Code-driven Development: Use Features Effectively

Time: Monday, March 7 from 9:00am - 5:00pm
Coffee and registration starts at 8:30am.

Location: Gleacher Center, Room 304
(Gleacher is cross the street from the Sheraton Chicago at 450 North Cityfront Plaza Drive)

Course Description:
In a full-day training aimed at Drupal developers we will show how to improve the Drupal development workflow, especially regarding traceability of changes, smooth upgrade of production sites and distributed team workflow, by using code-driven development techniques and Features.

We will assume familiarity with Drupal development and with a workflow based on code versioning and database dumps. Then we will briefly recap the benefits and basic usage of the Features module before moving to the more advanced topics of achieving a solid, clean, efficient and sustainable workflow.

We will see:

• how to put the whole site configuration in code, even when a module does not offer a proper Features integration;
• the usage of a controller feature to manage site updates;
• the update process and the difference between structural and incremental updates;
• tips to deploy features faster by using Drush and an optimal shell configuration;
• how to write reusable features.