drupal presentation for capitalcamp 2011: features driven development

Features Everywhere!

Feature Driven Development

By Jay CallicottMediacurrent ConsultantCapitalCamp 2011July 22, 2011

Features Everywhere! Outline

• Part I - The Basicso About Featureso About Jayo The Problemo The Solutiono How to Create a Basic Feature

• Part 2 - Diving Deepero Context & Featureso Panels & Featureso Adding stuff that isn't exportableo Feature Driven Developmento Real World Examples!

About Features

• Recommended ReadingManaging and deploying configuration with exportables

and the Features module - DrupalCon presentation by Jeff Miccolis of Development SeedMaking and Using Features in Drupal - Blog by Young

Hahn of Development Seed• Who Uses Features?

o Originally created by DevelopmentSeedUsed extensively in OpenAtrium

o Phase2Used extensively in OpenPublishNow maintained by Phase2

About FeaturesOpenAtrium

About Features

About Jay

• Mediacurrent Web Developer• Developed Drupal sites since version 4.6• Why Features?

o Started using features in early 2010o Developed features extensively on a large OpenPublish-

based multi-site installation, working with Phase2o Now use features on every site big and small

• OpenChurch distribution maintainero Features used extensively

The Problem

• Drupal has many items in the databaseo Viewso CCK Content typeso Imagecacheo Contexto Panelso Settingso Permissions

• Moving these between environments is cumbersome• Backing these up is a pain• No version control• Developers can accidentally override each other's work

The Solution - Features!

• Features' Benefits:o Work more in the „problem space‟o Encapsulation - Yes!o Backup - Yes!o Version Control - Yes!o Easier deploymento Code reuse!o A place for your form_alters and nodeapi() hookso Drush integration

• And much, much more!o Replace (or supplement) install profiles! Features break an install into components

o Create a distribution with drush .make (music site, newspaper site, govt, blog, etc)

How to Create a Feature

• Install and Enable the Following:o Featureso Strongarm (important) Saves additional settings with your content types that

would otherwise not get saveo ContextRecommended over admin/build/block

o Diff (recommended, only on non-production environments)Can view differences in code


Go to /admin/build/features

(Sample screen)

How to Create a FeatureGo to /admin/build/features/create and add components


Click download and save tar file to hard drive (this contains feature module files)

How to Create a FeatureExtract your feature folder to your project (screenshot showing 7zip on Windows 7)


Add/commit to svn/git, svn up and enable on your Drupal site


Your views, content types, etc will now be enabled, you have just deployed a feature!


To update use drush features-update + svn commit to update your features or 'recreate' for additions (new views, etc)


Revert components if you a) updated a feature on another environment or b) want to restore a feature to it's original state

Context & Features

• http://drupal.org/project/context• Context is used primarily for block

placement (admin/build/block replacement)• Exports to features out of the box

Screenshots next....

Context Example Screenshot

Adding Context to a Feature

Panels & Features

• Panels export to features easilyoFalls under 'Panels' or 'Page Manager' in

dropdown in components• I like panels for node layouts!

o (overriding page manager node template)

Screenshots next....

Panels Feature Example

context placed blocks

panel regions & views

Panels Feature Underneath...

Panel Feature Underneath

Using CCK, views, panel, strongarm

Adding a Panel to a Feature

under "Panels" or "Page Manager"

How to export non-exportables

• Features doesn't export everything, but it's still a module!

• Next: simple example, creating a vocabulary with a featureo (Note: features_extra does this for you)

How to export non-exportables

• Anything you can do in a module you can do in a feature

Using hook_install() & hook_uninstall()

Feature Driven Development

• My methodology (adapted from OpenAtrium, DevSeed, OpenPublish)o Create a feature for every content typeo Package with any related viewso Package panels and node template overrides!o Package relevant imagecache presetso Sometimes directly related permissionso Sometimes package related contextso Place all related form_alters, nodeapi hooks,

hook_menus(), etc in the .module file• That's it!

Real World Examples!

• Seeing is believing, some (more) real world screenshots of feature lists

Real World List Screenshots

Real World Screenshots

The trend is I always have at least 1 feature for each content type

Wait! A couple last items to cover

• Features Extra• Drush Make• Distributions with .make• Features Server

• Share Features!• Drupal “Apps”(introduced by Ph2)• What about Drupal 7?• I'm a beginner – is this for me?

The End

Resources• Features Project Page

o http://drupal.org/project/features• Features Extra Project Page

o http://drupal.org/project/features_extra

Related• From Zero to Distribution using Features, Profiler, and

Drush Makeo http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/zero-

distribution-using-features-profiler-and-drush-make

Hit me up on twitter: http://twitter.com/drupalninja/

Questions??

drupal presentation for capitalcamp 2011: features driven development

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