Drupal and its contributed modules provides an impressive amount of functionality without needing to write a single line of code by storing information in Drupal’s database tables. Unfortunately this poses a challenge for developers wanting to stage changes between servers. This talk starts to address these issues by describing the problem and presenting a variety of solutions as well as their pros and cons. I also discuss some possible paths to make this easier coming down the pipe.

1. Staging & Deployment

2. Greg Dunlap
Senior Programmer
Palantir.net

3. The Problem

4. Traditional Deployment

5. Traditional Deployment
• Everything is in code

6. Traditional Deployment
• Everything is in code
• Mature tools to manage the code (svn,
editors, command line dist. tools)

7. Traditional Deployment
• Everything is in code
• Mature tools to manage the code (svn,
editors, command line dist. tools)
• Code moves one way (dev -> qa -> prod)

8. Drupal Deployment

9. Drupal Deployment
• Drupal stores a lot in the database

10. Drupal Deployment
• Drupal stores a lot in the database
• CCK, Views, Settings, Blocks, Content

11. Drupal Deployment
• Drupal stores a lot in the database
• CCK, Views, Settings, Blocks, Content
• Data moves both ways (dev/configuration
starts in production and moves out, user-
generated content starts at prod and
comes in) so can’t just mysqldump from
dev

12. Drupal Deployment
• Drupal stores a lot in the database
• CCK, Views, Settings, Blocks, Content
• Data moves both ways (dev/configuration
starts in production and moves out, user-
generated content starts at prod and
comes in) so can’t just mysqldump from
dev
• No mature toolset to merge

13. Content vs. Config

14. Content vs. Config
• Content and Configuration have very
different problems

15. Content vs. Config
• Content and Configuration have very
different problems
• Content - Primary key problems,
inconsistent dependencies, some poor APIs
(although most are better in D7 yay)

16. Content vs. Config
• Content and Configuration have very
different problems
• Content - Primary key problems,
inconsistent dependencies, some poor APIs
(although most are better in D7 yay)
• Config - Wildly inconsistent storage and
exportability, plus a lot of the above too

17. hook_form_alter()

18. hook_form_alter()
• The cause of, and solution to, all life’s
problems.

19. hook_form_alter()
• The cause of, and solution to, all life’s
problems.
• Couples back end and front end

20. hook_form_alter()
• The cause of, and solution to, all life’s
problems.
• Couples back end and front end
• Makes it difficult for any purely backend
solution to work consistently

22. Options That Suck

23. Options That Suck
• Develop on production

24. Options That Suck
• Develop on production
• Repeat everything by hand at launch

25. Options That Suck
• Develop on production
• Repeat everything by hand at launch
• Seriously life is too short

26. A Better Option
Move stuff traditionally stored in the database into code.
This is traditionally how people handle it.

27. Putting it in code

28. Putting it in code
• Find an import/export mechanism, write an
update hook.

29. Putting it in code
• Find an import/export mechanism, write an
update hook.
• Devel Macro Module (D5 only)

30. Putting it in code
• Find an import/export mechanism, write an
update hook.
• Devel Macro Module (D5 only)
• Views / Panels export/import

31. Putting it in code
• Find an import/export mechanism, write an
update hook.
• Devel Macro Module (D5 only)
• Views / Panels export/import
• Content Copy

32. Putting it in code
• Find an import/export mechanism, write an
update hook.
• Devel Macro Module (D5 only)
• Views / Panels export/import
• Content Copy
• Patterns

33. Some Links

34. Some Links
• Programmatic CCK Now Possible

35. Some Links
• Programmatic CCK Now Possible
• Managing Your Views Code

36. Some Links
• Programmatic CCK Now Possible
• Managing Your Views Code
• Lullabot - Moving CCK Changes From Dev
To Live

37. Pros & Cons

38. Pros & Cons
• Pro - Maintainable through svn and
deployable through normal tools. Great
option for developer-only shops

39. Pros & Cons
• Pro - Maintainable through svn and
deployable through normal tools. Great
option for developer-only shops
• Con - Non-technical users left behind. GUI
does not automatically update code, still
have to do that by hand.

