I got a D7 website to take care of. Since the website is still "in charge" of the old/current/outside web development company, I don’t want to do anything on the production website to avoid any possible conflict with the web development company. I installed copy of the website on my localhost and trying to figure it out what they were doing. The website is rather complex with tons of content types, webforms and custom modules. Anybody already had exact or similar experience with taking over a website? Any tips and trick would be appreciated.
Thanks for any help.
I would expect a good development company to provide documentation, comment a lot within any custom code and provide a live or remote training session on how everything was built. When I do hire out site development, those expections are very clear in the contract. When I build a complex site, I create a separate site just for the docs so it is easy to hand over a manageable finished product.
I've dealt with some companies that don't provide any documentation at all and then they ask for a separate contract for all tech support.
Tracey
Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device
-------- Original message -------- From: Afan Pasalic Date:04/24/2014 6:56 PM (GMT-07:00) To: support@drupal.org Subject: [support] Tips & Tricks while taking over a website
I got a D7 website to take care of. Since the website is still "in charge" of the old/current/outside web development company, I don’t want to do anything on the production website to avoid any possible conflict with the web development company. I installed copy of the website on my localhost and trying to figure it out what they were doing. The website is rather complex with tons of content types, webforms and custom modules. Anybody already had exact or similar experience with taking over a website? Any tips and trick would be appreciated.
Thanks for any help. -- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
Sadly there isn't an easy way. Depending on my first views of the site, I'll quote the company the time to "learn" what was done by the other shop. I'll try to get them and the shop I'm taking over from on a call to work out the details, but have been in the situation where the terms that they left the other shop wasn't great. Generally I can get an overall idea of what is going on in about an hour, just seeing what modules they have, what views, rules, contexts, fields and content types there are and clicking through the admin section.
One other thing I always do early on is run the hacked module:
https://drupal.org/project/hacked
It's great to detect if the shop you took over from did any changes to core on contrib. If I find any, then I inform the client of it and let them know that upgrades won't be as easy and incur extra costs, unless I can figure out a way to undo what they did without the need for hacking.
Another big thing to check for is any nodes running PHP code. You can do that by querying the different field tables that have the PHP formatter on (if the module is involved). In my experience the biggest surprises come from nodes executing PHP code.
Jamie Holly http://hollyit.net
On 4/24/2014 9:48 PM, Afan Pasalic wrote:
I got a D7 website to take care of. Since the website is still "in charge" of the old/current/outside web development company, I don’t want to do anything on the production website to avoid any possible conflict with the web development company. I installed copy of the website on my localhost and trying to figure it out what they were doing. The website is rather complex with tons of content types, webforms and custom modules. Anybody already had exact or similar experience with taking over a website? Any tips and trick would be appreciated.
Thanks for any help.
On Apr 24, 2014, at 9:58 PM, Jamie Holly hovercrafter@earthlink.net wrote:
Sadly there isn't an easy way. Depending on my first views of the site, I'll quote the company the time to "learn" what was done by the other shop. I'll try to get them and the shop I'm taking over from on a call to work out the details, but have been in the situation where the terms that they left the other shop wasn't great.
It’a gonna be long term contract so time=money is not an issue. :)
Generally I can get an overall idea of what is going on in about an hour, just seeing what modules they have, what views, rules, contexts, fields and content types there are and clicking through the admin section.
This is actually main point of my question. Any “Tips & Tricks”? There is big number of modules installed but not active so it confuses me. Like, Acquia Network Connector - none of three modules is on. Views is on but I can’t see any view page/block created - that means the layout is defined by custom modules not by Views?
One other thing I always do early on is run the hacked module:
https://drupal.org/project/hacked
It's great to detect if the shop you took over from did any changes to core on contrib. If I find any, then I inform the client of it and let them know that upgrades won't be as easy and incur extra costs, unless I can figure out a way to undo what they did without the need for hacking.
Another big thing to check for is any nodes running PHP code. You can do that by querying the different field tables that have the PHP formatter on (if the module is involved). In my experience the biggest surprises come from nodes executing PHP code.
PHP filer core module is off - does it mean there is no php code in nodes?
Thanks
Jamie Holly http://hollyit.net
On 4/24/2014 9:48 PM, Afan Pasalic wrote:
I got a D7 website to take care of. Since the website is still "in charge" of the old/current/outside web development company, I don’t want to do anything on the production website to avoid any possible conflict with the web development company. I installed copy of the website on my localhost and trying to figure it out what they were doing. The website is rather complex with tons of content types, webforms and custom modules. Anybody already had exact or similar experience with taking over a website? Any tips and trick would be appreciated.
Thanks for any help.
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
The layout could be defined by blocks, panels, or context as well. A lot of times you can view the source of the page and look at class names to get an idea what is generating the page.
If the modules are there, but not enabled, then run uninstall and uninstall them and then delete them out. Running uninstall will also get rid of their tables, making it easier to see what is going on in the database.
Jamie Holly http://hollyit.net
On 4/24/2014 11:17 PM, Afan Pasalic wrote:
On Apr 24, 2014, at 9:58 PM, Jamie Holly hovercrafter@earthlink.net wrote:
Sadly there isn't an easy way. Depending on my first views of the site, I'll quote the company the time to "learn" what was done by the other shop. I'll try to get them and the shop I'm taking over from on a call to work out the details, but have been in the situation where the terms that they left the other shop wasn't great.
It’a gonna be long term contract so time=money is not an issue. :)
Generally I can get an overall idea of what is going on in about an hour, just seeing what modules they have, what views, rules, contexts, fields and content types there are and clicking through the admin section.
