Acquia Back End Specialist (D10) key terms

A PHP function named with a module or theme prefix that Drupal invokes at defined points in its execution, letting custom code alter behavior or react to events without modifying core.

A hook whose name ends in _alter that receives data by reference so modules can modify structures such as forms, queries, or render arrays before Drupal uses them.

A reusable PHP object registered in a module's services YAML file and retrieved through the service container, allowing dependencies to be injected and swapped for testing.

Drupal's central registry that instantiates and stores services, resolving constructor arguments and shared instances so code requests objects by name rather than building them directly.

A pattern where a class receives its collaborators as constructor or setter arguments instead of creating them internally, which Drupal supports for controllers, plugins, and services.

A swappable, annotated PHP class managed by a plugin manager, used for blocks, field types, field formatters, and many other extensible components discovered by Drupal's plugin system.

A docblock metadata declaration above a plugin class that tells the plugin manager the plugin's identifier, label, and configuration options at discovery time.

A dynamically generated plugin definition derived from a base plugin, commonly used to expose one block or condition per entity bundle or configuration item.

A structured PHP array describing output with keys such as #theme, #markup, and #cache, which Drupal later renders into HTML through the render pipeline.

The cache tags, cache contexts, and max-age values attached to render arrays and responses that tell Drupal how long output stays valid and what changes invalidate it.

A string such as node:5 attached to cached data so that invalidating that tag clears every cache entry depending on the related content or configuration.

A declaration of the condition, such as user role or URL language, that varies cached output, causing Drupal to store a separate cache entry per context value.

A file using Twig syntax that produces theme output, receiving variables from preprocess functions and render arrays while enforcing auto-escaping for security.

A theme or module function that prepares and alters the variables passed to a Twig template before rendering, named after the hook or template being processed.

A named entry in a theme's hook definitions that maps a render array's #theme value to a Twig template and its accepted variables.

An entity type whose instances are stored in configuration rather than database content tables, such as content types or vocabularies, and shipped in module config files.

A YAML definition describing the structure and data types of a configuration object, enabling validation, typed access, and correct translation and export behavior.

The process of exporting active configuration to YAML files and importing it into another environment, keeping settings consistent across sites and deployments.

A numbered function in a module's .install file that runs database or configuration changes on existing sites when the module's schema version is behind.

A class-backed definition describing a kind of content object, including its bundles, fields, storage, and handlers, such as nodes, users, or taxonomy terms.

Drupal's system for attaching configurable fields to entity bundles, providing storage, widgets, formatters, and typed field items for content modeling.

Drupal's layered permission system where routes, entities, and fields declare access checks, and access results are cached and combined to decide what a user may do.

The framework for building and processing forms as structured arrays, handling validation, submission, AJAX, and rendering through defined callbacks.

Drupal's automated testing layers, including unit, kernel, and functional tests, used to verify module behavior and prevent regressions during development.

The PHP dependency manager Drupal uses to declare core, contributed modules, and libraries, resolving versions and generating the autoloader and lock file.

An isolated runtime on the Acquia platform, typically dev, stage, and prod, each with its own code branch, database, and domain for testing and release.

Acquia's automated flow that builds and deploys a git branch to an environment, running build hooks and moving artifacts between environments as code is promoted.

The act of moving code, configuration, and database changes into an environment, often by pushing a branch and importing configuration so the target matches the intended state.

Acquia's command-line tool for interacting with the platform, letting developers create environments, copy databases, run Drush commands, and manage deployments from a terminal.

The Drupal shell utility for running site commands such as cache rebuilds, configuration imports, database updates, and arbitrary PHP, widely used in deployment scripts.

A browser-based development workspace on Acquia Cloud that provides a preconfigured environment for editing code and running Drush against a branch.

A saved snapshot of an environment's database that can be restored or copied to another environment, used for safety before updates and for refreshing lower environments.

A reverse-proxy HTTP cache in front of the web tier that serves cached responses quickly and is purged when Drupal invalidates cache tags.

A content delivery network that caches and serves static assets and pages from edge locations, reducing load on origin servers and improving latency for distant users.

A platform component that distributes incoming requests across multiple web servers, requiring shared storage and cache configuration so any server can serve any request.

A named value configured per environment on the platform, used to hold secrets, API keys, or settings that differ between dev, stage, and production without changing code.

A PHP file included during bootstrap that sets database credentials, configuration directories, and environment-specific overrides, often reading platform-provided values.

An Acquia platform account that groups environments, teams, and infrastructure under one contract, defining available resources and access for an organization.