Jumping into pre-built Drupal projects sometimes requires a leap of faith as much for clients as for developers. The client is usually coming out of a bad previous business relationship and the code is not always structured according to your standards. During this talk, Symetris will share its experience and provide tips on how to navigate these often uncharted waters. Our goal is to help you convert an uncertain client into a long term partner and have a checklist of what to look out for as developers.

1. W.T.F.
***
Where To Focus when taking over
a Drupal Project
Drupal Camp Ottawa 2014 – Symetris.ca

2. Symetris unlocks your web potential
***
• Founded in 2004 – 10 years ago!
• 11 web specialists
• Develop websites that go beyond marketing
• Mastery of open-source CMS platforms
• Optimize sites for mobiles
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3. About me
Brad Muncs
President @ Symetris
Loves travelling
New dad
Strives to create
simplicity from
complexity
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4. What we’ll be talking about today
• Why is this talk relevant?
• Context
• Observation phase
• Action phase
• Conclusion
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5. Why is discussing
taking on
existing projects
relevant?
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6. The web used to be
an uninhabited
klondike.
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7. It’s now a bustling city.
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8. Why WTF? Context Observe Act Conclusion

9. The current situation
• 3 open-source CMS platforms dominate
• Most clients already have a CMS website
• Most current CMS are mature and
allow for upgrades and scalability
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10. Taking over existing Drupal projects
THE CONTEXT
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11. Why WTF? Context Observe Act Conclusion

12. Context elements to consider 1/2
• Client has a history, past experiences.
• If it turned sour, they might be defensive.
• Why do they want to change web partner
now?
• Important not to repeat same mistakes…
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13. Context elements to consider 2/2
• Who are the stakeholders?
• Who will be important to get on your side moving
forward?
• Workflow: How does the client use his
website?
• Ex: they might have the admin panel active, but
don’t use
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14. You’re client
doesn’t need « the
rebound guy ».
You should both be
aiming for a long-
term relationship.
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15. Taking over existing Drupal projects
OBSERVATION PHASE
Don’t start playing in the code
and configurations just yet
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16. We need to analyse the map to develop a
strategy.
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17. Programmers like to build stuff from scratch.
Having to delve into someone else’s code, we often
expect the worst.
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18. Common apprehensions:
• It’s not my code (so it’s shitty)
• The code is not built
according to my standards
• There is no documentation
available
• There are not diagrams,
tutorials or workflows
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19. Give whoever was working
on the site before you some slack
• Other developers are like you –
they build with best intentions,
but real life gets in the way
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell
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20. Step 1: Inventory of current website
• Inventory of Modules, Themes, Plugins
(external libraries)
• Any import/export functionnality?
Migrate or Feed modules
• Check if core was hacked
• Install « Hacked » and
« Diff » modules
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21. Step 1: Inventory of current backend
• List of « standard modules »
(and their version)
• List of « custom modules »
• These are going to be the challenges to update,
enhance in the future
• Are there any « garbage » modules?
• Not used in the website, but installed for testing
purposes by previous dev
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22. Step 1: Inventory of current website
• Open the readme.txt and upgrade.txt
• Might be written « do not upgrade! »
• Open fields and blocks
• Is PHPfilter module activated?
• Check views headers/footers:
There might be custom code
• /sites/modules/
• How is it structured?
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23. Step 2: Front-end matters
• How many page templates are there?
• Are there parent/child themes?
• Responsive or mobile theme?
• How is CSS structured? (LESS? SASS?)
• Ask: « Is that content generated by a block, a
view, a module, a context, a node, php? »
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24. Step 3: Tech inventory
• Server configuration and technologies
• Deployment strategy
• Versionning system (Git, SVN, etc)
• Automatic testing system
• Unit tests?
• SimpleTest module?
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25. Step 3: Tech inventory
• .htaccess: what are the specifications?
(Drupal core update will destroy this)
• Any third party connexions?
• Solr, SSL, Web services, Databases
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26. Taking over existing Drupal projects
ACTION PHASE
Time to start playing
around with the site
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27. Mark your territory
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28. A few beginner tips:
• Don’t start working on the live site.
• Create your own environment
(or use a client dev environment)
before touching anything
• Make sure the configs are the same as the
live website
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29. Don’t be scared of versionning
• You’ll be married to the project, so don’t think
it’s a an unnecessary evil
• Import their branches to your VCS to see the
site’s previous progress
• Clean up the files
• There is probably a lot of unnecessary files
• DAMN YOU .DS_store and _notes !!
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30. Before performing updates
• Check if the website you inherit has any
« pendings » in update.php
• Sometimes websites are buggy because this
hasn’t been done in a while
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31. Perform updates
• Step 1: Cross your fingers
• Step 2: Update core and modules
• Step 3: Check if the site is broken
• Step 4: Rollback if necessary
• drush pm-update –-lock=og
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32. Install the modules you like working with
• PathoLogic
• Automatically repairs URLs that client didn't write
correctly
• Path Redirect
• Point missing urls to correct pages
• Cache Exclude
• Exclude pages from cache instead of disabling it
to not slow down the site
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33. Start adressing the first client todos
• Take control: Rebuild vs. Patch
• You often feel you should either
completely rebuild or just sloppily patch
• If you can identify specific components that you
can enhance – take the baby step to make the
site better
• You can flush stuff that is irrelevant
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34. Maintain your integrity
• From now on, the site will be
built according to your
standards
• Don’t be lazy because the
rest of the site is not
• Document your work
• You’ll be more productive
within
your team
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35. Extra Quality Control
• Changes you make have
repercussions you might
not expect
• Test Front-end,
Functionnality & code
• Check our DrupalCamp
Montreal conference : Devil’s
in the details
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36. Your goal
• OWN the website and become an expert with
it
• If the old team takes the website back,
they shouldn’t feel it’s « theirs » anymore
• You’re going to be working with the site for a long
time, so you’d better like it
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37. Conclusion
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38. AGENCIES
CLIENTS
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39. Why WTF? Context Observe Act Conclusion
Be the web agency of their dreams
• They want to trust you
• Prove to your new client that you’re made for
each other

40. Which means
• Take the time to listen and understand why
your new client decided to leave their
previous relationship
• Take the time to get to know
your new website in and out
• Pretend you’re the one that built it in the first
place – OWN IT
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41. Why WTF? Context Observe Act Conclusion

42. Thank you!
Any questions?
brad@symetris.ca
www.symetris.ca
Presentation available on slideshare
@symetris