Drupal® 7 Bible

Chapter 28. Customizing Drupal Functionality

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Understanding basic principles

• Using the right tools

• Using the Drupal API

• Creating a new module

• Theming a module

The functionality you see and experience in Drupal is largely the province of the core and contributed modules. When you talk about customizing Drupal's functionality, you are most likely talking about customizing the modules. In this chapter, I cover the key role that modules play in Drupal and how you can customize the functionality of a Drupal site by modifying modules or by creating your own custom modules.

There are entire books devoted to the topic of creating Drupal modules and customizing Drupal's functionality. In this chapter, I cover basics and enough information to get you started.

Basic Principles

At the heart of the Drupal system are the modules. Drupal is, quite literally, modular: The modules supply the functionality on the site. Most of the modules can be enabled or disabled to allow you to tailor the site's functionality to your needs. There are, however, several core modules upon which the system relies. These core modules are key to the functioning of the system and cannot be disabled from within the admin system.

Among the key modules in the system are the following:

• Block: This module controls creation and management of the site's blocks. Block module documentation can be found at http://drupal.org/handbook/modules/block.

• Menu: This module powers the menu functionality and provides the interface for ...