Used by millions of people around the world to build and maintain websites, Drupal is one of the top content management systems on the market. Many of today’s top businesses, nonprofits, Fortune 500 companies, and government organizations continue to use Drupal as their go-to choice for the development of massive websites. This includes big names such as Twitter, Whole Foods, and the Government of Australia.
It’s no surprise, then, that if you’re looking to hire Drupal developers you’ll find them to be in high demand. Not only is Drupal a stable and safe content management system, but developers truly proficient in Drupal aren’t easy to come by, making them highly valuable and sought-after professionals.
Costs to hire Drupal developers
Drupal is a highly versatile content management system that allows a developer to carry out a variety of projects. It offers access to several modules, which can greatly expand its functionality, and also allows for personalization by the development of custom themes.
This means that when you hire a Drupal developer or contact a Drupal development Company there are several variables you must take into account to calculate a cost estimate for your project. Details such as deadline, talent, project size, the complexity of the tasks, and urgency need to be thoroughly analyzed and understood for a precise assessment of the costs.
What does a Drupal developer do?
Known as the “swiss-army knife of CMS systems,” Drupal is applicable for many different types of projects, including:
- Social networks
- File storage websites
- News portals
- Blogging or informational sites
- Photo and video sharing websites
- Ecommerce sites
Thus, Drupal expertise is something that each and every group of developers needs on their team at all times. A seasoned and experienced Drupal developer will surely have a proficiency in the main web design languages, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as well as in programming languages such as SQL and PHP. In fact, one of PHP’s most powerful frameworks, Symfony, is perfect for Drupal.
Drupal Developers Hiring Guide
Drupal is a highly useful content management system that provides several advantages to the developers who choose to work with it. If you intend to hire Drupal developers, it’s important to be aware of such possibilities and also be informed as to what Drupal can offer you.
- Hiring Guide
- Interview Questions
- Job Description
Developed in 2000 by Dries Buytaert and Hans Snijder at the University of Antwerp, Drupal got its start after the pair and their roommates required a more steady and reliable internet connection. It’s primarily built on PHP and helps create websites for use on a wide variety of web servers.
As a content management system, Drupal provides a user interface that allows to easily create and publish of content. It accommodates unlimited types of content, including text and various media types, with incredibly customizable forms. Considered one of the most flexible open-source content management systems available today, Drupal is a leader in the segment of advanced website development thanks to its ease of use with adjacent or complementary systems.
Drupal also allows for advanced levels of functionality, custom development options, as well as a multitude of software integrations. Through its modules, developers can increase website functionalities to help streamline or change business processes. The options are nearly limitless. In fact, Drupal is a rather versatile content management system, which means it’s applicable to frontend and backend projects.
Currently, there is a huge demand for Drupal engineers as the platform continues to release new versions and evolves into something more similar to an enterprise web platform. As the popularity of free or low-cost do-it-yourself website platforms rose over the last several years, the Drupal platform itself, as well as its developers, have evolved into a bit of a new space. Drupal websites now require a team of engineers or a developer with extensive experience in PHP along with Drupal.
Although many developers don’t start their careers as Drupal experts, many choose to become one after seeing the career landscape and how beneficial the skill set is in the current job market. A good candidate for a Drupal developer position should have experience in the integration of third-party applications, data visualization and analytics tools to measure efficiency, and knowledge of some JavaScript frameworks.
Drupal Interview Questions
What are the 5 conceptual layers of a Drupal system?
- Data – Anything that should be displayed on the front end of a site must be input as data ahead of time.
- Modules – As functional plugins, modules are either part of the existing core of Drupal or are modules contributed to it that help build out the core functionality.
- User Permissions – These are the various defined roles within the system. Users assigned to said roles have access to predefined permissions which limit the tasks they can do.
- Blocks and Menus – Drupal uses blocks to present any data or any piece of content outside of breadcrumbs, primary and secondary menus, and main content. They are an extensible core feature of Drupal, similar to widgets in a highly generalized format. Menus are the collections of links used to navigate a website.
- Themes and templates – Consisting of primarily XHTML, CSS, and PHP variables, Drupal architecture uses a theme so that its generated content goes to the required spaces within the site. There are many functions used to override standard functions within a module to give developers complete control over their markup.
In Drupal, what is the concept of “nodes?”
Any and all content within a Drupal website is treated as a “node” and stored as such. This includes all individual pieces of content ranging from pages and blog posts to forum topics and forums themselves. Comments, however, aren’t stored as nodes but connect to them. The system’s ability to create various types of content allows developers to have different nodes for different purposes. This creates quite a bit of flexibility and helps to simplify the creation of new content while also making it easy to change things or add new features.
What is the taxonomy system used by Drupal? What are its features?
Drupal’s built-in taxonomy system helps developers categorize the nodes within a website. It allows for arbitrary term definition as well as the organization of said terms into vocabularies. There are no limits to the number of terms or vocabularies within the system. Additionally, free tagging gives users the ability to freely enter tags at the time of content creation which then automatically become vocabulary terms instead of being required to enter certain terms ahead of time.
Drupal Job Description
We are looking for an enthusiastic and highly skilled Drupal developer experienced in frontend and backend development, theming, and module development. This position requires a combination of programming skills, including PHP, CSS, JavaScript, and HTML. The person hired for this position will be expected to develop, maintain, and enhance Drupal applications.
They are held accountable for supporting the organization’s goals of websites through a deep understanding of web content technologies, applications, and data to ensure that web applications remain the most optimal, reliable, scalable, and sustainable versions possible.
Skills and Qualifications
- Degree in computer science or related field of study
- Extensive experience with Drupal
- Skills in programming languages such as PHP, CSS, HTML, Javascript
- Excellent problem-solving skills.
- Clear and concise written and verbal communication.
- Good organizational skills.
- Ability to work as part of a team.