Features: A better way to package stuff in Drupal

Features a better way to package stuff Rob Knight NWDUG February 2010

About me ‣ Drupal developer since version 4.6 ‣ Member of the Drupal Association - you should be too! ‣ Working in Manchester at PRWD

Intro ‣ Features is a Drupal module created by Development Seed ‣ It enables ‘Features’ to be created which package CCK types, Views, Contexts and more ‣ It moves configuration from the database to code

What is a Feature? ‣ A Feature is a special kind of module ‣ Features consist of generated code ‣ Features are created via the admin UI ‣ Features have version numbers

How a Drupal installation changes Version Level Changes control? Core Rarely Yes Contrib Regularly Yes Custom code Frequently Maybe Database Constantly No Problem: how to manage change in the database?

The difference Features make

Example: Packaging a blog Feature ‣ ‘Blog Post’ content type ‣ Some views ‣ A Context for displaying blocks

A content type

A simple view

A context

The resulting blog Text Here we can see the blog content type, the context and the view in action

Creating a Feature

Feature contents

Generated code

Installing the Feature When the Feature is enabled, all module dependencies will be enabled too

Changes If any component of the feature is changed, the Feature is ‘overridden’. In this case, I’ve changed a View

Viewing a ‘diff’ I can now choose to revert the changes or update the Feature code

Version control ‣ Because Features are code, they can be managed like source code ‣ Updating a Feature is just like updating a module

Deployment ‣ Features are great for ‘additive’ changes ‣ Not so great for ‘destructive’ changes ‣ Complex changes between Feature versions are still tricky

Feature Servers ‣ Imagine running your own drupal.org-style module repository ‣ Supports “Available Updates” monitoring ‣ Powerful integration with drush and drush make

What features doesn’t do (yet) ‣ Taxonomy ‣ Node content and attachments ‣ Menus ‣ However, alternatives exist and more modules are integrating with Features

Pitfalls ‣ Many contrib modules as yet unsupported ‣ Features isn’t magic - it’s just a system for generating code ‣ Upgrades still need some manual intervention

Questions and Answers

Thanks for listening ‣ Features is maintained by Development Seed and is available at http://drupal.org/project/features ‣ My site & blog are at http://robknight.org.uk

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Features: A better way to package stuff in Drupal

by Rob Knight on Feb 21, 2010

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Features: A better way to package stuff in Drupal — Presentation Transcript