Still on Drupal 7? Security support for Drupal 7 ended on 5 January 2025. Please visit our Drupal 7 End of Life resources page to review all of your options.Best practices
List of quick pointers and a link to programming best practices.
Backup your database and files
Backups are not just website best practices, it is a requirement for all forms of development.
Never hack core
"Never hack core!"
Avoid hardcoding
The temptation to hardcode happens to the best of us - that's why even the best of us are at risk of being burned by it.
Building Drupal 7 with Drupal 8 in mind
Since Drupal 8 has been released most Drupal 7 websites will eventually need to consider an upgrade to 8. If you are going to create a new
Ensure that your site is secure
The Drupal security guide has a section on securing your site with a useful list of items to work through.
Use test sites
There are many programs (XAMPP, MAMP, Apache2Triad) that help you setup a local test system easily. You should set one up to play with your
Taking your site live
Once you've got your Drupal installation set up just the way you want it, there are a few final considerations before you unleash it on the
Avoid too many modules
It is always good to think it over before enabling a module; too many enabled modules can slow down your site and may be tricky when
Contributed versus custom code and everything in between
Some guidelines on how to choose sensibly what code to include in your web application.
