Can feature solve the eternal

1. Features

2. Gokul N K
Worked on
while working at
Since then I have been working on
at

3. Drupal is a database heavy content
management system.
This makes the staging workflow a
painful process.
Enter Exportables(Part of Ctools)

4. Ctools is a group of nifty APIs and
tools to improve the developer
experience and efficiency.
Earl Miles (Merlin of
Chaos)
Did you know that Ctools
stool for Chaos Tools

5. Sharing Databases?
•Cumbersome process.
•In Distributed teams it can be a
nightmare.
•Content and Settings are not
separated.
•Cannot do DB dumps on live sites.

6. Before
Move the changes from database to
the code.
Code Settings and Content
Resides in File System Database

7. After
Code & Settings Content
Resides in File System Database

8. Advantage of saving settings
in code
1. All settings in code.
2. Can be revisioned.
3. Database changes can be
grouped. Hence easier to move
selective changes to production.
4. Content and settings are
separated.

9. Enter Features

10. Why features?
1. Development of website makes
more contextual meaning, when it
is discussed feature wise.
2. Easier to export feature by
feature.
3. No need of any database changes
on staging and prod.

11. For Features
Get comfortable with contexts and boxes.
They will save your day.

12. Challenges in Features
1. Two people can’t work on same
feature simultaneously.
2. Auto-detected dependencies can
be wrong.
3. Once features are over-ridden
then updates cannot be used.
4. Features that extend existing
features.

13. Not all can problems can be fixed
1. Features Extra :
http://drupal.org/project/features_extra
2. Features Plumber :
http://drupal.org/project/features_plumber
3. Features Override :
http://drupal.org/project/features_override
4. Ftools : http://drupal.org/project/ftools

14. Features Extra
Support for few popular
modules, which features module
doesn’t support out of the box.
1. Blocks
2. Node-queue
3. Profile

15. Features Plumber
Remove wrongfully auto-detected
dependencies.

16. Those who have worked with the
features know the problem of
downloading a feature, copying it to
the correct location, clearing cache.
All this only to find out that you have
forgotten to add something else.
REPEAT THE PROCESS AGAIN :P

17. Features Tools
Auto create
Revert them All
http://drupal.org/node/986932
S Safe Auto create

18. Features Override
View level overrides

19. Features Override
Advanced overrides. (Granular)

21. Configuration Module
Move the changes from database to
the code.

22. Configuration Management
Architecture
Will it solve the issue? May be most
of them, but not all.

23. You are not an exception?
Thank you, Gokul