This is the talk I wanted someone to give when I started building with Drupal.

There comes a point in every site builder's life when they need to delve into code. Whether it's a code-snippet for a pre-process function, or modifying a template file, or even building their very own module, the budding developer will need to be able to read and understand PHP in order to take this step.

This talk will cover the most common elements to be found in Drupal 7's codebase, including variables, arrays, objects and functions.

We'll look at basic debugging, control structures, conventions and Drupal's coding standards.

We'll explore the gotchas that trip up PHP newbies.

Lastly, we'll have a look at Drupal's API docs and how to navigate your way around.

The aim of this talk is to arm people new to PHP with the essentials they need to be able to read and modify PHP in their own projects.