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Project deployment using Features

Project deployment using Features

Posted on: Friday, September 2nd 2011 by Richard Mo

The contributed module, Features, has been out in the community for a while, and has been a tremendous help for deployment. It saves time and energy when moving from Development, Staging, then Production. Configurations become a 'one-click' solution, so to speak.

However, careful planning needs to be incorporated when creating packages with Features. Sometimes two Features can be in conflict with each other when both packages are using the same element - this is especially true for CCK fields. Features doesn't offer the easiest way to move elements within a package to another. For example, if Package A stores a content-type that has CCK fields and Imagecache presets, then to move it, any dependencies must be released manually. Here are a few tips, that I use, to ensure a smoother process for development and deployment:

  1. Whenever possible, group all related content-types, views, pages, etc. into a single package. Better yet, modulate functionalities or features into an atomic unit, so it is isolated and encapsulated.
  2. Try to minimize the amount of sharing of existing CCK fields among other content-types. Content-types within the same atomic grouping can share the CCK fields.
  3. Plan ahead the exact architecture of the site. Most important step!

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