Chx tip via Chad Phillips (hunmonk) at DrupalCon Boston 2008 (updated to Drupal 7).
Make your own test scripts.
Require the first three lines of index.php, and you have a fully bootstrapped Drupal.
Make a file called test.php or anything you like and keep that in the same folder as index.php.
Here is an example that prints out all the configuration information available to Drupal:
<?php
define('DRUPAL_ROOT', getcwd());
require_once
DRUPAL_ROOT . '/includes/bootstrap.inc';
drupal_bootstrap(DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL);
drupal_test();
function drupal_test() {
global $conf;
print '<pre>';
var_export($conf);
print '</pre>';
}
?>But we can test out any function here (not hook implementations, however) without needing to create and enable a module.
Other tips from chx via hunmonk:
"As soon as you get in trouble start looking at your variables."
use Exit.
Find an example in core. Ask in channel (#drupal, #drupal-contribute) for an example of how to do x in core.
Clear your cache.
Document your work. [Because when you come back in a week, or a year, you won't have any idea what you thought you were doing.]