Using Features to manage configuration for a Drupal project is a bit of an undertaking. Features was initially intended to make portable units of functionality to share between sites, but many folks out there are using it to manage configuration and deployments. This works, but is a bit of a burden to to manage and takes a bit of expertise to execute in the wild.
Blog
4/8/2014
Configuration management is hard, but we do the best we can. Features is great for sharing chunks of functionality between sites but can become a bear when trying to wrangle it into a full-fledged configuration management solution. However, a thoughtfully-crafted Features architecture can alleviate much of the difficulty.
3/13/2014
Drush is an amazing tool for managing nearly all aspects of a Drupal site and my latest trick is using Drush to pull in all of my favorite modules for a new build. There are plenty of ways to get modules downloaded to a project, but Drush's make command is a clean and powerful tool for the job.
2/21/2014
Many developers and site owners struggle to make Drupal performant, but here are two easy solutions that provide a significant increase in the performance and scalability of your Drupal site.
12/10/2013
An part of operating a Drupal site is to keep the site's code up to date. Updates to Drupal core and contributed modules provide enhancements to functionality as well as critical fixes to security vulnerabilities. Here's a rundown of the process I just used to update this site.
11/21/2013
Everybody has heard of cron, but what exactly happens during a cron run? Let's take a look at Drupal core and some common contrib modules to see the type of tasks are handled during cron.
9/24/2013
I recently completed the process to get vetted access in order to create Drupal projects. It's a fairly simple process where you create a sandbox project, create an issue in the Drupal.org Project reviews queue, and once the project has been reviewed and accepted you're granted access to promote the sandbox to a fully-featured Drupal project. This process is in place to educate maintainers of best practices and Drupal standards as well as encourage a high level of quality for projects featured on Drupal.org.
8/16/2013
Attention Drupalers and users of the internet in the Chicagoland area and throughout the Midwest, DrupalCamp Fox Valley is open for registration. Stop in for two days of education, community building, and and socializing with other members of the Drupal community. Visit the DrupalCamp Fox Valley website for more information.
7/30/2013
One of the most useful tools for developing and managing Drupal sites is the drush command-line utility and one of the most common rigs for Drupal development is the pre-configured MAMP stack. Unfortunately this doesn't work right out of the box so before you go futzing-around trying to get it to work, let me show you the easy way.
7/2/2013
Intelligently deciding what goes into your project repository is one of the most important parts of keeping the repository manageable. It's not always obvious, but these strategies and guidelines can help you make sense of it.