Issue 170 - January, 1st 2015

I'm trying something new to start off 2015. This week I have included the most popular links from TheWeeklyDrop in 2014.

Most Popular of 2014

4 Tools You Should Definitely Use for Drupal Development

A good list of resources for devs from Web Omelette.

Do Not Clone the Database

It's not a good idea to copy your dev database to production. If you question this, you need to read this post.

No More CSS in Your Drupal Theme!

Amitai Burstein of Gizra shares how they do theming. I would love to hear more about this method of theming.

10 Things You Should Be Doing on Your Drupal Site

Nice list of tips from Web Omelette.

Chx Stepping Down from Drupal Core Work

Chx has been a fixture in core development for a long time. In this post he says after the D8 Migrate work is complete he will no longer work on core issues. I won't rehash what Chx says in his post but this seems like a good move.

6 Modules to Avoid Before Drupal 8 Arrives

Great advice from Steve Burge and Dave Reid.

3 Little Known Drupal Modules That Are Really Great

I have mentioned some of these before but this post from Appnovation Technologies is worth a look.

Headless Drupal? It Just Might Be a Bigger Deal Than Twig

A Journey of Drupal and WordPress

Mark Casias shares his experiences migrating a Drupal site to Wordpress. As someone who hasn't touched Wordpress in years I was surprised by several things Mark points out about the CMS.

5 Mistakes to Avoid on Your Drupal Website - Number 1: Architecture

A great post from Heather James covering common mistakes people make when building Drupal sites. I have seen many of this mistakes myself. If you are a site builder or even a developer you should check this out.

Drupal Sites That Are Already Using "Headless Drupal" Methods

How to Restore Your Hacked Site

Brian Lewis of Modules Unraveled created a video discussing how to check to see if your Drupal site was compromised.

5 Mistakes to Avoid on Your Drupal Website - Number 3: Performance

The Truth About WordPress

As the Drupal project and community becomes more connected with the PHP developer community we should also consider our counterparts in the Wordpress community. I agree with Brandon Savage that practice of throwing stones at the Wordpress project should stop.

Language, Twitter, Misunderstanding & Drupal Community

This year @mortendk stepped down from his position on the Drupal Association Board. In this post he explained why.

Should I Re-Use Existing Drupal Fields?

OSTraining's Steve Burge takes a look at an architectural part of the building Drupal sites that can bite you if you don't think about the decisions you are making early on in the project.

5 Mistakes to Avoid on Your Drupal Website - Number 4: Infrastructure

5 Mistakes to Avoid on Your Drupal Website - Number 2: Security

Now Running Drupal 8, in the Most Hipster Way Imagined.

Omega vs. Zen - Which Base Theme Should You Choose?

A nice comparison between the Zen and Omega themes from Friendly Machine.

Checklist: 13 Things to Test Before Your Website Launches

A nice pre-launch checklist from Mediacurrent's Director of Marketing Adam Waid.

Drupal WYSIWYG Best Practices

Chapter Three's Matthew Vaughan shares his approach to setting up a Drupal 7 WYSIWYG.

Another Botnet Spamming Drupal Web Sites, Causing Performance Issues

2bits reports on these attacks and offers information on how you can mitigate the risk.

Today There Are Zero Drupal 8 Beta Blockers! Here's What's Next.

Why You Should Not Always Use Drupal Features for Settings, and What You Can Use Instead

A really great recommendation on managing configuration in code by Blair Wadman.

Crawling the Top 15,000 Drupal Websites

Some interesting results from Kristian Polso research.

Seeing What Has Been Done in Drupal Theming

If you are a themer you will want to read this. Emma Jane Westby summarizes the choices new themers have to make and where theming in Drupal is headed. Be sure to check out the Magic module as well.

5 Mistakes to Avoid on Your Drupal Website

My Top 10 Drush Commands

Drush is awesome. Having Drush commands at my finger tips saves me a lot of clicking in the Drupal admin interface and ultimately makes me more productive. If you are new to Drush, you might find

5 Mistakes to Avoid on Your Drupal Website - Number 5: Maintenance

Heather James offers advice for maintaining a healthy Drupal site.