subject: Drupal Apps Efficacious Usage In Drupal Development [print this page] The main advantage for Drupal programmers avail from the Drupal technology is that it is highly flexible and adaptable. The various tools Drupal provides for customizable building for Drupal developers help Drupal developers to build sophisticated site building. Some of such tools are:
Views, which help the Drupal developers to view their side of development in various modes according to the stage of development they are in currently.
Configurable content types helps the Drupal programmers to configure and customize the content present in the site they are building. This helps the Drupal developer to have more control over all the entities present in the development site.
Fields and a host of solid extensions for everything from group functionality to commerce, Drupal can help the Drupal programmers to build pretty much anything.
Drupal developers at most times do not need to build every site they build from the scratch as there are thousands of already built Drupal sites from which they can obtain the templates and configure the settings in any which way they need to build according to the requirements they focus on.
Drupal Distributions is a very advanced tool available in the technology which enables Drupal programmers to use the aspect of reusability. Templates of sites like news-focused sites, nonprofit sites, online communities and such can be downloaded from the the list of Drupal distributions available in the Official Drupal website, selected and installed to the developers system.
But there is a disadvantage too; the constraints that are tied along with the distributions are complicated. The decisions the Drupal developers need to make on the design patterns of their site may not be possible as the already present design may not allow certain constraints to be followed. The interdependencies followed by the site from which the template can be of such type that it will be suited for that site and might become inconsistent with the newly developed site.
If a Drupal Developer wants only specific functions from a site then choosing it will also be a tedious task thus the Drupal Programmers opt for applications. These applications enable the Drupal Programmers to add certain functionalities specifically needed for the site they are building. The dependencies can also be customized according to the specifications of the Drupal Programmers development site.
Ways in which a Drupal Developer can obtain applications for the site that needs to be developed are:
The distribution used for development can be of such a type which is based on applications. When such a distribution is used by a Drupal Programmer, an option for choosing the applications which need to chosen for the development of the site is prompted and the developer can choose from the options provided.
The programmers themselves can install the applications module and the applications connector module. All they have to do is select your site and select Apps from the admin menu.
These are the ways in which apps can be used by Drupal Programmers to enhance their experience during the process of developing a site using Drupal.
