Deployment Checklist for Drupal web application projects

| | 2 min read

Developing a Drupal website is a complicated and long process. You have to check whether all the design and functionalities meet with the client specifications. And before the site going to be live you have to check certain criteria.These checklists describes the criteria that should be tested before a site going to be live.

  • Ensure that no error messages are being displayed in the Status Report page.
  • Ensure that the Site Information such as Email address and Site Name are correct.
  • Ensure that the user registration settings such as ‘visitors can create accounts’ and ‘no admin approval is required’ is selected, depending on the requirement. (This is one of the most overlooked).
  • Ensure that odd usernames such as admin, root, webmaster, etc. are disallowed for anonymous users during registration.
  • Ensure that Email settings in the webforms, contact us etc. are correct.
  • Ensure that the Devel modules are disabled.
  • Ensure the database logging row limit (The default row limit of 1000 can wrap quickly. Depends on the limit of information you want to store in database log).
  • Ensure that Error 403 and Error 404 pages have been created.
  • Ensure that the favicon has been created.
  • Ensure the performance of your site such as
  •   Caching mode: Normal
      Block cache: Enabled
      Optimize CSS files: Enabled
      Optimize JavaScript files: Enabled
      Clear all caches 
      

  • Ensure that Error Reporting is disabled. It is better to disable on-screen error reporting by choosing 'Write errors to the log'.
  • Set a maintenance theme. Switching to maintenance theme is a nice enhancement if your site is under construction.
  • Ensure that you have removed all .txt files from root.
  • Ensure that there are no Javascript errors.
  • Ensure that unused roles have been removed from the site.
  • Ensure that all Content Types are configured correct and remove the ones not being used anywhere.
  • Ensure that Cron has been set to run as frequently as required.
  • Ensure that the site is fully functional (no broken links, missing content, etc.)
  • Ensure that all titles and contents are correct.
  • Ensure that all images are named correctly.
  • Ensure CSS Validation by passing it through a validator.
  • Ensure compatibility with the full range of browsers to be supported (usually, it would be: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera).
  • Ensure that all url redirections work correctly.

This should cover most of what is required for a quick review of a normal Drupal site. If the project is quite large and you want to give it everything you have, here is a detailed and comprehensive set of Drupal checklists: