Developing a new Drupal site is generally not a tedious task
for a Drupal developer if the site which needs to be developed is a simple one
without many complicated features. Drupal developers efficiently use the Backup
and Module functions in Drupal to effortlessly build a site from the scratch.
To utilize these features efficiently the points discussed below have to be
understood by the Drupal programmers completely.
The Drupal programmers can use the already existing database
by taking a backup of it, upload the whole repository and once this is done the
Drupal programmers can restore the database. By adopting this method a Drupal
Programmer can develop a website in no time.
Drupal developers start experiencing obstacles only when they
start adding more complex and sophisticated features to the website they have
built. The Drupal programmers have to test keenly before the changes are made
in the live site and at the same time the Drupal developers have to create a
time-to-time guide with the details on making the new feature live. And
depending on the data involved the Drupal developer involved in the development
can decide the time required for the live site to be in maintenance mode to
have control over damage.
As the Drupal programmers have stored all the entities,
content and configuration of a sie in a single database it becomes a task for
them to make changes, alter already present objects and add new features. To
handle Drupal constantly keeps updating its plug-ins which enhances the
efficiency of the platform.
Feature
Module
The features module is utilized by Drupal programmers to
capture and manage features in Drupal. A certain use-case can be satisfied by a
Drupal programmer by using a feature which is a collection Drupal entities.
Drupal developers can collect configurations regarding Drupal
core and contributed modules. These collected features can be used by Drupal
programmers by exporting them to the code module which can be installed in a
similar way to installing any other module to the site. Drupal programmers can
also use the User Interface provided by the module to manage all the features.
Advantages
of Feature Module
- Configurations can be exported from various modules, including Views, Panels with CTools export API intergrated.
- From variables table using the Strongarm support Drupal developers can export configurations.
- The code can contain the configuration.
- Possibility to add custom code to each feature module created.
- Version control management of configurations.
- Much easier and quicker to deploy updated/new features.
These advantages have excited Drupal developers and Drupal
programmers from all around the world and it has made developing Drupal sites
into a an effortless task to a great extent.
Anomalous
Behavior of the Module
Before developing a Drupal site, a Drupal developer has to
understand the oddities that past Drupal programmers have faced and unless
these differences are understood a Drupal developer cannot develop a properly
working Drupal site.
The first oddity noticed was that the already enabled
features were getting automatically updated without asking for permission from
the Drupal developer or the site administrator. This can be tackled by
frequently checking if new modules that are needed by the feature are uploaded
properly.
Another surprising characteristic of this feature is that
disabling a Feature might remove certain settings from the global options. When
such an error happens it becomes a tedious task for the Drupal developers to
first find out the bug in such a huge process. This can be tackled by testing
individual modules after every time a feature is disabled.
Drupal programmers found yet another anomaly when Features
which had only dependencies were not shown in the Features admin page. This has
to be remembered by all Drupal Developers when coding a Drupal site as it will
not be considered as an error when one of the used Features are not available
in the admin page.
Multiple
Ways of Using Features
Features are not the complete solution for inconsistencies in
configurations and settings but it gives a better control to the Drupal
programmers. There is more than one way of using Features and according to each
Drupal developer’s vision it can be handled.
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