Beginner Drupal Questions

[doakes]

Hi, first poster here.

 

I've been teaching myself PHP and know how to create my own CMS, but I'm wondering if using Drupal would be better.

 

I have a few questions that I hope could be answered:

 

1. What sort of flexibility does Drupal have when working with it's modules? For example say I find a module and I want to customize it, but the module itself doesn't allow for customization within the Drupal Core. Is it possible to go in and modify code? Ex. A calendar module that I could go in and change some of the code for it to work the way I want.

 

2. How much PHP would does one have to know to efficiently use Drupal (like the above example)? As mentioned, I'm teaching myself PHP and have taught myself the basics upwards to using MySQL creating databases, CMS's, login systems, etc. Is learning all this and possibly more necessary before I can use Drupal?

 

3. Does Drupal require any pre-planning? Can I stop halfway through coding my site and say "a Drupal module could really help me here" and just install it and work with it or would I have to know from the start that I want to use Drupal?

 

Thanks.

[trq]

1: It's written in PHP so yes.

2: That is completely subjective. People with very little PHP knowledge can make sites using Drupal. Obviously though, the more you know, the more in-depth you will be able to go.

3: Drupal isn't exactly a framework. I'm not sure you can use it's components outside of Drupal.

[DyslexicDog]

Drupal has a pretty tall learning curve, it's better to know some of the more popular modules out there before jumping in and trying to build a site with it. Check out the lullabot video series (worth every penny) for a good primer. I picked these up and made my money back x10 on my first drupal site. Drupal does require a little pre planning but then again every project / application does, that being said you can add new modules anytime you want and remove them too (little more time required here). You don't need a ton of PHP knowledge almost anything you need to do with drupal already has a module written for it. Yes you can modify any of the existing modules as they're written in PHP, beware this takes a strong PHP knowledge most of the time. Good luck...

[haku]

1. What sort of flexibility does Drupal have when working with it's modules? For example say I find a module and I want to customize it, but the module itself doesn't allow for customization within the Drupal Core. Is it possible to go in and modify code? Ex. A calendar module that I could go in and change some of the code for it to work the way I want.

You can change any code you want. However, it's strongly discouraged, as any future updates will overwrite your changes. Drupal is written in such a way that almost anything can be overridden. So you don't change the code in the module, you write your own module that alters the code in the module you want to change. This way your updates don't work when the module has an update. Now, sometimes your code will stop working depending on how they have changed their code, but this you still have your code to look at so you just alter it to deal with the new module code.

 

2. How much PHP would does one have to know to efficiently use Drupal (like the above example)? As mentioned, I'm teaching myself PHP and have taught myself the basics upwards to using MySQL creating databases, CMS's, login systems, etc. Is learning all this and possibly more necessary before I can use Drupal?

Yes and no. If you just want to use contributed modules, you effectively don't need to know any PHP whatsoever. If you want to customize and/or write code, then you will need to know as much as you can.

 

3. Does Drupal require any pre-planning? Can I stop halfway through coding my site and say "a Drupal module could really help me here" and just install it and work with it or would I have to know from the start that I want to use Drupal?

Drupal modules will not work outside Drupal (they require the Drupal framework APIs), and code written outside Drupal does not integrate with Drupal directly, it needs to be 'Drupalized' for proper integration. Some people force it, but it's sloppy coding, as it isn't true integration, and lots of problems creep up over time.

 

Drupal has a steep learning curve. If you are just looking to build one site for yourself, you can find something easier to work with a lot of the time (Wordpress is great unless you need a fairly heavy duty site). However, if you are looking to build lots of sites, Drupal is great to work with (I work almost exclusively in Drupal these days).