This presentation is about making the call between writing custom code and using contributed modules. There will be no code snippets; it is more of a high-level look at Drupal customization and its pros and cons.
The material will be most useful to developers and project managers. This presentation will address questions like:
- When is custom code appropriate, and what are its costs?
- When should contrib solutions be investigated, and when are they overkill?
- Is there an acceptable way to hack Drupal?
- What are common tasks that usually end up requiring custom code?
- What are some best practices for maintaining custom code?
- What are some best practices for keeping track of contrib versions and patches?
- What are the general categories of custom code, and how do I approach them?
- What should developers say to managers when they ask for stuff?
- What should managers ask developers when asking for stuff?
After the session, attendees will be better able to:
- Choose appropriate implementations for feature requests
- Build more maintainable and team-friendly sites
- Stay realistic and accurate when it comes to the communication of estimates