Jay Callicott  | Product Manager, Lead Architect

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As a Drupal developer, I am constantly trying to streamline and generally make my processes as efficient as possible. With that said, I have seen tremendous value incorporating Features in just about everything that I do Drupal-related. Recently, I shared a snapshot at a Mediacurrent staff meeting of a more in-depth presentation I would like to do at the upcoming Drupalcamp Atlanta. Basically, I go over the highlights of Features with a short 'how-to' tutorial and then some notes on the general methodology I use when setting up a site. Again, I have gotten into the habit of using Features quite extensively (you could say Everywhere) on my projects so I thought I would share my approach. Oh yeah, please vote for the session or share any feedback on what I can do to enhance the presentation. I would greatly appreciate it.

1. Features Everywhere!
   • Feature Driven Development By Jay Callicott, Mediacurrent
2. Features Everywhere! Outline
   • About Features
   • The Problem
   • The Solution
   • How to Create a Feature
   • Feature Driven Development
3. About Features
   • Who Uses Features?
     • Created by DevelopmentSeed
     • Used extensively in OpenAtrium
     • Phase2 Used extensively in OpenPublish
   • Recommended Reading Managing and deploying configuration with exportables and the Features module - DrupalCon presentation by Jeff Miccolis of Development
   • Seed Making and Using Features in Drupal - Blog by Young Hahn of Development Seed
4. The Problem
   • Drupal has many items in the database
     • Views
     • CCK
     • Content types
     • Imagecache
     • Context
     • Settings
     • Moving these between environments is cumbersome
     • Backing these up is a pain
     • No version control
     • Developers can accidentally override each other's work
5. The Solution - Features!
   • Features' Benefits:
     • Work more in the ‘problem space’
     • Encapsulation - Yes!
     • Backup - Yes!
     • Version Control - Yes!
     • Easier deployment
     • Code reuse!
     • A place for your form_alters and nodeapi() hooks
     • Drush integration
   • And much, much more!
     • Replace install profiles!
       • Features break an install into components
     • Create a distribution with drush .make (music site, newspaper site, govt, blog, etc)
6. How To Create a Feature
7. Install and Enable the Following:
   • Features Strongarm (important)
     • Saves additional settings with your content types that would otherwise not get save
   • Context
     • Recommended over admin/build/block
   • Diff (recommended)
     • Can view differences in code
8. How to Create a Feature
   • Go to /admin/build/features (Sample screen)
9. How To Create a Feature
   • Go to /admin/build/features/create and add components
10. How to Create a Feature
    • Click download and save tar file to hard drive (this contains feature module files)
11. How to Create a Feature
    • Extract your feature folder to your project (screenshot showing 7zip on Windows 7)
12. How to Create a Feature
    • Add/commit to svn/git, svn up and enable on your Drupal site
13. How to Create a Feature
    • Your views, content types, etc will now be enabled, you have just deployed a feature!
14. How to Create a Feature
    • To update use drush features-update + svn commit to update your features or 'recreate' for additions (new views, etc)
15. How to Create a Feature
    • Revert components if you a) updated a feature on another environment or b) want to restore a feature to it's original state
16. How to Create a Feature
    • Add all your hooks to your .module file, e.g. form_alter(), nodeapi hooks, etc.
17. Feature Driven Development
    • Kill the customcontent module
      • Doesn't mean anything
      • Isn't modular
    • Create a 'Feature' for every feature on your Drupal site
    • My methodology adapted from OpenAtrium, DevSeed, OpenPublish
      • Create a feature for every content type
      • Package with any related views
      • Package relevant imagecache presets
      • Sometimes directly related permissions I package all context in it's own feature, but some package related context in each feature
      • Place all related form_alters, nodeapi hooks, hook_menus(), etc in the .module file
      • That's it!
18. The End
    • More Links/Resources:
      • Features Project Page
      • DevelopmentSeed Blog for updated information on Features
      • Automating Drupal deployment with Drush and Features - Drupalcamp Austin Presentation by Adam Jensen and Adrian Rollett | UNT.edu