Debugging Drupal

Session Website and Outline: randyfay.com/debugging_drupal

Video from the presentation: http://www.archive.org/details/DebuggingDrupal

We all know that Drupal is near perfect, but it hasn't fully arrived yet. Maybe in Drupal 7 there won't be any problems to debug, but until that great day, debugging skills are critical to solving real life problems.

There will be tips and strategies for both developers and site administrators in this session.

• Preparing for success... Before the crisis
  • Make sure you have a debugging environment equivalent to your production site.
  • Get set up with a debugger!
  • Have your code under source control!
• Tips for responding to a debugging need
  • How to set up a debugging copy of your production site in minutes
  • Great code hacks that show where in the code things are breaking (It's OK to hack when you're debugging!)
  • Repetitive reloading of the database so you can test and debug
  • Divide and conquer: Making your problem smaller one step at a time. Turn off modules. Work with a smaller site. Find out where the problem is fast.
• Quick Hacks
  • Debugging cron failures
  • Debugging mysterious messages from core that are obviously caused elsewhere
  • Debugging upgrade issues

We will do live debugging examples, demonstrating how to get to the bottom of a gnarly problem as fast as possible.