10 Tips for a Drupal Programmer

1. Use fully functional HTML_CSS files to create Drupal themes. As process have a working CSS then insert the drupal code into it.
2. Use the CMS interface features only when we need to expose an interface for the client or user to update the content.
3. Incorporate custom blocks and Views as part of code – so the code gets logged in the SVN, version control.
4. Test all code and database configurations in the Staging server before moving it to the production.
5. Follow and understand Drupal’s coding standards.
6. Using Drupal's inherent functionalities will automatically take care of many default conventions for a website. We need to be aware of these functionalities and try to understand them so that while programming we only to add to them and do not loose them.
e.g: If you use the image module, by default the alt text gets generated. We could write a custom image template, where we may forgot to add this in!
7. Giving back what we get from the community:
We get a lot from the drupal community, but how many of us give back to the community?! Some easy ways to share our learning with the Drupal community:
7.1 Get yourself a Drupal ID, visit the drupal.org home page atleast once everyday and try to respond to forum questions, just spend 10 minutes doing the same.
7.2. Subscribe for mails from drupal support at http://drupal.org/mailing-lists and try and answer atleast 5 questions a day.
8. Be current with Drupal, read the news posts at
8.1 Drupal.org
8.2 Planet Drupal
8.3 Drupal talk
8.4 Drupal dojo
8.5 Lullabot
9. Become members of drupal groups based on the projects we are working on. The groups give more current updates and happening to a drupal specific topic.
10. Be proud to be a Drupal programmer!