Avoid Mistakes With These Handy Solutions During Drupal Development

common-drupal-mistakes

When we talk about Content Management Systems (CMS), the first thing that clicks our naive minds is whether or not it is going to be the best option for creating our website? Times have changed. The custom methods of going through a lot of code and develop a web platform for customers is now a thing of the past. With the concept of CMS, one of the many names that we come across is none other than WordPress. It is, by far, considered one of the best CMS platforms because it offers a rather large directory of themes and plugins to its users. It has one of the highest engaging community and a lot more.

What many fail to realize is that it is not always the best possible solution when it comes to add dynamic elements and features to a website. In such cases, the open source content management system Drupal plays a significant role and has gained immense popularity! It offers customers unique functionality when it comes to website design and development. The CMS itself is designed and developed as a bug free product; however, most issues arrive while conducting development on it. To evade such hassles one should be completely be aware of which mistakes should be well taken care of.

Today, we are going to discuss some of the few mistakes that every Drupal developer should avoid while using the CMS application.

Irrelevant Content Architecture

If you are a content developer and a newbie with Drupal website development, you should avoid using irrelevant content architectures. Content plays a key role in adding life to your digital product. It is one of the reason why your brand name exists in the first place. Try not to use irrelevant content structures by including too many fields or content types within your website.

Mistake: Avoid fussing website up with too many content types

Solution: Standardize each content type in Drupal. For example, don’t make content types such as “Cars” and “Vehicles” as they can result in contradiction.

Mistake: Create New fields for every content type

Solution: Standardize fields for every content so they don’t clash with one another. For example, don’t make similar fields, such as fields for hospitals in a city, and doctors in a city as they may result in conflict.

Mistake: Make sure all content types are available with no nodes

Solution: Delete unnecessary content and filter the quality one out. Useless content type can create unnecessary complexity for your website structure and can result in functional degradation.

Irrelevant Website Roles & Modules

Content is not the only thing that matters. Your website architecture is another attribute that you should keep in mind while working on Drupal. You need to observe the number of modules that you are using and whether they are interactive with one another or not. To do so, keep in mind that you keep your website clean with minimal code. Few modules ensure the speed and performance and hence, the reliability of your CMS website.

Mistake: Avoid Entering a load of modules to your Drupal website. It will result in crashing it. You may have to conduct a detailed analysis later on.

Solution: Keep an analysis check on frequent basis as your website can result in enabling, disabling or removing unused modules from the code base. For example, your website is multilingual; however, it appears in English only. Result: Unused module deleted.

Mistakes: Don’t add too many roles on your website as it may result in creating security breaches and create maintenance issues.

Solution: Analyze permissions for variable roles on your website. Make sure to group roles so they can receive permissions when necessary.

Mistake: Never custom code using the wrong hooks on Drupal. Site behaviors can be unpredictable.  

Solution: While performing custom coding on your website, you should stick by the syntax available on drupal.org. Identify the right hooks and only bias yourself to using them. Self-creation is not always the best solution.

Fragile Security & Performance

Good security follows greater protection for your online presence. Although, Drupal platform comes with ultimate built-in security system that keeps your data safe; though it’s always best in your interest if you observe good practices when it comes to configuring your website on it. Plan your configuration steps as wisely as possible; This will give you the liberty to provide permission to only a few trusted users. In result, you get higher performance and observe less risk.  

Mistake: Avoid Using SQL queries in code rather than using Drupal API

Solution: Use Drupal’s Database Abstraction Layers.

Mistake: Avoid XSS – Cross-site Scripting. If you allow visitors parameters without checking them, it may result in client-side script errors and may contradict your page views.

Solution: Observe, analyze and refine any input entering your website from untrusted sources.

Mistake: Avoid CSRF – Cross-site Request Forgery. Unwanted URLs can create unprotected codes and enter them directly into your website. Post from forms can allow a request to originate from anywhere.

Solution: It is a good practice to use Drupal’s Form API only as they protect you against such attacks by introducing a token in each of your form.

Conclusion

Following are some of the basic mistakes that each Drupal user must avoid while handling Drupal CMS if they opt to create an online solution. One of the highest traffics are observed on websites which are built on Drupal. The CMS itself contributes within different niche including education, entertainment, and government.

Irrespective of the complexity level it has to offer, Drupal can be one of the best error free CMS solution which is incredibly functional, user-friendly and packs a lot of features. If you aren’t well acquainted with it, get yourself a hosting solution and give it a try! With a bit of tweaking around and watching tutorial videos, you may result in creating your perfect digital presence on the Internet.

Arturo Digital

Arturo Digital – An American technology firm providing Mobile Application Development, Website Development, Large/Small Ecommerce Stores, Website Portal Development & Digital Marketing Solutions for Entrepreneurs, Business Owners and Future Technologists alike. 

No Comments Yet

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

    GET IN TOUCH WITH US