Drupal is a tough system to start working with. Even if you read the large documentation at Drupal.org, you may sometimes feel that you are just guessing what it is doing in the background.

Some people say that you should study it file by file; some others tell you to read all the APIs available, but is in the Drupal.org issue queues where solid understanding of its guts can be achieved. When you are debugging an error, been at a contributed module or at core, you are following its flow, understanding the logic and thus getting the big picture.

Spending time working in the Issue Queues debugging code, improving user experience or just adding your two cents is a fun, challenging, and great learning experience.

In a modular system like Drupal, each part is in a different state of completeness. From a stable release of Views to the latest Dave Reid sandbox module, you will eventually have a problem with a module, and will need to get it fixed.

This session will cover the following topics:

Basic debugging steps
Issue queue search tips
Ways to get your patch reviewed
How to safely patch your site
Issue queue etiquette
People often forget that issue queues are a place for interacting with humans, not a dumping ground for complaints or pleas for help. Each maintainer has their own approach to their issue queue, but there are plenty of common steps you can take to not only help fix your site, but the sites of thousands of other users of the module.