Drupal 8 Module Development - Second Edition

Learn to create and customize impressive Drupal 8 modules to extend your website's functionalities

Key Features

• Explore a plethora of Drupal 8 APIs and get the best out of them using the power of PHP coding
• Learn to implement efficient data management and data security by creating dedicated modules for it.
• Stay up to date with the changes introduced in the new Drupal 8 releases

Book Description

Drupal 8 comes with a release cycle that allows for new functionality to be added at a much faster pace. However, this also means code deprecations and changing architecture that you need to stay on top of. This book updates the first edition and includes the new functionality introduced in versions up to, and including 8.7.

The book will first introduce you to the Drupal 8 architecture and its subsystems before diving into creating your first module with basic functionality. You will work with the Drupal logging and mailing systems, learn how to output data using the theme layer and work with menus and links programmatically. Then, you will learn how to work with different kinds of data storages, create custom entities, field types and leverage the Database API for lower level database queries.

You will further see how to introduce JavaScript into your module, work with the various file systems and ensure the code you write works on multilingual sites. Finally, you will learn how to programmatically work with Views, write automated tests for your functionality and also write secure code in general.

By the end, you will have learned how to develop your own custom module that can provide complex business solutions. And who knows, maybe you'll even contribute it back to the Drupal community.

Foreword by Dries Buytaert, founder of Drupal.

What you will learn

• Develop Drupal 8 modules that do all the things you want
• Master numerous Drupal 8 sub-systems and APIs in the process
• Model, store, manipulate and process data to serve your purposes
• Display data and content in a clean and secure way using the Drupal 8 theme system
• Test your business logic to prevent regressions
• Stay ahead of the curve and write code following the current best practices

Who this book is for

The primary target of this book is Drupal developers who want to learn how to write modules and develop in Drupal 8. It is also intended for Drupal site builders and PHP developers who have basic Object Oriented Programming skills.

A little bit of Symfony experience is helpful but not mandatory.

Table of Contents

1. Developing for Drupal 8
2. Creating Your First Module
3. Logging and Mailing
4. Theming
5. Menus and Menu Links
6. Data Modeling and Storage
7. Your Own Custom Entity and Plugin Types
8. The Database API
9. Custom Fields
10. Access Control
11. Caching
12. JavaScript and the Ajax API
13. Internationalization and Languages
14. Batches, Queues, and Cron
15. Views
16. Working with Files and Images
17. Automated Testing
18. Drupal 8 Security