Drupal Version
7
INTRODUCTION
When launching a Drupal website there are areas that should be configured, reviewed and tested. This article will list some items that will usually need to be checked when launching a Drupal website. This basic list does not cover advanced or uncommon items. Although this list is geared toward Drupal websites, a lot of these items will also pertain to other types of websites.
PRELIMINARY / REVIEW
- Review Drupal’s status page for any errors or warnings that may need to be addressed (admin/reports/status)
- Ensure you have the latest stable release of Drupal and contributed modules installed
- Review the Recent Log Messages for any items that may need to be addressed (admin/reports/dblog)
PAGES & LINKS
- Check for broken links - Link Checker Module | W3C Link Checker
- Configure / Create 404 Pages - Fast 404 Module | Drupal 403 and 404 error page setup
- Setup Content Schema - Schema.org Module
- Test that pages are printer friendly - more info
SEO
- Confirm proper URL/path aliases are setup and automatic path aliases (patterns) are configured
- Confirm proper meta data output on all Pages and Views
- Install and configure Global Redirect module to minimize duplicate content
- Install and configure XML Site Map Module
- Customize robots.txt to prevent search engine indexing as needed
- Setup Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools and review for any issues
TESTING
- Test website on all applicable browsers and devices
- Validate HTML
- Validate CSS
- Check Accessibility
- Test website forms (contact, etc.) submissions and verify that email notices are received properly
- Test Drupal User Roles by logging as user/role to verify account permissions and access is working properly
FILES & DATABASE
CLEAN UP
- Remove all test content and test users accounts
- Disable/remove any development modules
- Disable any development settings in your theme(s)
- Turn off error reporting (admin/config/development/logging)
- Remove files from root Drupal install directory (not required but considered best practice)
- CHANGELOG.txt
- install.php
- INSTALL.txt
- INSTALL.mysql.txt
- INSTALL.pgsql.txt
- INSTALL.sqlite.txt
- LICENSE.txt
- MAINTAINERS.txt
- README.txt
- sites/all/modules/README.txt
- sites/all/themes/README.txt
- UPGRADE.txt
SECURITY
- Make sure file permissions for file directories and code directory are set correctly
- Setup a password policy for user account - Password Policy Module
- Set "New Account" to “Administer Only” if website does not utilize public user account (admin/config/people/accounts)
- If using SSL, check certificate is installed correctly
- Additional/Optional: Security Review Module
- More info on securing your Drupal website
PERFORMANCE
- Turn on and configure Drupal caching
- Optionally, install and configure Advanced CSS/JS Aggregation Module
- Optionally, install and configure the Minify Module
- Turn on Views 'Time-Based' caching for applicable Views. Optionally, install Views Content Cache
- Turn off Drupal’s built-in Cron (set to run 'never') and configure cron task on server
- Disable all unused/unneeded modules.
- Some common modules to disable (if not used), color, comment, dashboard, help, locale, search, shortcut, overlay, toolbar and UI modules.
- Check speed of pages on Google PageSpeed Insights
RECOVERY
- Configure and test Backup Migrate scheduling
- Turn on Content Revisions for Content Types that editors may be changing
- Configure and test any 3rd-party / server-side backup system(s)
- Make full backup of website at launch for off-site/client storage
REPORTING & ANALYTICS
- Install, configure and test Google Analytics Module
FINAL
- Create/provide user manual, documentation and account information as necessary
- Provide assets and deliverables as necessary
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