The perfect workflow for Drupal website development has proved as elusive as the proverbial Grail. Ideally, a manageable workflow would be to have as much code-driven development as possible. While Drupal 8 Configuration Management Initiative will get us closer to that ideal than ever before, it won’t be perfect and we will still have to develop and maintain Drupal 7 websites for a few more years. Much of the latest efforts and discussion around Drupal development workflow has focused on code-driven strategies. Despite all the advancements, database configuration syncing still remains painful and error- prone. Features do not capture all the database configuration work and it can be somewhat time-consuming both to featurize in a proper modularized fashion and replicate the remainder.
In this talk, we'll review and discuss possible complementary strategies to render the Drupal development workflow more amenable, particularly in the context of small to medium sized teams (possibly also distributed), strategies that we have been exploring in our work at OpenMedia. Namely: using an Ægir managed online working copy (powered by Omega8.cc) to centralize database work; easily spinning off new independent working copies / dev boxes as needed for testing or accommodating temporary remote contributors; seamlessly transitioning from live to local development; agilizing version control by flattening the core and contrib codebase into a makefile and further separating development from theming workflows into their own repositories.
We will review most of this workflow through a number of quick demos, including:
- spinning off a new platform / codebase using drush make;
- cloning and migrating working copies through Ægir's UI;
- generating drush aliases;
- using drush sql-sync;
- transitioning from live to local and back;
- module development workflow;
- theming workflow, including CSS preprocessing.
We will discuss some of the advantages but also some of the drawbacks of this approach, including but not limited to: less setup and configuration time, freeing the team members to focus on site building, development or theming; fewer errors due to the automation of several processes, the embedded checks and balances and the compartmentalization of development workflow. safer dev environment, due to the possibility of easily insulating dev boxes from each other and the intrinsic promotion of safe practices that is characteristic of Ægir-based workflows.
I look forward to the constructive criticism and suggestions of the group in order to further improve these experiments at OpenMedia and render more efficient our work there in the defense of a free, unfettered and accessible Internet.
This month's meetup is presented by:
Roberto Gorjão
Roberto Gorjão is a Senior Web Developer at OpenMedia. Originally from Portugal, he is formally trained as a Graphic Designer and as Teacher. He has more than a decade of web development experience, both front and back-end, having worked for organizations in Portugal, the U.S. and Canada. He is also an experienced hiker and mountaineer, having led dozens of groups through the mountains of the main Portuguese National Park.
Social
Please join us for drinks and food at Steamworks Brewery. This is a great opportunity to meet other Drupalers in the area and network.
Lightning Talks
Attendees are invited to share their experience by giving a 2 to 4 minute presentation on any topic of interest to the Drupal community. If you want to use a laptop to show a website or control panel please be sure you have the necessary cable (vga) to connect to an overhead projector.
Date: May 28, 2015 - 6:30pm
Location: The Network Hub, 3rd Floor, 422 Richards Street, Vancouver, BC
Cost: There is no charge and all are welcome.
For those who don't need to leave right away there's typically a more social discussion at a local pub afterward.
RSVP: Please RSVP here http://www.meetup.com/Vancouver-Drupal-Users-Group/events/222162570/
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Slides
Slides available.