This is actually main point of my question. Any “Tips & Tricks”? There is big number of modules installed but not active so it confuses me. Like, Acquia Network Connector - none of three modules is on. Views is on but I can’t see any view page/block created - that means the layout is defined by custom modules not by Views?
One other thing I always do early on is run the hacked module:
https://drupal.org/project/hacked
It's great to detect if the shop you took over from did any changes to core on contrib. If I find any, then I inform the client of it and let them know that upgrades won't be as easy and incur extra costs, unless I can figure out a way to undo what they did without the need for hacking.
Another big thing to check for is any nodes running PHP code. You can do that by querying the different field tables that have the PHP formatter on (if the module is involved). In my experience the biggest surprises come from nodes executing PHP code.
PHP filer core module is off - does it mean there is no php code in nodes?
Thanks
Jamie Holly http://hollyit.net
On 4/24/2014 9:48 PM, Afan Pasalic wrote:
I got a D7 website to take care of. Since the website is still "in charge" of the old/current/outside web development company, I don’t want to do anything on the production website to avoid any possible conflict with the web development company. I installed copy of the website on my localhost and trying to figure it out what they were doing. The website is rather complex with tons of content types, webforms and custom modules. Anybody already had exact or similar experience with taking over a website? Any tips and trick would be appreciated.
Thanks for any help.
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
No documentation AND they did not remove unused modules?? Nice.
I'd tack on $$$ for lack of documentation and then give them back good documentation. I can't imagine not having any documentation on a very complex site. I can't count how many times my docs have saved me.
IMO, documentation is sharing. A company using an open source, community-built package might want to share more love....
Tracey
________________________________________ From: support-bounces@drupal.org [support-bounces@drupal.org] on behalf of Jamie Holly [hovercrafter@earthlink.net] Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2014 7:58 PM To: support@drupal.org Subject: Re: [support] Tips & Tricks while taking over a website
Sadly there isn't an easy way. Depending on my first views of the site, I'll quote the company the time to "learn" what was done by the other shop. I'll try to get them and the shop I'm taking over from on a call to work out the details, but have been in the situation where the terms that they left the other shop wasn't great. Generally I can get an overall idea of what is going on in about an hour, just seeing what modules they have, what views, rules, contexts, fields and content types there are and clicking through the admin section.
One other thing I always do early on is run the hacked module:
https://drupal.org/project/hacked
It's great to detect if the shop you took over from did any changes to core on contrib. If I find any, then I inform the client of it and let them know that upgrades won't be as easy and incur extra costs, unless I can figure out a way to undo what they did without the need for hacking.
Another big thing to check for is any nodes running PHP code. You can do that by querying the different field tables that have the PHP formatter on (if the module is involved). In my experience the biggest surprises come from nodes executing PHP code.
Jamie Holly http://hollyit.net
On 4/24/2014 9:48 PM, Afan Pasalic wrote:
I got a D7 website to take care of. Since the website is still "in charge" of the old/current/outside web development company, I don’t want to do anything on the production website to avoid any possible conflict with the web development company. I installed copy of the website on my localhost and trying to figure it out what they were doing. The website is rather complex with tons of content types, webforms and custom modules. Anybody already had exact or similar experience with taking over a website? Any tips and trick would be appreciated.
Thanks for any help.
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
As I mentioned in my previous email, money is not an issue. Though, I have to be sure (and assure the “employer”) I can “handle” their site or re-do is the only option. And that would be bad solution.
So, I’m trying to figure it out…
Thanks.
On Apr 24, 2014, at 10:24 PM, Hummel, Tracey S - (thummel) thummel@email.arizona.edu wrote:
No documentation AND they did not remove unused modules?? Nice.
I'd tack on $$$ for lack of documentation and then give them back good documentation. I can't imagine not having any documentation on a very complex site. I can't count how many times my docs have saved me.
IMO, documentation is sharing. A company using an open source, community-built package might want to share more love....
Tracey
From: support-bounces@drupal.org [support-bounces@drupal.org] on behalf of Jamie Holly [hovercrafter@earthlink.net] Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2014 7:58 PM To: support@drupal.org Subject: Re: [support] Tips & Tricks while taking over a website
Sadly there isn't an easy way. Depending on my first views of the site, I'll quote the company the time to "learn" what was done by the other shop. I'll try to get them and the shop I'm taking over from on a call to work out the details, but have been in the situation where the terms that they left the other shop wasn't great. Generally I can get an overall idea of what is going on in about an hour, just seeing what modules they have, what views, rules, contexts, fields and content types there are and clicking through the admin section.
One other thing I always do early on is run the hacked module:
https://drupal.org/project/hacked
It's great to detect if the shop you took over from did any changes to core on contrib. If I find any, then I inform the client of it and let them know that upgrades won't be as easy and incur extra costs, unless I can figure out a way to undo what they did without the need for hacking.
Another big thing to check for is any nodes running PHP code. You can do that by querying the different field tables that have the PHP formatter on (if the module is involved). In my experience the biggest surprises come from nodes executing PHP code.
Jamie Holly http://hollyit.net
On 4/24/2014 9:48 PM, Afan Pasalic wrote:
I got a D7 website to take care of. Since the website is still "in charge" of the old/current/outside web development company, I don’t want to do anything on the production website to avoid any possible conflict with the web development company. I installed copy of the website on my localhost and trying to figure it out what they were doing. The website is rather complex with tons of content types, webforms and custom modules. Anybody already had exact or similar experience with taking over a website? Any tips and trick would be appreciated.
Thanks for any help.
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ] -- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
-
Afan Pasalic -
Hummel, Tracey S - (thummel) -
Jamie Holly