Drupal Case Studies & Practical Application 5

Question 1

A Drupal site with 500,000 nodes experiences slow cache invalidation after content saves. Which caching strategy change reduces this bottleneck?

Accepted Answer

Use cache tags with granular entity-level tags and a reverse proxy like Varnish that supports cache tag invalidation

Answer

Drupal's cache tag system paired with a reverse proxy (Varnish + xkey/purge module) enables surgical per-entity cache invalidation without purging unrelated pages.

Question 2

A university's Drupal site was hacked and backdoor PHP files were found in the public files directory. What hardening measure directly prevents this attack vector?

Accepted Answer

Restrict PHP execution in the public files directory via server configuration (e.g., deny .php in Nginx)

Answer

Configuring the web server to deny execution of PHP (and other scripts) inside the public files directory prevents uploaded malicious files from being executed.

Question 3

A marketing team wants to A/B test two versions of a landing page hero image in Drupal without developer involvement. Which contrib module enables this?

Accepted Answer

Acquia Optimize (formerly Acquia Lift) or the AB Test module for per-node variant testing

Answer

The AB Test module (or enterprise tools like Acquia Optimize) allows defining content variants and split traffic between them, manageable by editors.

Question 4

A Drupal site must send transactional emails reliably without relying on the server's local sendmail. What is the recommended Drupal solution?

Accepted Answer

Use the SMTP Authentication Support module to route mail through an external SMTP provider

Answer

The SMTP Authentication Support module lets Drupal send mail via an authenticated external SMTP service (SendGrid, Mailgun, etc.) for reliable delivery.

Question 5

During a Drupal upgrade from 9 to 10, a custom module fails because it calls a deprecated function removed in Drupal 10. What tool helps identify all such deprecations before upgrading?

Accepted Answer

Drupal Check (drupal-check) static analysis tool

Answer

Drupal Check scans custom and contrib code for deprecated API calls and produces a report of what must be updated before the upgrade.

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Drupal Case Studies & Practical Application 5