Acquia Certified Drupal 9 Front End Specialist¶

1.1 Demonstrate knowledge of HTML and CSS¶

A front-end specialist should have extensive experience writing clean, standards-compliant HTML and CSS. They should be well versed in the HTML5 and CSS3 specifications and should be up to date on modern standards and practices.

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1.2 Identify PHP programming concepts¶

A front-end specialist should have knowledge of PHP syntax, including but not limited to:

• PHP basic syntax
• Use of general PHP functions as well as Drupal specific ones.
• Variable handling, manipulation and use.
• Control structures.
• Basic object manipulation.

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1.3 Identify Javascript and jQuery programming concepts¶

A front-end specialist should have extensive experience writing custom UI components using “vanilla” Javascript and jQuery. They should follow modern best practices and be familiar with common security and performance issues.

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1.4 Demonstrate knowledge of responsive design concepts¶

A front-end specialist should understand the principles of responsive design. Drupal 9 uses a responsive “Mobile First” approach out of the box.

• What are responsive design and mobile first concepts
• How to apply responsive design in your stylesheets and themes
• Understand the use of media queries in a responsive site

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2.1 Demonstrate ability to define and use custom regions in a theme¶

A front-end specialist should have experience defining custom regions, printing those regions out in the proper templates, and creating conditional display logic for when to print regions.

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2.2 Demonstrate ability to work with theme configuration¶

A front-end specialist should be familiar with administrative settings related to theme configuration and should have the ability to create his/her own theme settings using custom code.

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2.3 Demonstrate knowledge of working with stylesheets¶

A front-end specialist should be familiar with CSS and Drupal’s best practices for writing and organizing CSS. They should be able to add their own stylesheets to a theme, be familiar with the ways Drupal aggregates stylesheets, be familiar with how Drupal orders stylesheets, and be able to conditionally load stylesheets.

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2.4 Demonstrate knowledge of working with Javascript in a theme¶

A front-end specialist should have experience writing custom Javascript and jQuery for Drupal. They should be comfortable using Drupal’s Javascript API and be familiar with Drupal’s javascript coding standards. They should be able to conditionally load javascript.

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2.5 Demonstrate knowledge of working with breakpoints in a theme¶

A front-end specialist should know how to define and use a common set of breakpoints that can be used throughout a site. They should be well versed in CSS media queries and be proficient in constructing media queries that can target a wide variety of devices.

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2.6 Demonstrate ability to build a sub-theme from a base theme¶

A front-end specialist should be well versed in the pros and cons of a wide variety of core and contributed base themes. They should know how to choose the appropriate base theme for a project and know how to properly sub-theme in a way that utilizes, overrides, and extends the assets of the base theme.

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3.1 Demonstrate ability to use Twig syntax¶

A front-end specialist should have knowledge of the basic and advanced twig syntax, including but not limited to:

• Twig basic syntax
• Use of general functions and filters as well as Drupal specific ones.
• Variable handling
• Control structure

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3.2 Demonstrate ability to build and customize core templates for managing markup¶

A front-end specialist should have knowledge of how to use, name, and create the templates to output the desired markup for the project.

• Template order and naming conventions
• Template inheritance and extension
• HTML and Twig markup combinations to accomplish the theming task

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3.3 Demonstrate ability to work with template suggestions¶

Drupal provides a better way to: handle template suggestions, add custom suggestions, or define a specific template suggestion for an element.

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3.4 Demonstrate ability to write template pre-process functions for overriding custom output¶

A front end specialist should be able to use pre-process functions to override, improve, or get extra data needed for templates.

• Correct use, specificity, and hierarchy of pre-process functions
• How to obtain information from the Database, or objects and entities from Drupal and know the correct way of passing this information to your template
• How to use the new and improved library management to have a better management of JS libraries and stylesheets
• Be aware of the changes to the theme API and the improvements to previous versions of Drupal

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4.1 Demonstrate ability to create and configure Blocks for building layouts¶

A front-end specialist should be proficient in creating and managing blocks in Drupal’s UI, and in custom code. They should follow best practices for creating flexible layouts using Drupal’s built-in block system.

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4.2 Demonstrate ability to create and configure views for building content list pages, blocks, and feeds¶

A front-end specialist should be proficient in presenting content using views. They should be familiar with the different types of views displays, their options, and the pros and cons of using each.

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4.3 Demonstrate ability to use Layout Builder module to build layouts¶

A front-end specialist should know how to use Drupal core Layout builder module to configure layouts on per content type or per node basis.

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5.1 Demonstrate ability to analyze and resolve site performance issues arising from site configuration¶

Topics focus on standard methods of Drupal configuration that optimize site performance in multiple scenarios. The various scenarios cover preferred combinations that result in minimizing page loads and render time.

5.2 Demonstrate ability to analyze and resolve site performance issues arising from custom theme¶

This section covers common pitfalls with performance when creating various themes. Scenarios will cover efficient options with PHP, Javascript, and CSS. Questions will also cover techniques in debugging slow code within Drupal themes.

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6.1 Demonstrate ability to analyze and resolve security issues arising from site configuration¶

This includes common techniques around Drupal security for development and site building tasks. Security topics focus on programming scenarios, and configuration changes made thru the Drupal UI.

6.2 Demonstrate ability to analyze and resolve security issues arising from a custom theme¶

Topics include best practices revolving around proper security in the theme layer. This includes data sanitization techniques with for both PHP and Twig processing. A knowledge of security protocols in each layer of the render cycle is required.

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