Tuesday Scan: Aug 26, 2015

Developer-related posts from around the Drupalverse.

This week: developing a REST API with Drupal 7 and the RESTful module; the downsides of decoupling; moving Weather.com to Drupal; and the benefits of certification.

REST Easy

David Diers of Austin-based Four Kitchens, who has worked on high profile Drupal projects like the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Leo Laporte's TWit.tv, has been methodically building a series that takes you through developing a REST API with Drupal 7 and the RESTful module.

In the most recent post, #4, he shows how easy it is to add different types of entities to the API.

The article is The Tax(onmy) Man.

The Downsides of Decoupling

Mark Ferree of Chapter Three has some cool, cautious thoughts on an extremely hot topic: headless (or decoupled) Drupal -- the process of using a Drupal site as the backend for another framework, typically a Javascript framework.

"Before jumping on the headless bandwagon," he writes, "it is important to look at our motivation. What business requirements drove the move to headless for our project?"

Although he admits that there is an understandable desire that many Drupal developers have to "get off the island" and explore some new tools, he urges caution.

"Every layer of abstraction in a software system comes at a cost," he writes, "sometimes a very steep one."

Read the whole article, before you jump on "the headless bandwagon:" Decapitated Drupal: The Downsides of Decoupling

Moving Weather.com to Drupal

It's only the busiest website in the world.

Which is why many of us are interested in how Weather.com moved to Drupal (powered by Mediacurrent, with an assist from Acquia).

In two earlier posts, the Mediacurrent team touched on how developers on the Weather.com project simplified content delivery by creating a customized suite of modules called Presentation Framework.

In the latest installment, author Matt Davis gets into how the team leveraged Presentation Framework to create truly original uses of widgets.

Read how they did it here: Creating Flexible Widgets Across Multiple Devices

Certified!

Finally, two Myplaneteers who recently became Acquia Certified Grand Masters have reflected on the benefits of this certification, and offered some preparation tips for those who may be thinking about taking the plunge.

Among the benefits they cite:

• Certification offers reassurance to clients.
• The pursuit of certification forces you to "revisit some nascent skills, stay up-to-date on industry trends and tools, and broaden and update your knowledge base."
• Becoming an Acquia Certified Grand Master is also a meaningful personal challenge that offers a "a prime chance to differentiate yourself from the field."

This helpful post also has a bunch of tips on preparing for the certification exam, and an extensive list of resources that will aid in your preparation.

Read it here: Become an Acquia Certified Grand Master.

Till next week...