inShare Drupal is quite simple to learn and harder to master. The ‘hook’ things may be challenging to get from the first time. Yet things do tend to be easier than they seem. So how does one get better with Drupal, a handy CMS that is becoming more and more popular as the days pass? Here is a nice little how-to consisting of 5 useful tips practically anybody may gain from. Step 1 – the resources will be your next bread and water for the time you are mastering Drupal Knowing the available resources is one of the major keys to success. A doctor will not be starting the surgery without a scalpel. A pilot will not be flying his jet without properly fueling his plane. The same may be related to any activity and especially development with Drupal. Try making the preparations in advance. Decide which version of Drupal you will be using. Older versions will do if you are working on an existing site that has not been updated (although in-time updates are highly recommended, especially due security issues) or the latest one to create a new web masterpiece. Set up the environment for it to work swell. WAMP/LAMP will do the trick, yet there are also alternatives. Think ahead, you know your weaknesses. Try asking the community for assistance in advance. The community is actually on of the strongest Drupal sides. Step 2 – The balance Zen is important as it is. Especially when using Drupal. You’ll need to find your balance to create something worth-full. Make sure you are inside your comfort zone while you are building a Drupal site using the core as well as some contributing models and themes straight from the given Administration interface. Thus you will make sure the existing modules are reusable without the need of rewriting the book. Make the process easy so a solution is found after your very first request. That will be the first action to take. The second is creating your own solution. That is effective time-saving. And improves the quality of your contributed modules. As an addition to all that you will have to understand how the themes work before working with them. You don’t have to be an all-star theme designer. Yet understanding the basics never hurts. Step 3 – Use what is there Do not re-invent the wheel. Use as much of existing modules as possible. They were made for this purpose only. Yet do not use them mindlessly. Look through them contributed modules you are going to use. Modify the code when necessary. See what happens after your influence. You may gain astonishing results that are unique without extra work that is unnecessary or even useless. Step 4 – The Core is like a museum of natural history or an exquisite art gallery: You may look yet keep the hands off Never, hear me? Never do you modify the Drupal core code. It will do you no good whatsoever unlike all the benefits such an action may be promising you. The temptation lies when promises. Drupal is quite flexible as it is. Use some module hooks or a bit of theme overrides, yet let the core code be. Legend says it that there are actually times when you will have to modify the code a bit to slay the mighty beast of the unsolvable issue yet those tales seem more of a fiction thing than true happenings. Well, actually, those are some actual options yet they are extremely painful and are more of an alternative solution you’d rather let be without getting near it. Step 5 – become the teacher Be involved in the Drupal community, post your ideas and solutions on forums, and help with development and testing of new patches, whatever. These activities will teach you more than you’ve expected as you are bond to face some new difficulties and overcome them. Plus forums are enormous wells of information. Lots of new may be learned there.