Tutorials

An effective method of using Config Split

If you use Drupal 8's configuration system, then you know that one of the trickiest parts of using it effectively is managing configuration on a per-environment basis. Luckily, the Config Split module makes it easy to manage different configurations in different environments, but how to set it up properly isn't always readily apparent. In this blog post, I'll provide one method for setting up Config Split in an efficient manner, with splits for local, remote development, and production environments. The goal is to be able to set things up right the first time, without having to worry about manually enabling/disabling

Demystifying drupal-core-require-dev and drupal-core-strict in the "Drupal Composer/Drupal Project" Composer template

If you build Drupal 8 sites using the Drupal Composer/Drupal Project Composer template (DCDP), then you've likely noticed the development dependency webflo/drupal-core-require-dev. If you're like me, you probably didn't give it much thought the first 20 or 30 times you used the template. After a while though, I started to dig deeper into the details of DCDP, wanting to be able to understand exactly how it worked and what customizations I may want to make. DCDP was really my first real exposure to Composer, and the more I learned, the more I wanted to learn (as is often the case)

Sharing your DDEV-Local site via a public URL using "ddev share" and ngrok

Version 1.9.0 of DDEV-local introduced the ability to share your local project online via a temporary, public URL using ngrok. This allows you the ability to quickly and securely provide access to your local site to other developers and stakeholders as well as an easy way to test your local site on other devices. ngrok is a service that exposes local servers behind NATs and firewalls via public URLs over secure tunnels. Once the small ngrok client is installed on your local machine, the ddev share command will enable the sharing and provide you with a public URL for your

Some of my favorite (newer) DDEV things

Local development environments are in the midst a bit of a renaissance recently - mainly driven by the maturation and adoption of Docker-based solutions. I've been using (and recommending) DDEV for awhile now, and one of the things that I really like about it is the consistent pace of development. Since early February, there have been three minor releases of DDEV (1.6, 1.7, and 1.8). With each minor release of DDEV comes new, often very useful features. Here's just a few of my recent favorites: NFS Mounting One of the few disadvantages of using a Docker-based solution over a native

11 Tips to start your Drupal 8 project right

As someone who has been building Drupal sites for over 12 years now, I'd like to think that my knowledge and expertise has grown at a rate similar to the power, flexibility, and complexity of the Drupal project itself. For well over 10 years, Drupal training and development has been the focus of my consulting business; over the holidays I took some time to look back and really think about the lessons I've learned and how I can utilize them moving forward. In addition to documenting the process for myself as well as my current and future clients, I also

DDEV, Docksal, and Lando: A Comparison

Over the past year or so, I've been looking to replace my standard local development environment with a Docker-based solution. I've been evaluating DDEV, Docksal, and Lando (listed alphabetically), trying to figure out not only was the best for me, but also the best for me to teach and recommend to the hundreds of folks I teach both long-form and full-day Drupal workshops to each year. As I've test-driven each of these three options, I've been periodically posting tutorials on various related topics. As a long-time Mac OS X user, my previous go-to local development stack has been a mix

Drupal 8 Development on Windows - Best Practices?

Over the past several weeks, I've been working with three of the more well-known Docker-based local development environments that involve a Drupal focus: Docksal, DDEV, and Lando. The goal is to not only to figure out which one I prefer, but also to figure out which our two long-form online Drupal training classes should potentially standardize on. Our classes are often comprised of folks from all different technical backgrounds, so it is important that we not only teach them tools that Drupal professionals use, but also something that folks of myriad of skill levels can easily consume. Perhaps most importantly

Setting up Xdebug with Lando and PhpStorm

Over the past few months, I've been test-driving various Docker-based local development environments with two goals in mind. First, as my "daily driver" for consulting work - I've been a long-time MAMP Pro user and I've been feeling for a long time that I need to modernize my local development tools. Second, I'm trying to figure out what is the most ideal local development environment for students of both our 12-week Drupal Career Online class (starts March 19) and our 6-week Mastering Professional Drupal Development Workflows with Pantheon (starts February 26) courses. One of the necessary skills for a professional

