Drupal isn't a content management system. It's an application development platform that happens to ship with a great CMS as it's default implementation. Look at any chart comparing features of development frameworks and you'll see user management and authentication, forms management and validation, data storage, database migrations, internationalization and translation, MVC model with flexible templating, unit testing, and caching. Sounds a lot like Drupal. We'll look at why Drupal is an ideal application development platform for apps beyond content management, talk about where Drupal can improve in these areas, and look at an example application.

1. Drupal as a Web
Framework

2. Adam Kalsey
adam@tropo.com
@akalsey
Tropo
www.Tropo.com
@tropo

3. “A web application framework is a software
framework that is designed to support the
development of dynamic websites, Web
applications and Web services. The
framework aims to alleviate the overhead
associated with common activities
performed in Web development.”
- Wikipedia

4. User
Management

5. user.module
fields.module

9. Database Access

10. $query = db_select('search_index',
'i', array('target' => 'slave'))-
>extend('SearchQuery')-
>extend('PagerDefault');
$query->join('node', 'n', 'n.nid =
i.sid');
$query
->condition('n.status', 1)
->addTag('node_access')
->searchExpression($keys, 'node');

11. $databases['default']['default'] = array(
'driver' => 'mysql',
'database' => 'databasename',
'username' => 'username',
'password' => 'password',
'host' => 'localhost',
'prefix' => 'main_',
'collation' => 'utf8_general_ci',
);
$databases['default']['default'] = array (
'database' => 'sites/default/files/.ht.sqlite',
'driver' => 'sqlite',
'prefix' => '',
);

12. function audioblogger_schema() {
$schema = array();
$schema['audioblogger'] = array(
'fields' => array(
'uid' => array('type' => 'int',
'unsigned' => TRUE, 'not null' => TRUE,
'default' => 0, 'disp-width' => '10'),
'bloguser' => array('type' =>
'varchar', 'length' => '255', 'not null'
=> TRUE),

13. $form['audioblogger']['phone'] = array(
'#type' => 'textfield',
'#title' => t('Phone'),
'#default_value' =>
empty($edit['phone']) ? '' :
$edit['phone'],
'#description' => t('The phone number
you usually will call in from.'));

14. function audioblogger_menu() {
$items = array();
$items['audioblogger/answer'] =
array(
'page callback' =>
'audioblogger_answer',
'access arguments' => array('access
content'),
'type' => MENU_NORMAL_ITEM,
);

15. #: includes/common.inc:344 modules/
system/system.admin.inc:1645
msgid "@site is currently under
maintenance. We should be back shortly.
Thank you for your patience."
msgstr ""
#: includes/common.inc:1211 modules/
blogapi/blogapi.module:739;749 modules/
upload/upload.admin.inc:98;107;136;145
msgid "MB"
msgstr ""

16. <?php if (isset($primary_links)) : ?>
<?php print theme('links',
$primary_links, array('class' => 'links
primary-links')) ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php if (isset($secondary_links)) : ?>
<?php print theme('links',
$secondary_links, array('class' =>
'links secondary-links')) ?>
<?php endif; ?>

18. What about
MVC?

19. /**
* Default implementation of
DrupalEntityControllerInterface.
*
* This class can be used as-is by most
simple entity types. Entity types
* requiring special handling can
extend the class.
*/
class DrupalDefaultEntityController
implements
DrupalEntityControllerInterface {

20. <?php if (isset($primary_links)) : ?>
<?php print theme('links',
$primary_links, array('class' =>
'links primary-links')) ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php if
(isset($secondary_links)) : ?>
<?php print theme('links',
$secondary_links, array('class' =>
'links secondary-links')) ?>
<?php endif; ?>

21. function audioblogger_menu() {
$items = array();
$items['audioblogger/answer'] =
array(
'page callback' =>
'audioblogger_answer',
'access arguments' =>
array('access content'),
'type' => MENU_NORMAL_ITEM,
);

25. What does Drupal
need?

26. Demo time

27. function frameworkdemo_menu() {
$items = array();
$items['demo/answer'] = array(
'page callback' => 'demo_answer',
'access arguments' => array('access
content'),
'type' => MENU_NORMAL_ITEM,
);
return $items;
}

28. function frameworkdemo_answer() {
include_once 'tropo.class.php';
$tropo = new Tropo();
$session = new Session();
$caller = $session->getFrom();
$number = $caller['id'];
$tropo->say('Thanks for coming!');
$_SESSION['caller'] = $number;
$tropo->on(array('event' =>
'continue', 'next'=> url('demo/
thanks/')));
frameworkdemo_save($number);
print $tropo;
}

29. www.Tropo.com

31. (604) 800-9142

32. Free developer accounts: http://Tropo.com
Demo module source:
https://github.com/akalsey/drupal-framework-demo
Slides: http://slideshare.com/akalsey/drupal-as-a-web-
framework
Follow us on Twitter: @Tropo
Me: Adam Kalsey | adam@tropo.com | @akalsey