Research & Evidence-Based Practice Flashcards

In an evidence-based Drupal security audit, which command-line tool scans for known vulnerabilities in installed modules?

Answer: drush pm:security

`drush pm:security` checks all installed projects against the Drupal Security Advisories feed and reports any known vulnerable versions.

Which practice best supports evidence-based quality assurance when developing a custom Drupal module?

Answer: Writing PHPUnit and Kernel tests that cover critical paths before deployment

Automated PHPUnit and Kernel tests create a reproducible evidence base that custom logic behaves correctly under defined conditions.

What role does Drupal's Automated Testing (DTT) framework play in evidence-based development?

Answer: It provides a structured harness for functional, kernel, and unit tests that validate behavior objectively

Drupal Testing Traits (DTT) extends PHPUnit to enable functional browser tests, providing objective, repeatable evidence that Drupal sites work as specified.

When researching the root cause of a Drupal site performance regression, which log source provides the most direct evidence?

Answer: Drupal's recent log messages (dblog) combined with server-level slow query logs

Combining Drupal's dblog watchdog entries with MySQL/PostgreSQL slow query logs surfaces both application-level errors and database bottlenecks causing regressions.

Which Drupal contrib module supports evidence-based editorial workflows by tracking content revision history and authorship?

Answer: Content Moderation (core)

Drupal core's Content Moderation module records revision history, state transitions, and authors, creating an auditable evidence trail for editorial decisions.

How should an evidence-based approach guide decisions about Drupal core update timing?

Answer: Review release notes, test on staging against your specific configuration, then schedule production updates

Evidence-based update management requires reviewing changelogs for risk, staging environment validation, and planned rollout to avoid regressions.

In Drupal research contexts, what is the primary advantage of using JSON:API over traditional REST exports for data collection?

Answer: JSON:API provides a standardized, filterable, and relationship-aware output ideal for systematic data extraction

JSON:API's standardized specification includes filtering, sorting, sparse fieldsets, and relationship inclusion, enabling precise and reproducible data extraction for research.