How does your toolbox look like? Have you ever wondered how “most” Drupal developers' toolkits looked like? What Drupal development tools does everyone else prefer for setting up their local environments?
What applications and what type of environments help them (and are more likely to help you, too) develop their Drupal projects:
- faster?
- using fewer resources of time and effort?
Inspired by the “What Should I Use? 2019 Developer Tool Survey Results” Drupalcon session, I've drawn up a shortlist of the most frequently used tools in Drupal development setups.
1. 5 Most Popular Tools for Code Development
1.1. PHPStorm/IntellijIDEA
When it comes to integrated development environments, PHPStorm is top of the list for most Drupal developers.
Shipping with advanced debugging features and code hinting functionalities, it makes both a reliable and robust "ally tool" for handling your Drupal 8 code, theme, and modules...
1.2. Visual Studio Code
Powerful features:
- multi-language support
- integrated Git version control
- a rich “collection” of extensions and debuggers
- code hinting
- code autocompletion
1.3. Sublime Text
The go-to text editor for the great majority of Drupal developers, packed with advanced code, prose and markup features.
Let me highlight just some of them:
- full-featured trial, that doesn't restrict you to use it within a specific time limit
- outstanding performance
- sleek UI
In short, it's one of those sophisticated, feature-rich Drupal development tools to consider for putting together and configuring your editor.
1.4. VIM
Another powerful vi-based text editor that you should add to your toolbox (if you haven't already). It looks like most of the developers working with Drupal are using it...
And that despite the fact that its interface might seem intimidatingly complex at first and that you'll need to invest a considerable amount of time to learn how to use it.
The high editing efficiency level seems to be a worthy enough reward to compensate for these 2... inconveniences.
1.5. Atom
A free, open source, hackable text editor, whose “muse” has been the Sublime Text, that runs on CSS, JS< HTML and uses the electron.io.
2. Top 5 Drupal Development Tools for Local Environments
If you've been curious about what tools other Drupal developers use for setting up their local development environments, here's your answer:
2.1. Lando
One of the most popular Drupal DevOps tools, built on Docker, that works with most frameworks, services, and languages.
It's basically a cross-platform environment that you can use for ALL your Drupal projects. It enables you to easily spin up all the elements:
- (helper) services
- development tools (Drush, Composer, Grunt, etc.)
- automation tasks
… that you need for to set up a local Drupal environment in no time...
2.2. (Custom) Docker
It enables you to bundle all the dependencies of an application into a standardized unit (software package/container) that you can then easily use throughout the software development cycle.
The main benefit? A Docker container includes everything it needs to run:
- system tools
- libraries
- code
- runtime
2.3. Drupal VM
An Ansible-based VM for Drupal that turns setting up a Drupal development environment — on virtual machines or Docker containers — into a matter of... (5-10) minutes.
And the main reason for this accelerated rhythm and its popularity among Drupal developers is the heavy load of helpful utilities for local development that it ships with.
2.4. Docksal
You'll find Docksal in pretty much any developer's “survival kit” of Drupal development tools.
An all-purpose Drupal environment built on Docker Compose and Docker, that you can use to automate all kinds of vital custom commands:
- compiling and packing your theme
- initializing your local project instance
- automating deployments to CI servers, dev or stage
- running multiple builds one right after the other
The biggest convenience of using Docksal is that you get to run your commands across all your platforms. Automation at its best...
2.5. Homebrew
The good news is that this missing package manager for Linux or macOS is built on Ruby and Git. Therefore, you can always tap into your experience in working with these 2 technologies to run updates and/or revert your modifications...
What it does is it to install all those packages that your Linux system or Apple has overlooked. And it installs them right to their dedicated directory, symlinking their stored files into /usr/local...
3. The Devel Module: Speed Up Your Drupal Development Process
Take the Devel module as an all-in-one toolbox to keep at hand throughout the development cycle.
It will provide you with:
- admin pages
- helper functions
- extra Drush commands
- dummy content for your under-development Drupal website
Furthermore, it will examine events, service containers, routes and it will display messages on your web pages that you can then leverage to debug your code...
4. 3 SQL and Database Tools that Most Drupal Developers Use
As for the Drupal development tools “specialized” on database and SQL specific needs, MySQL Workbench, phpMyAdmin and Adminer seem to be the most popular ones...
4.1. MySQL Workbench
The GUI application that you can use for modeling, querying, designing and administering your MySQL databases. It's free and works on Linux, Windows, and Mac...
Note: it's this workbench that replaces the MySQL GUI Tools Bundle...
4.2. phpMyAdmin
The top-shelf PHP tool that comes loaded with all the features that you need for carrying out your database-related operations, from query to administration...
Note: if you “crave” performance and you're willing to give up on some of the features, you could always use this tool's “sibling”, phpminiadmin, for your local database...
4.3. Adminer
Another popular feature-rich, PHP-based tool for managing all kinds of databases: PostgreSQL, MS SQL, MySQL, Oracle...
It's made of a single file that you just need to deploy to your server...
The END!
These are, according to the 2019 Drupal Developer Tools Survey, the Drupal development tools that most developers have in their toolboxes.
Time to weigh their benefits, their overall impact on your whole development workflow, and to upgrade your own toolkit, don't you think?