By mark_ian_newton on

Hi All,

Whats the best way to learn drupal module development?

I am guessing this comes up a fair bit.  But if I was looking to learn drupal 8 module development, does anyone have any recommendations for books to learn from?  Or am I better off with online courses?

I am currently going through the freecodecamp tutorials (which don't cover PHP nevermind drupal module dev).  Therefore I am a complete new comer to Drupal (although I did dabble making a module under Drupal 5),

Any advice highly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Mark.

⋅ Categories: Drupal 8.x

Comments

jaypan’s picture

jaypan
Location Victoria, BC
commented

I can only give my own experience. I don't say it's the best or worst path, just a path, one that worked for me.

I started out first with a book on module site development. It had very little code references in it, other than a bit of HTML/CSS. It showed how to use Drupal, and how to build a Drupal site.

Next I moved onto two books on Drupal module development. Both of them went into various coding examples, and how to use some Drupal APIs to create nodes through code etc. Simple stuff, but it gave a solid foundation for understanding.

Then I went through a number of Packt Publishing books on Drupal. Some on using media, various modules, views, drush, stuff like that.

All the while, I read the forums here, and when people asked questions, I'd pick up ones that I thought I maybe would be able to work with, and tried to solve the problems myself. Sometimes I could help others, sometimes others would post a response that would help me.

For me the single biggest learning tool has probably been these forums, and Drupal Answers. Books gave a generic understanding of how Drupal development works, but the forums give real-world actual issues that Drupal developers are facing.

Contact me to contract me for D7 -> D10/11 migrations.

mark_ian_newton’s picture

mark_ian_newton commented

Hi Jaypan,

Thanks for you thoughts they are greatly appreciated!

I think I have solidish understanding of how to build a drupal website.  I built this in Drupal 7 - although I didn't really code anything, which I guess i pretty obvious.  I made a lot of mistakes with this website.  However I want to port it into Drupal 8 (which I have started doing...I guess I need to progress faster with it).

I guess I just need to select one of the books and start there.  Maybe after that see if I can help out with maintaining some of the modules / helping in the forums.  That seems like a good idea to me and the best way to learn?

Thanks again for all your help,

Mark.