Drupal 8 Module Development: Build modules and themes using the latest version of Drupal 8, Second Edition

Drupal 8’s flexibility comes from the way its modules, themes, APIs, and subsystems work together. Daniel Sipos’s Drupal 8 Module Development shows how developers can build on that architecture, moving from a first custom module to the deeper systems behind real site functionality. This second edition focuses on Drupal 8, with its examples updated through version 8.7.

Start with Drupal’s architecture

The book opens with the building blocks of Drupal development: core, modules, themes, hooks, plugins, events, services, and the dependency injection container. It also introduces the tools and conventions that help developers work within the platform’s structure, giving later examples a useful architectural context.

Build functionality one piece at a time 💻

Early chapters guide readers through routes and controllers, services, forms, blocks, links, logging, and email. Rather than stopping at a general description of each feature, the book uses practical examples to show how pieces of a custom module connect and how Drupal’s APIs support common development tasks.

Work with Drupal’s data and display systems

Later material explores data storage, entities, custom entity and plugin types, the Database API, custom fields, Views, access control, and caching. The coverage gives developers a way to follow data from its modeling and storage through to permissions and presentation.

Extend, test, and secure your modules

Additional chapters address JavaScript and Ajax, multilingual development, files and images, batches, queues, cron, automated testing, and security. Together, these topics offer a broad view of the work involved in building and maintaining custom Drupal 8 functionality.

Who will find it useful?

This book is for Drupal developers and site builders who want to create custom modules, and for PHP developers exploring Drupal 8. Its focus is specifically Drupal 8, and readers will benefit from some familiarity with object-oriented programming.

If you want to understand how Drupal’s development pieces fit together—and then put them to work in your own modules—this edition provides a structured, example-led place to begin.