1. Drupal Training
Module Building

2. Preparing for
Development

3. Preparing for
Development
• Have a clear development workflow

4. Preparing for
Development
• Have a clear development workflow
• Learn (and adopt) Drupal’s coding
standards

5. Preparing for
Development
• Have a clear development workflow
• Learn (and adopt) Drupal’s coding
standards
• Take time to invest in your tools

6. Drupal’s Extenisbility

7. Drupal’s Extenisbility
• Drupal’s goal is “infinite extensibility” - this
is what Drupal is generally optimizing for

8. Drupal’s Extenisbility
• Drupal’s goal is “infinite extensibility” - this
is what Drupal is generally optimizing for
• The same APIs that define Drupal’s core
functionality are available to you as a
module developer

9. Drupal’s Extenisbility
• Drupal’s goal is “infinite extensibility” - this
is what Drupal is generally optimizing for
• The same APIs that define Drupal’s core
functionality are available to you as a
module developer
• The hook system!

10. The Anatomy of a
Module

11. The Anatomy of a
Module
• my_module.info

12. The Anatomy of a
Module
• my_module.info
• my_module.module

13. The Anatomy of a
Module
• my_module.info
• my_module.module
• my_module.install

14. Database Abstraction
Layer

15. Database Abstraction
Layer
• Drupal provides a procedural wrapper to
provide support for multiple types of
databases (essentially MySQL and
PostgreSQL)

16. Database Abstraction
Layer
• Drupal provides a procedural wrapper to
provide support for multiple types of
databases (essentially MySQL and
PostgreSQL)
• A thin (and somewhat outdated) wrapper
around the underlying SQL

17. Database Abstraction
Layer
• Drupal provides a procedural wrapper to
provide support for multiple types of
databases (essentially MySQL and
PostgreSQL)
• A thin (and somewhat outdated) wrapper
around the underlying SQL
• On it’s way out (Drupal 7 introduces a new
db layer based on PDO)

18. db_query()

19. db_query()
• run a basic query in the active database

20. db_query()
• run a basic query in the active database
• any number of arguments are substituted
into the query using printf() syntax.

21. db_fetch_result()

22. db_fetch_result()
• Return an individual result (not row) from
the previous query

23. db_fetch_result()
• Return an individual result (not row) from
the previous query

24. db_fetch_object
db_fetch_array

25. db_fetch_object
db_fetch_array
• db_fetch_object() and db_fetch_array()
fetch a row from the previous query as an
object or array, respectively

26. db_fetch_object
db_fetch_array
• db_fetch_object() and db_fetch_array()
fetch a row from the previous query as an
object or array, respectively

27. drupal_write_record()

28. drupal_write_record()
• Write or update a record in the database
based upon the schema starting with an
object or array

29. drupal_write_record()
• Write or update a record in the database
based upon the schema starting with an
object or array

30. The Hook System

31. The Hook System
• both core and contrib provide a set of
“hooks” that your module can implement
to add functionality to existing operations

32. The Hook System
• both core and contrib provide a set of
“hooks” that your module can implement
to add functionality to existing operations
• your module registers to be notified of a
particular operation by implementing a
hook

33. The Hook System
• sample hook:
• sample implementation:
• called by:

34. The Anatomy of the
php template engine

35. The Anatomy of the
php template engine
• Files

36. The Anatomy of the
php template engine
• Files
• .info

37. The Anatomy of the
php template engine
• Files
• .info
• .template

38. The Anatomy of the
php template engine
• Files
• .info
• .template
• .tpl.php

39. The Anatomy of the
php template engine
• Files
• .info
• .template
• .tpl.php
• javascript/css/images

40. Anatomy cont.

41. Theme Registry

42. Theme Registry
• modules must implement hook_theme to
declare their themable functions and
templates

43. Theme Registry
• modules must implement hook_theme to
declare their themable functions and
templates
• these functions must be titled
theme_function_name

44. Theme Registry
• modules must implement hook_theme to
declare their themable functions and
templates
• these functions must be titled
theme_function_name
• theme(‘function_name’, $param) is then
used to call the function

45. Implementing
hook_theme()

46. Providing a default
theme function

47. Providing a default
template