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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:
- 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.
- 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.
- Plan ahead the exact architecture of the site. Most important step!
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