40. Interesting Conceptually
Primary key database hacks

41. Reserved Key IDs

42. Reserved Key IDs
• Set auto-inc on dev to start at 1

43. Reserved Key IDs
• Set auto-inc on dev to start at 1
• Set auto-inc on live to start at 1001

44. Reserved Key IDs
• Set auto-inc on dev to start at 1
• Set auto-inc on live to start at 1001
• Module to move items over

45. Reserved Key IDs
• Set auto-inc on dev to start at 1
• Set auto-inc on live to start at 1001
• Module to move items over
• Always have a clear set of IDs

46. Reserved Key IDs
• Set auto-inc on dev to start at 1
• Set auto-inc on live to start at 1001
• Module to move items over
• Always have a clear set of IDs
• Dave Cohen's blog post

47. Database Scripts

48. Database Scripts
• Extension of the reserved number method

49. Database Scripts
• Extension of the reserved number method
• Keeps database dumps in version control

50. Database Scripts
• Extension of the reserved number method
• Keeps database dumps in version control
• Merges dev and production data

51. Database Scripts
• Extension of the reserved number method
• Keeps database dumps in version control
• Merges dev and production data
• DBscripts

52. Pros & Cons

53. Pros & Cons
• Pros - Clever outside the box idea. Starts
to address the great unknown of how to
deploy nodes, etc.

54. Pros & Cons
• Pros - Clever outside the box idea. Starts
to address the great unknown of how to
deploy nodes, etc.
• Cons - Core hacks, not forward-thinking,
not always db-portable, not the “Drupal
way”

56. Up & Coming

57. Exportables
Framework for getting data out

58. Exportables

59. Exportables
• A part of CTools

60. Exportables
• A part of CTools
• Exposes a hook you implement to export
whatever content you have

61. Exportables
• A part of CTools
• Exposes a hook you implement to export
whatever content you have
• Need to write your own import stuff

62. Exportables
• A part of CTools
• Exposes a hook you implement to export
whatever content you have
• Need to write your own import stuff
• Good: Standardized, consistent

63. Exportables
• A part of CTools
• Exposes a hook you implement to export
whatever content you have
• Need to write your own import stuff
• Good: Standardized, consistent
• Bad: Still suffers from form_alter() issue

64. Features
Config

65. Features

66. Features
• You all went to Robin’s talk right?

67. Features
• You all went to Robin’s talk right?
• Bundle settings into modules for
distribution

68. Features
• You all went to Robin’s talk right?
• Bundle settings into modules for
distribution
• Built on exportables concept

69. Features
• You all went to Robin’s talk right?
• Bundle settings into modules for
distribution
• Built on exportables concept
• Coverage is small but growing

70. Deploy
Content

71. Concept

72. Concept
• Inspired by Services module

73. Concept
• Inspired by Services module
• API - Manages Deployment Plans and Servers

74. Concept
• Inspired by Services module
• API - Manages Deployment Plans and Servers
• Modules integrate with API

75. Concept
• Inspired by Services module
• API - Manages Deployment Plans and Servers
• Modules integrate with API
• Services receive and manage deployed data

76. Concept
• Inspired by Services module
• API - Manages Deployment Plans and Servers
• Modules integrate with API
• Services receive and manage deployed data
• Implements UUIDs to alleviate primary key
issues

77. Concept
• Inspired by Services module
• API - Manages Deployment Plans and Servers
• Modules integrate with API
• Services receive and manage deployed data
• Implements UUIDs to alleviate primary key
issues
• Manages dependencies between nodes and
other Drupal objects (users, taxonomy, etc.)

78. Demo Here

79. Demo Here
• w00t

80. Problems

81. Problems
• Revisioning

82. Problems
• Revisioning
• Rollback (unless you count mysqldump)

83. Problems
• Revisioning
• Rollback (unless you count mysqldump)
• Can’t do unattended deployments

84. Problems
• Revisioning
• Rollback (unless you count mysqldump)
• Can’t do unattended deployments
• Gaps in support (upload.module,
translations, blocks, etc.)

85. Conclusions

86. Conclusions
• No magic bullets

87. Conclusions
• No magic bullets
• Investigate, evaluate, plan plan plan

88. Conclusions
• No magic bullets
• Investigate, evaluate, plan plan plan
• Ask questions

89. Conclusions
• No magic bullets
• Investigate, evaluate, plan plan plan
• Ask questions
• Get involved!

90. Further Discussion

91. Further Discussion
• Deployment Framework Posting

92. Further Discussion
• Deployment Framework Posting
• Development Seed Features posts

93. Further Discussion
• Deployment Framework Posting
• Development Seed Features posts
• Change Management Group