1. Using Features
http://drupal.org/project/features

2. Jeff Miccolis,
Development Seed
http://twitter.com/miccolis
http://twitter.com/developmentseed

3. In four parts
1.The problem
2.The solution
3.Distributing Features
4.Questions

4. 1. The Problem

5. Drupal’s strength is its
weakness.

6. No distinction between
configuration &
content.

7. The Workflow Problem

8. Development:
where the action happens.

9. Staging:
where it’s reviewed.

10. Production:
http://www.mysite.com

11. This is a story...
http://developmentseed.org/blog/2009/jul/09/development-
staging-production-workflow-problem-drupal

12. Round one goes fine.
Developer, designer & client get the site out the
door.

13. Round two is a PITA.
New views build on development
Rebuild on staging
Rebuild on development
Rebuild on staging
Rinse, Repeat.
Rebuild on production.

14. Round two is a PITA.
Requires extensive note taking
Prone to human error
Loads of repeated tasks

15. 2. The Solution
IMHO

16. Make a distinction
between configuration
& content

17. ...and write the
configuration to code.

18. What’s in code goes in
version control.

19. fig 1: Configuration components of a feature.
This belongs in your codebase.

20. Features module
semantics

21. Feature: module that contains
collection of Drupal parts
that do something specific.

22. Features: Drupal module
that allows for the capture
of configuration into code.

23. feature: something you
want your website to do.

24. features: a set of things
you want your website
to do.

25. Yes, I’m sorry. It seemed
like a good idea at the
time.

26. The Features module
makes Feature modules,
which have...

27. Core exportables
Content types
Permissions
Input filters
Menu items

28. Contrib support
Contexts
Views
ImageCache
Ctools

29. Ctools is special
Strongarm, Panels, Feeds, Data, etc...

30. Features is a system to
capture these
components,

31. ...these components
are the configuration
that describes how
your site behaves.

32. Features should be
used throughout the
development process,

33. ...it won’t fight back,
once you get the hang
of it.

34. Create a Feature

35. Status of Features

36. Status of Feature

37. Create, Update, Revert

38. Drush commands
features List all the available features for your site.
features export Export a feature from your site into a
module.
features update Update a feature module on your site.
features revert Revert a feature module on your site.

39. How this can work in
development:

40. Alex makes a feature.

41. Alex makes a feature.
Jeff adds a couple views.

42. Alex makes a feature.
Jeff adds a couple views.
Young adds theme overrides.

43. Alex makes a feature.
Jeff adds a couple views.
Young adds theme overrides.
Alex fixes Jeff’s and Young’s bugs

44. Alex makes a feature.
Jeff adds a couple views.
Young adds theme overrides.
Alex fixes Jeff’s and Young’s bugs
Rolled out.

45. Alex makes a feature.
Jeff adds a couple views.
Young adds theme overrides.
Alex fixes Jeff’s and Young’s bugs
Rolled out.
Jeff makes views adjustments

46. Alex makes a feature.
Jeff adds a couple views.
Young adds theme overrides.
Alex fixes Jeff’s and Young’s bugs
Rolled out.
Jeff makes views adjustments
Rolled out.

47. Alex makes a feature.
Jeff adds a couple views.
Young adds theme overrides.
Alex fixes Jeff’s and Young’s bugs
Rolled out.
Jeff makes views adjustments
Rolled out.
Alex makes views adjustments, to fix Jeff’s...

48. Alex makes a feature.
Jeff adds a couple views.
Young adds theme overrides.
Alex fixes Jeff’s and Young’s bugs
Rolled out.
Jeff makes views adjustments
Rolled out.
Alex makes views adjustments, to fix Jeff’s...
Young touches up the views styling

49. Alex makes a feature.
Jeff adds a couple views.
Young adds theme overrides.
Alex fixes Jeff’s and Young’s bugs
Rolled out.
Jeff makes views adjustments
Rolled out.
Alex makes views adjustments, to fix Jeff’s...
Young touches up the views styling
Rolled out.

50. Views changes are
made only once.
Each change has a
commit log.

51. Less room for dumb
errors.
More accountability.

52. It’s easier to do things
right.

53. Not having a
distinction between
configuration and code
is bigger that just this
one aspect.

54. 3. Distributing Features

56. Can I always share my
configuration?

57. How can I get that nifty
update status thing
behind the firewall?

59. Feature Servers

61. http://code.developmentseed.org/
featureserver/

62. Feature Server allows
you to create projects,
make new releases...
subscribe to updates via
the Update status
module...

63. It is simple by design...
For greater integration
with version control
systems or for
automatic packaging
consider using the
Project module.

67. Based on Drupal’s
implicit standards.
* update status xml
* exportables
* drush make

69. 4. Questions?