Testing local Drupal site emails with Lando and Mailhog

Over the past few months, I've been evaluating three Docker-based local development environments trying to figure out which is best not only for me, but also for students of our long-form Managing Professional Drupal Development Workflows with Pantheon (next semester starts February 17) and Drupal Career Online (March 26) classes. I've been test driving Docksal (actually, I've been using it for over a year), DDEV Community, and Lando (I'm a recovering Kalabox user) trying to figure out where the "sweet spot" is for flexibility, ease of use, documentation, Windows-compatibility (we routinely have students on Windows machines), performance, and some other

Installing Drupal Console in an Existing Drupal 8 Project

is a fantastic tool for helping to write Drupal 8 modules; of that there is little debate. Its "generate" functionality takes much of the pain out of setting up the scaffolding for many types of Drupal 8 modules, and in the process that alone saves developers a significant amount of time. When using Drupal Console, module developers usually don't have to worry too much about basic "use" statements, PSR-4 directory structures and file names, annotations, and much boilerplate code that is normally part of the development process. Here at DrupalEasy, we're such big fans of Drupal Console, we've designed our

Drupal 6 to Drupal 8(.1.x) Custom Content Migration

Note: This blog post is based on Drupal 8.1.x. It is an updated version of a previous tutorial based on Drupal 8.0.x. While the concepts are largely the same as 8.0.x, a refactoring of the core migrate modules took place in Drupal 8.1.x (migrations will become plugins in 8.1.x). This updated tutorial updates the previous example to work with Drupal 8.1.x, as well as demonstrates how to specify a migration group and run the migration with Drush. If you're familiar with the previous tutorial, you may want to skip to the "Rolling up our sleeves" section below. Even if you're

Drupal 6 to Drupal 8(.0.x) Custom Content Migration

Note: This blog post is based on Drupal 8.0.x. While the concepts will remain the same in 8.1.x, the code examples will no longer be valid because migrations will become plugins in 8.1.x. See the updated blog post here. Even if you're only casually acquainted with Drupal 8, you probably know that the core upgrade path to Drupal 8 has been completely rewritten from the ground-up, using many of the concepts of the Migrate and Drupal-to-Drupal migration modules. Using the Migrate upgrade module, it is possible to migrate much of a Drupal 6 (or Drupal 7) site to Drupal 8

Relaunching DrupalEasy.com on Drupal 8

It's been a long time coming, so we are really happy to announce that DrupalEasy.com recently relaunched on Drupal 8 (8.0.3, to be precise)! Our previous site was also our original - built on Drupal 6 with more than its fair share of cruft. As we thought about what our new site should be, we made the easy decision that it should be focused on two things: our Drupal Career Online 12-week training program and an expanded focus on tutorials, videos, and quicktips for Drupal developers looking to up their game. It of course provides, what we hope, is easy

X Marks the Spot: A Beginner's Guide to Online Maps in Drupal

Mapping address data in Drupal can be confusing, if only because of the great number of contributed modules available that involve online maps. Picking the right module (or combination of modules) is challenging - especially for site builders who are new to mapping in Drupal. In this tutorial, we'll utilize the popular and well-supported Geofield module as one of the key ingredients in the common task of entering address data and having it displayed on an interactive map. This tutorial contains step-by-step instructions for accomplishing this task, as well as a screencast demonstrating all of the steps.

A Sneaky (Previously Undocumented?) Views' Feature

I rencently spent a few quality hours with the Views interface trying to figure out how to add an Organic Groups Group ID contextual filter to a Views display and have the display's title overridden based on the value of the contextual filter. Actually, it's easy to do if you don't mind having the actual Group ID integer in the title. But, like most people, I actually wanted the Group name in the title of my display. It took me more time that I'd care to admit, as well as some guidance from the most excellent maintainer of the Organic Groups module, Amitai Burstein, but eventually, I discovered a simple solution that didn't involve additional relationships, contextual filters, fields, or trickery. Well - maybe not the "trickery" part. The solution involved what I consider to be a previously undocumented feature (at least to me!) of the Views module.