Modules

Drupal's API contains a pretty good description of how node access works (developers should also analyze the node_access function itself). There are many contributed node access control modules for Drupal and you really should understand the basics of node access before installing and configuring one. The API should suffice for developers but for the benefit of our many community members who build sites without reading code, here is a translation and some basic rules of thumb:

Fellow Philly Drupaler Jody Hamilton has a great post up on her blog detailing some time-saving tips for working with Drupal, from mundane tasks such as using FireFox's "start searching when I start typing" function, to more advanced ones such as:

Submit a patch

This might not seem like a time-saving tip but I've come to believe it really is. It turns out the only difference between being a frightful Drupal hacker and an esteemed Drupal contributor is whether or not you submitted a patch. I used to always hear "don't hack Drupal" and wonder how the hell these people thought that was possible when surely we all know there are dark corners of code where the override and hook systems never reach. Finally I realized they probably just submit a patch and call it 'contributing' instead of 'hacking'. Actually I didn't realize this until some point after I joined them.

When you get in the habit of submitting a patch immediately after debugging or adding a new feature to a module, it will only take you a few minutes to do. The time savings comes from the fact that you now have other eyes on your work. Sometimes the module maintainer will turn around and point out to me a bug in my patch that I hadn't yet tested for. Usually they will eventually commit my patch, which may be a time-savings for me on some future project or when upgrading the current one. Or they might give me a tip like "upgrade to my latest version you idiot because it's actually way better" which is valuable to know. Maybe they will like my code so much that they will offer me marriage or employment, which could be side benefits on my time-saving mission.

While I'm not sure I'd advise anyone to propose marriage based off of a good Drupal patch (then again, I've heard many other, much worse, reasons to propose), the rest of her post is spot on!

I created this post to use as a companion piece for a presentation I'm giving at the Philly PHP Meetup's "Drupal Show and Tell" event. I also highly recommend checking out these two podocasts/posts on Lullabot: 50 Drupal Tips and Tricks and Top 40 Projects.

The big three

• CCK - Drupal comes with a few "out-of-the-box" content types - pages, blogs, forums, stories, and books - but these are fairly simple and very restricted without the help of the mighty Content Creation Kit. CCK allows you to create your own custom content types, or add new fields to the core content types. There are many add-ons for CCK that extend Drupal's content without any programing.
• Views - Simply put Views is a list of information, but there really isn't much else simple about this powerful module, accept a simple fact: you cannot build a professional Drupal site without this module.
• Panels 2 - Laying out pages has never been easier or more user friendly. Some designers look down upon this because of Drupal's theming system, but the drag and drop functions and ease of control over various elements make this a must have module.

Some of the most useful modules in Drupal are also the most intimidating, mainly because they get into a deeper level of understanding Drupal, which can be akin to learning a new language. This post will feature tutorials and such about two of the most vital modules, Views and CCK, and I'll try to update it as I find new and useful information that I think can help people who are just giving it a go.