Session

In many ways, my journey through Drupal has been inverted. After studying Computer Science, I began my Drupal career as a backend developer writing custom modules and dabbling in front-end work. More recently, as a Project Manager and Drupal Solutions Architect, I've focused on more site-building and organizing Drupal elements into flexible solutions. I've found myself relying on the theory I learned in school to direct my site building efforts.

In terms of architecture, Drupal stands out from other CMS solutions due to its highly modular nature. Instead of plugins that try to accomplish “all the things”, Drupal core and contributed modules provide various elements that can be assembled in unlimited ways to model complex systems.

This leads us to the principles and concepts found in Object Oriented Programming (OOP). These principles are not limited to writing code. In this talk, I'll introduce the Object-Oriented theory and apply it to Drupal Site Building. We'll cover the 4 core principles of OOP (Abstraction, Encapsulation, Inheritance, and Polymorphism) as well as S.O.L.I.D design. No coding necessary.

Who should attend?

This session is ideal for intermediate Site Builders who want to learn new ways of organizing Drupal elements into a robust solution. You should be familiar with the standard Drupal site building elements including entities and bundles (nodes, taxonomy terms, users etc), custom fields, blocks and regions, and basic views.

Programmers may also benefit by learning how good Drupal Architecture can significantly reduce the amount of custom code required in your project.