By rahamatganz on

Hello! I am a new Drupal user. Actually I am learning Drupal from previous 4 months. Before using Drupal I used another popular CMS Joomla! but to say the truth Drupal is very very very feature rich CMS than Joomla! I have become a fan of this CMS.
I wonder why didn't I try this CMS before using Joomla! I also agree that Joomla! is very very easier to use than Drupal. It takes several months (or at least one year) to become a Drupal expert,m on the other hand you will learn to use Joomla! within a few days. But in the question of features and stability Drupal is the best.
In the past few months I have become a good Drupal user. But i want to become a Drupal master. my questions are as follows:
1) To become a Drupal expert which programming languages should I learn
2) To become a themeing expert for drupal what should I learn?
3) I have already read several books on Drupal such as: Pro Drupal development, Using Drupal, Drupal Multimedia, Building powerful and robust website using drupal 6. These books gave me the basics. But now I want to become a Drupal master. To achieve this which books should i buy? Please provide me some names of good books with the names of their writers.
4) To learn php for using in Drupal which books should I purchase.

Please any suggestion will be very helpful.

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

coreyp_1’s picture

coreyp_1 commented

To become a Drupal expert, you have to know everything about Drupal. You have to know how the data is structured (database), how the code is structured (PHP, the hook system, the theming layer, database abstraction, D5 vs D6 vs D7), what philosophies are involved (never hack, write extensible code, coding and documentation standards), what's going on in the community (development, contrib modules, themes), APIs of important contrib modules, why things are the way they are (Drupal history, contrib module history), what's coming (next version of core, contrib modules' development), where to find support documents, etc.

Experience is what makes someone a master. If you want more experience, then help here in the forums. When someone asks a question, don't just skip it because you don't know the answer. Try to figure it out, whether that means tracing code or looking through modules. Also, create ambitious projects, even if they never go live.

You learn by making mistakes. A lot of mistakes! You won't know how to use CCK, Views, Panels, Organic Groups, and all of the other common but important modules unless you spend time with them and push them to their limits.

You learn by pushing the limits of what is available. Anyone with a little bit of knowledge can put together a few pre-existing modules. You won't be considered a master, though, until you can take those modules and add your custom code to drastically change the appearance or functionality... without breaking anything! When someone says, "This doesn't look like Drupal!" or "I didn't know that Drupal could do this!" then you know that you've done your job.

You need to have a good command of:

  1. HTML
  2. CSS
  3. MySQL
  4. PHP
  5. Javascript
  6. XML
  7. Flash
  8. and, of course, Drupal itself

Yes, it's a lot, but that's why a good Drupal developer is worth so much.

-Corey

rahamatganz’s picture

rahamatganz commented

Thanks for your reply coreyp_1. I am very much interested to learn what you told. Will you please tell me from where can I learn those coding or where can I buy books for learning these stuffs? Will you refer me some good book titles to learn all these? Please coreyp_1 ! Thanks again

coreyp_1’s picture

coreyp_1 commented

There are many books that have been written for Drupal recently, but I do not have a recommendation for one above another. There weren't any books available when I began using Drupal 4 years ago, so I learned by doing.

The Handbooks also offer a lot of information, you just need to study them a while. They can answer many of your questions.

-Corey

Jamesroughton’s picture

Jamesroughton commented

Check out the book Drupal 6: Ultimate Community Site Guide, http://book.drupalfun.com/

or if you to purchase the modules and the site configuration you can click here http://book.drupalfun.com/socialnetwork

I found that this book has a lots of good information and the price is 5.50€

I am working on my own site now, ohbytheway.biz. Stop by to say hello or follow me on twitter at @jamesroughton

Good luck.

sachinpolekar’s picture

sachinpolekar commented

Very Good reference to start...

ichinpogs1’s picture

ichinpogs1 commented

I think concentrate 1st in any OOP's before proceeding to any CMS :). Try making things from scratch... then comeback here...

coolesting’s picture

coolesting commented

A another very important is that you could answer any questions in this forum by development users, maybe i think not exactly,
but i work for coding as a phper two years more.
i ever design a CMS, but i throw it when i saw the drupal having one time accidentally, the concept of drupal is very special to not like other CMS ,
actually, that is a CMF.(CMS+Framework)