I'll give Eclipse a try...

As for the API - that module puts a local copy of ALL the Drupal documentation to the local site? What about handbooks, etc?

http://drupal.org/node/14279

gpk commented 28 May 2008 at 06:46

http://drupal.org/node/14279 - see Off-lie copies

Eclipse has its own way of organising things into "workspaces" and "projects" that it forces on you .... once you've worked it out it's OK but till then can be a bit confusing. There is info on this site on setting it up optimally for Drupal.

gpk
----
www.alexoria.co.uk

Of course I don't see a

Vigile commented 29 May 2008 at 07:16

Of course I don't see a Drupal 6 version of API module...is there one I am missing?

No. http://api.drupal.org

gpk commented 29 May 2008 at 07:38

No. http://api.drupal.org currently runs on D5 anyway. Shouldn't be a problem for you.

gpk
----
www.alexoria.co.uk

How do I get an offline

Vigile commented 30 May 2008 at 21:28

How do I get an offline version of this to take with me on the road?

Go to the API project page

gpk commented 30 May 2008 at 22:41

Go to the API project page then hit Read documentation. To get the module you can just use the ordinary download link rather than the link to the CVS repository near the top of the documentation.

gpk
----
www.alexoria.co.uk

I like using the Backup and

tnanek commented 1 June 2008 at 10:28

I like using the Backup and Migrate module for database backups - it will make a file on the server with the whole database in it. Then if you have a blank install of the same version on the second computer, you can use that same file through the same module to import it and not have to deal with incompatibilities.

I have a backup script executing that I once tried to import through phpMyAdmin with no luck, had to get someone else's help to get the site up and working ASAP, so to avoid incompatibilities, when I manually make a backup, I use something within Drupal so it doesn't matter what computer I access it on, assuming I have drupal on the second computer, I can easily import it using that same module.

I would suggest you make the database access information the same to prevent there being issues with that, so during the install you set up the settings.php file to be as it should be, coy the rest of the files would need to be copied in the regular way, import the database, then you're good to go.

OpenKomodo

yelvington commented 27 May 2008 at 23:10

If you tell OpenKomodo to scan your Drupal directory, it will offer autocompletion and pop up argument hints for any Drupal API functions you call in your module.

It has a whole lot of other benefits for code development, too, like built-in support for scp/sftp read/write, although that's not going to help you if you're in the 45th row on a Boeing 747.

thanks, I will give

dipen chaudhary commented 1 June 2008 at 03:12

thanks, I will give openkomodo a ride, I have been using notepad ++ .. but autocomplete would be awesome ..

--------------------------------------------------------
Dipen Chaudhary
www.dipenchaudhary.com

--------------------------------------------------------
Dipen Chaudhary
www.qed42.com ( Drupal development services specialize in social networks and other user generated content platforms )
www.dipenchaudhary.com

Eclipse is also worth a

gpk commented 1 June 2008 at 10:50

Eclipse is also worth a look. And with Xdebug you then get PHP debugging :) You can also do this with Komodo, but whether Open Komodo supports PHP debugging I don't know.

gpk
----
www.alexoria.co.uk

hi gpk Do you know of a good

dipen chaudhary commented 2 June 2008 at 10:10

hi gpk
Do you know of a good link which explains about setting up development environment in eclipse ? I mean debugging, by debugging I mean remote debugging (remote can be localhost too) .. I can set break points but only file I can start execution is index.php .. suppose i wanna debug http://localhost/node/add/test and I set a breakpoint point somewhere in cck module, I would want to see debuggin information that way, that is by giving urls and setting breakpoints in source code .. I know its possible, but couldn't figure out how.. I tried some time back, no success !!
--------------------------------------------------------
Dipen Chaudhary
www.dipenchaudhary.com

Sorry no I don't have any

gpk commented 2 June 2008 at 10:29

Sorry no I don't have any links to hand.. I remember similar problems/irritations. I think if you set your breakpoints then tell Eclipse to debug index.php as a PHP web script with Xdebug (or something) it should be OK. Once you have initialised the debugging stuff it all seems to work OK and you can go to the URL that uses the code of interest to you - the debugging session remains active from one page request to the next until you end the debug session from within Eclipse. I do this (only very occasionally) in conjunction with XAMPP running on my XP PC.

>only file I can start execution is index.php
That's correct, all Drupal page requests go through this (sorry, I'm probably stating the more than obvious!!!)

HTH,

gpk
----
www.alexoria.co.uk

Correction. You might pick

gpk commented 2 June 2008 at 21:07

Correction. You might pick up a few tips here!
http://drupal.org/node/147267

gpk
----
www.alexoria.co.uk

power in planes?

KingMoore commented 31 May 2008 at 01:17

Does your plane give you a way to plug your lappy in? I always take my laptop, but it's only good for about 2 hours then i'm out of juice.

I think this one might - its

Vigile commented 1 June 2008 at 05:19

I think this one might - its a new 777. At least I hope so!!

How to develop Drupal on multiple machines

Comments

I guess this thread should

Depending on your dev server

Thanks for the feedback!

http://drupal.org/node/14279

Of course I don't see a

No. http://api.drupal.org

How do I get an offline

Go to the API project page

I like using the Backup and

OpenKomodo

thanks, I will give

Eclipse is also worth a

hi gpk Do you know of a good

Sorry no I don't have any

Correction. You might pick

power in planes?

I think this one might - its

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