Getting Started with Drupal 8: 10 Resources

As Drupal 8 picks up steam as the CMS of choice for building “ambitious digital experiences”, it is important to be prepared with the right resources to do your most ambitious work. Below are a selection of some of my favorite tools and guides for Drupal 8 development. Each one should help you on your way to Drupal 8 excellence.

5 Tools for Drupal 8 Developers

• Drupal Console: If you like working on the command line, Drupal Console is a great tool for your Drupal 8 development process. Drupal Console allows you to generate code templates, do complex debugging, and run tests from the command line.

• PHPStorm IDE: Drupal 8 development is made much easier by using a Drupal-aware Integrated Development Environment (IDE). JetBrain’s PHPStorm bundles a source code editor with build automation, code completion/mapping logic, debugging tools, and several Drupal-specific optimizations like syntax highlighting and Drush support.

• Drupal Template Helper: TWIG is a powerful theming engine for your Drupal 8 projects, and allows lots of customization and flexibility. Easily find, copy, and modify the right template file using this helpful Chrome Extension.

• Composer Patches: Building your Drupal 8 projects in Composer is a solid best practice, but Composer doesn’t natively support the kind of patch-based workflow central to Drupal development. Enter Composer Patches, which extends Composer to easily include build processes with patches.

• Kalabox: Drupal 8 is a modern CMS. Shouldn’t you be using a modern local development solution? Kalabox is a Docker-powered, local development solution that is as extensible and powerful as Drupal 8 itself.

5 Guides for Drupal 8 Developers

• Drupalize.Me Tutorials: A leader in Drupal training, Drupalize.me has a range of tutorials on working with Drupal 8. From migration to development, learn from experts on making Drupal 8 awesome.

• Chapter Three’s Theming Guides: Learn from Drupal 8 developers who have successfully designed and built many Drupal 8 sites. Chapter Three’s blog is full of helpful, tangible tips for theming Drupal 8 sites and contains a great set of training examples for learning Drupal 8 theming as a Drupal 7 themer.

• Build a Module’s Drupal 8 Developer Prep Series: Prepare yourself for Drupal 8 development by following along with this 12 hour video series from expert Drupal trainer Chris Shattuck.

• Configuration Management API Documentation: Configuration Management is one of the best features of Drupal 8. Learn the system through Drupal.org’s great API documentation on using in a redistributable module or as part of your site’s configuration workflow.

• Drupal Extension to Behat Documentation: Testing is an essential part of a professional Drupal 8 development workflow, and there is a helpful extension for using Behat to write tests for your project. Full documentation is available to make this all happen.

Get the most out of Drupal 8 by using the platform that runs the most modern stack. Learn more at pantheon.io/drupal-8.