Many of us got involved with Drupal for a similar reason: it gives beginners and experts alike the power to build rich, complex applications without having to write code. But the most attractive site can be handicapped by a single slow module or function. And performance issues can be devious--root causes are often where we never expect them. Regardless of experience level, if you have faced this, especially on a live site, you know how daunting it can be.

Debugging slow performance is a common task, but beginners may not know where to start. Tools like New Relic and AppDynamics abound. Debugging frameworks such as XHProf and Xdebug are commonly praised. And many still depend on dpm() calls to watchdog to track down errors which make a site work harder than it should. But where should a new user start? What good is a stack trace if the developer can’t convert it to actionable information? When is it time to debug, rather than throw more hardware the problem?

This session is meant to present:

• A process and workflow for debugging
• Introduction to the tools and their best use cases
• Common symptoms and tactics to track down and fix the problem

This session is squarely aimed at sitebuilders and newer developers. We can’t cover every error or issue, but we will give you a tested process for solving common problems. You should be able to expand on what you learn here to become a more fully rounded developer, one who can make sure modules and themes perform as expected, without affecting the overall site performance!