What does a Drupal Developer do?
By Lucid Softech IT Solutions | Drupal, Uncategorized, 10 May 2017Today we are writing about the role of Drupal developer or what a company should look in candidate while hiring Drupal developer.
Why we decided to write this article today because we here at Lucid Softech are getting several resumes for Drupal developers but most of them we found are not even close to a Drupal developer. During interview process some were not even clear about what is the role of a Drupal developer and what they are suppose to do or what a company expects from them.
So based on this we decided to write some of the points based on our experience that what exactly are the role of Drupal developer and what areas they should cover. This will also help the Drupal Development companies to look for when they hire any Drupal Developer
So here from this article we would like to share some facts that every proficient Drupal developer should understand and follow. Drupal developer is basically a broad role and there are few major areas that you need to look into to become a perfect Drupal developer
1- Website development: This will be basic task that any Drupal development company may ask you to create websites in Drupal and this is the common understanding that any Drupal developer has. But the role is much beyond that. A proficient Drupal is not needed to simple configuration in the backend. A proficient developer is one who can do changes in the existing Drupal system. These changes developer can do when they understand Drupal code. There can be scenario where a developer may be asked to work a existing system. Here a proficient developer in expected to understand the existing code. Understand the features which are working and then do the code analysis. So backend configuration is the starting point and there is much wider role that in expected.
2- Themeing: This is another important section and will be mandatory area for a Drupal developer need to understand. Drupal theming is one of the initial task that a Drupal developer will have to learn. When even we work on any Drupal project in most cases the 1st task that we do is themeing. If the design is easy, we directly implement PSD into Drupal but if the design is complex then we first develop HTML and then do the integration. So themeing can be combination of 3 skills: design, html and design integration. So here design integration is critical part which a Drupal developer will have to handle. So it is expected that a Drupal developer learns themeing as soon as they start working on Drupal
3- Module customization: If you have more than 2 years experience in Drupal then a Drupal Development Company may ask you to either create or edit Drupal modules. So if you are looking for opportunity in Drupal and wanted to explore yourself in the same then you need to know Drupal modules very well. For creating modules you need to understand complete Drupal structure, Drupal Database and how they are integrated, which files works for what. If you understand this, only then you can create modules and do customization on the Drupal code. Because for creating modules and doing customization you will have to follow Drupal structure and standards. Once you are able to achieve this level then you can proudly say that you are in expert Drupal Developer.
4- Technologies: Drupal developers would be expected to know some basic technologies that will be helpful while working with Drupal which are mentioned below:
• PHP
• MYSQL
• Jquery
This covers all the major areas that a Drupal developer must concentrate on to become a proficient developer. I hope this article will help the aspirants as well companies to understand what to look for when they hire any Drupal developers.