Drupal Best Practices: Stick to the Drupal Way and Leverage APIs

Drupal is a powerful and flexible content management system (CMS) with a robust ecosystem of tools and features. However, one of the keys to building maintainable, scalable, and secure Drupal websites is to stick to the Drupal way, which means leveraging Drupal's core APIs and using contributed modules wherever possible.

By following this best practice, you can ensure that your site remains flexible, integrates seamlessly with Drupal’s architecture, and avoids potential pitfalls caused by hard-coding custom logic. In this blog post, we’ll dive deep into the following key topics:

  1. Leveraging Drupal’s Core APIs: Why it’s important to use Drupal’s APIs (such as the Entity, Form, and Render APIs) instead of hard-coding logic.
  2. Contributed Modules: The importance of using Drupal’s extensive ecosystem of contributed modules to extend functionality rather than building custom solutions from scratch.
  3. The Benefits of Sticking to the Drupal Way: How following Drupal’s established conventions improves maintainability, scalability, and security.
  4. Practical Examples: Examples of how to use Drupal’s APIs and contributed modules effectively in real-world scenarios.
  5. Common Mistakes to Avoid: Pitfalls to watch out for when developing in Drupal and how to avoid them.

By the end of this post, you’ll understand why sticking to the Drupal way is essential for long-term success and how you can leverage the full potential of Drupal’s APIs and modules.

The Importance of Using Drupal's Core APIs

One of the biggest strengths of Drupal is the wide array of core APIs that it provides for developers. These APIs allow you to interact with the system in a consistent and stable way, ensuring that your customizations align with Drupal’s architecture and are compatible with future updates.

Some of the most important Drupal APIs include:

  1. Entity API: Manages Drupal’s entities, such as nodes, users, taxonomy terms, and more.
  2. Form API: Handles form creation, validation, and submission processes.
  3. Render API: Defines how content is rendered on the page and allows for flexible theming.
  4. Menu API: Manages navigation menus and routes within the site.
  5. Field API: Handles the addition and management of fields on entities.

By using these APIs, you gain several key benefits:

  • Consistency: Your code will follow the same patterns and logic as Drupal core, making it easier for other developers to understand and maintain.
  • Stability: Drupal’s core APIs are designed to be stable across versions, meaning that your customizations are less likely to break when you update Drupal.
  • Extendibility: APIs are designed to be extensible, allowing you to modify behavior without needing to rewrite or duplicate functionality.
  • Security: Core APIs handle many aspects of security (e.g., form submission validation, access control), reducing the risk of introducing vulnerabilities.

Let’s look at some of these APIs in more detail and how you can use them effectively.

Entity API: Managing Content the Right Way

The Entity API is central to how Drupal manages data. Nodes, taxonomy terms, users, and many other objects in Drupal are treated as entities. Instead of writing custom SQL queries to interact with this data, you should always use the Entity API to handle create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations.

Example: Loading and Modifying a Node

Here’s a simple example of how to load and modify a node using the Entity API:

// Load a node by its ID.
$node = \Drupal::entityTypeManager()->getStorage('node')->load($nid);

// Modify the node's title.
$node->setTitle('Updated Title');

// Save the node.
$node->save();

This approach ensures that you’re interacting with the node in a way that’s consistent with Drupal’s architecture. The Entity API abstracts away the complexity of direct database access, making your code cleaner and more secure.

Form API: Building Forms with Validation and Security

Drupal’s Form API provides a standardized way to build and manage forms. The Form API handles form validation, submission, and rendering, ensuring that your forms are secure and consistent with Drupal’s UI patterns.

Example: Building a Custom Form

Here’s an example of how to build a simple custom form using the Form API:

use Drupal\Core\Form\FormBase;
use Drupal\Core\Form\FormStateInterface;

class CustomForm extends FormBase {

  public function getFormId() {
    return 'custom_form';
  }

  public function buildForm(array $form, FormStateInterface $form_state) {
    $form['name'] = [
      '#type' => 'textfield',
      '#title' => $this->t('Your Name'),
    ];

    $form['submit'] = [
      '#type' => 'submit',
      '#value' => $this->t('Submit'),
    ];

    return $form;
  }

  public function submitForm(array &$form, FormStateInterface $form_state) {
    drupal_set_message($this->t('Hello, @name!', ['@name' => $form_state->getValue('name')]));
  }
}

In this example, the Form API handles the form’s input, validation, and submission, reducing the amount of boilerplate code you need to write. It also ensures that the form adheres to Drupal’s security standards, such as escaping output and preventing CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery) attacks.

Render API: Rendering Content the Drupal Way

The Render API controls how content is displayed on a page. When outputting content, it’s essential to use the Render API to ensure that everything is properly sanitized and themeable.

