Tools and methods of Drupal.org: version control, patching and issues.

Drupal is produced by a community of real people. Contributors create documentation, core code, modules and themes. Even if you don’t think you’ll ever contribute a whole module, you will get more from the Drupal community if you use our tools and understand our methods.

In this practical session, we will demonstrate version control (in particular CVS and the Mercurial distributed version control system) and patching and explain issue queues.

Using version control is a must for any site builder or developer, especially for those who work in collaboration with others and for those who have ever made a mistake.

Patches are bug fixes, hacks and new features for any Drupal code. If you want to share improvements, fix bugs or simply discuss ideas, patches are grease on the wheels of Drupal progress. Have a problem? It could be a while. Have a patch? The door is open!

Issue queues are discussions about feature requests and bug fixes for contributed themes and modules, Drupal core, the Drupal.org web site and even the community itself. We’ll introduce you to the etiquette and language of Drupal.org issue queues.

If you’re truly new to Drupal and the words “command line” or “shell” make you think only of the navy or the sea, please review the series of videos by Addison Berry called “Command LIne Basics” (start with “Moving Around”). We will also point to GUI tools that make patches and version control a little more familiar.