How to get help with Drupal

Work with Drupal long enough and this is bound to happen: a chain of seemingly sound choices ends up angering Drupal and BAM, out come the tentacles. So now that your website is doing it's best Chuthulu impersonation, what in the hell do you do? Simple. Go get help.

Google

This is not meant to be the standard RTFM, n00b spiel on the value of google. I mention google first because it's the first place I go when I'm trying to figure out how to unb0rk a Drupal site. This is for entirely pragmatic reasons.

Simply put the search function on drupal.org sucks it, and there is an entire constellation of blogs that have info on Drupal issues. When I start my search for answers I want to cast as broad a net as possible. So step 1. for me is always a generous application of google-fu.

$n.drupal.org

www.drupal.org
The issue queues for core and various contrib modules can be an incredibly valuable, if time consuming, resource for additional (ocassionally insanely esoteric) information on a problem. It isn't always easy, or even possible to find what you're looking for on drupal.org but if you can find it here it's probably what you need.

A quick word on drupal.org forums:
I know some people in the community that swear by the forums on drupal.org but in three years I have yet to see anyone successfully get a question answered in a timely fashion in there. If all else has failed and you need to ask someone a question, you're much better off hitting IRC.

api.drupal.org
API documentation for Drupal core from Drupal 4.x to the current version. This has been a favorite site of mine for a couple of years now, however I just recently learned that Lullabot has created their own API reference that includes documentation on many popular contrib modules as well as core. Check it out: api.lullabot.com

groups.drupal.org
Assuming your local DUG has a group set up on G.D.O. this is an excellent way to get information and help. Typical forum rules (and reply latency) apply.

IRC (irc.freenode.net)

IRC (internet relay chat) has been around forever. It was one of the first text-only real time chat services available on the net. To connect to IRC you will need to install and configure an IRC client. For those of you unfamiliar with this process and in a hurry, the links below point to freenode's web based java client (no installation required).

• #drupal: Developer support. Webchick and other community developer luminaries hang out here. Warning: if you're not asking about how to code something, you're going to get referred to #drupal-support or you might be ignored.
• #drupal-support: Drupal's official support channel for admin how-to questions. Not sure what module you need? Having trouble configuring a View? Here's where you go.
• #drupal-nc: home of TriDUG on IRC. Drop in and say hi.

Twitter

One of the local designers turned me on to this one. Apparently tweeting a problem description with #drupal in the tweet is a great way to get answers.

The Nuclear Option: start throwing money at the problem

If you're really jammed and you've got a budget to work with here are some additional options worth considering:

Acquia
If you can afford to spring for a support account with Acquia it's hard to go wrong here. Depending on the kind of account you go for you'll have access to dedicated forums or even live 1:1 support.

Hire a consultant
There is a pretty robust community of Drupal freelancers out there. Hire an expert to swoop in and solve your problem.

Special considerations: Help with FrankenDrupal

The last developer to work on the project hacked core. You inherited the site from some unscrupulous contractor that decided welding a bunch of cakePHP onto your site would be a great way to cut corners. Whatever, end result is you're responsible for a site that is some unholy amalgamation of Drupal and Something Else. Do you have options when you run into problems? Short answer: not really.

Unfortunately, this kind of thing does happen, and it's a pretty grim situation for whoever is left holding the bag (read: responsible for supporting this mess). Since core's been hacked all bets are off. Normal remedies aren't guaranteed to work and nobody in the community has the kind of spare time it takes to reverse engineer how your site works now. To put it bluntly, in situations like this, if you can't figure it out yourself often you're going to have to pay a professional to come in and clean up the site.

Pastebin

If you're trying to get help with custom code or a View, one thing you can do to really speed things up is paste a copy of what you're working on to pastebin. Trying to troubleshoot code you can't see is frustrating for both parties. With pastebin the person working with you has something to look at and isn't forced to ask a lot of redundant questions that would be answered immediately if they could just see your code. Pastebinning a View is pretty simple, just hit the export tab and then copy and paste the code displayed to pastebin, then save the url.