Example: Rendering a Block with the Render API

Here’s an example of how to render a block using the Render API:

$build = [
  '#markup' => $this->t('This is a custom block!'),
];

return $build;

By using the Render API, you allow Drupal’s theming system to take control of how the content is displayed, making your site more flexible and easier to theme.

Contributed Modules: Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

Drupal has an extensive ecosystem of contributed modules that add functionality to your site without requiring custom development. These modules are created and maintained by the Drupal community and often go through rigorous testing and review processes.

Before writing custom code, always check if there’s an existing module that can solve your problem. This saves development time, reduces complexity, and ensures that your site benefits from the community’s best practices.

Popular Contributed Modules You Should Use

  1. Views: Provides a powerful UI for creating lists, tables, and other displays of content. Views is one of the most widely used modules in Drupal and should always be used when you need to display content in a dynamic way.
  2. Paragraphs: Allows you to create flexible, reusable content components that can be used within nodes or other entities. Paragraphs is great for building complex content structures while keeping content editing user-friendly.
  3. Pathauto: Automatically generates URL aliases for content based on patterns you define (e.g., /blog/my-post-title instead of /node/123). This helps with SEO and improves the user experience.
  4. Devel: A suite of tools for developers that makes debugging and development much easier.
  5. Entity Reference Revisions: Extends the Entity Reference field to support revisions, making it a great choice for managing related content with version control.

Example: Using Views to Create a Custom Content List

Instead of building a custom query to fetch and display a list of nodes, you should use Views, which provides a powerful, flexible interface for creating content displays without writing code.

Here’s a simple use case for Views:

  • Create a new view from the admin interface.
  • Set the display format to a table or grid.
  • Filter content by type (e.g., show only blog posts).
  • Add fields (e.g., title, author, publication date) to the display.
  • Set sorting and pagination options.

This simple process, which might take hours to build with custom code, can be done in minutes with Views. Plus, Views integrates seamlessly with other parts of Drupal, such as permissions, theming, and caching.

Why You Should Avoid Custom Solutions When Contributed Modules Exist

  • Time Savings: Using existing modules saves development time and effort.
  • Community Support: Contributed modules are often maintained by a large community of developers, meaning you benefit from regular updates, security fixes, and new features.
  • Tested and Proven: Popular contributed modules are widely used across thousands of Drupal sites, ensuring they are stable and reliable.

The Benefits of Sticking to the Drupal Way

Now that we’ve covered the importance of using Drupal’s APIs and contributed modules, let’s summarize the key benefits of following this approach:

1. Maintainability

By sticking to Drupal’s APIs and using contributed modules, you make your site easier to maintain. When future updates to Drupal are released, you’re less likely to encounter breaking changes because your code follows Drupal’s standards.

2. Scalability

Using APIs and modules designed to work within Drupal’s architecture ensures that your site can grow and scale over time. For example, using the Entity API allows you to handle millions of nodes without needing to rewrite your data access logic.

3. Security

Drupal’s core APIs handle many of the security concerns that arise during development. By using these APIs, you avoid common security pitfalls such as SQL injection, XSS (Cross-Site Scripting), and CSRF attacks.

4. Developer Collaboration

When your site follows the Drupal way, other developers familiar with

Drupal can more easily contribute to your project. This fosters collaboration and ensures that your code is understandable and consistent with community standards.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Despite the many benefits of using Drupal’s APIs and modules, developers sometimes fall into the trap of hard-coding custom solutions. Here are some common mistakes to watch out for:

1. Hard-Coding URLs or Logic

Avoid hard-coding URLs or business logic directly into templates or custom modules. Instead, use the Router API or Menu API to define routes dynamically. This ensures that your URLs are easily maintainable and translatable.

2. Writing Custom SQL Queries

Avoid writing custom SQL queries to retrieve content or entities. Use the Entity API or Views instead. Custom queries can lead to security vulnerabilities, and they are harder to maintain as your site grows.

3. Ignoring Contributed Modules

Before writing custom functionality, always check if a contributed module exists. Reinventing the wheel leads to unnecessary development work and missed opportunities to use well-tested, community-supported solutions.

Conclusion

Sticking to the Drupal way by using core APIs and leveraging contributed modules is essential for building scalable, maintainable, and secure Drupal websites. Whether you’re interacting with content through the Entity API, building forms with the Form API, or displaying content with Views, following these best practices ensures that your site aligns with Drupal’s architecture and community standards.

By avoiding custom solutions when there’s an API or contributed module available, you not only save time and effort but also build a website that’s easier to maintain and extend in the long run. So, the next time you’re tempted to write custom code, remember: stick to the Drupal way!

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