If you want to create a web resource, or to implement certain improvements on an existing one, then you must find specialists who will make your ideas come true. It’s quite a challenging task. We offered our 10 tips for hiring a top web developer by mentioning qualities that must be possessed. However, in addition, there are different types of web developers, with different skills, duties and types of work. The objectives and the scale of your project require appropriate experts. It might be a little complicated to define who exactly you need, especially if you aren’t a dev yourself. We helped you see the difference between front-end and back-end development, and now we are going to help you distinguish between the main types of Drupal developers.
What does a Drupal Developer Do?
Site builder
Programming is what most developers are dealing with. They receive a task with the requirements and perform appropriate coding. For Drupal, writing custom code is not obligatory in this open source CMS with a large community. A great, innovative and feature-rich website can be built with the help of only existing core modules and existing contribs. To solve a particular problem, Drupal site builders should have a deep understanding of the essence of modules, plugins and extensions, their pros and cons, know how they work together, and be aware of all their updates and upgrades. They must know how to use and configure all of Drupal’s potential to provide a wide spectrum of functionality for a usable and accessible web resource.
Theme developer
Drupal themes are responsible for the appearance of the site. They don’t influence the functionality much. However, they do help attract visitors and convince them to stay, if the themes are pleasant to view and easy to navigate. The themers are front-end developers who specialize in graphic design. The content and the structure of the site in Drupal doesn’t depend on it, and remains unchanged when switching themes.
There are lots of free responsive Drupal themes. But, if you want something special, a theme developer can either design a custom theme for you from scratch or create a subtheme, grounding it in the off-the-shelf elements by customizing the existing ones. These specialists should have proficiency in HTML, CSS and sometimes in PHP and JavaScript to turn a design into a working theme.
Module developer
If you need a custom theme, you should hire a theme developer. But if you need a custom module, then you should hire a module developer. If some functionality for your website can’t be created with the help of the existing Drupal modules, then these back end professionals are able to develop a personalized module specially for your site that fits your demands and wishes.
Sure, these three main types can be divided or supplemented with various other types. But we want to keep it simple, especially because Drupal developers usually possess many skills at once and can belong to several types at a time. True Drupal professionals are interested in continually learning something new, in extending knowledge and enriching skills in order to be able to manage with more tasks. Our company allows you to hire any type of Drupal developer you need, or a team of them, from our experienced experts. Contact us to discuss the specifics of your project.