László Csécsy

Once upon a time there were Netscape Composer and FTP. Then came Adobe Dreamweaver and CVS. Now you are working with Drupal and Git...

The following topics will be covered during the session, giving, hopefully, comforting answers to these questions:
- How can we safely deploy various data (code, configuration and content) to different environments using tools like Git, Features, Feeds, etc.?
- What solutions are known to handle development/staging/production environments well, so that you will not be braindead after a deploy?
- What questions can be raised about a project with one developer working in the ivory tower?
- What questions can be raised about a project with multiple developers in the bazaar? i.e. how to handle conflicts without headache?
- How can different versions of the same Drupal 7 site be managed in a trackable, reasonable and feasible way in the midst of 2013?
- What are the bigger areas of such development that needs your attention, and what tools are available?

Being involved in Drupal development is a passion. A passion of coding, finding bugs, thinking about the workflow - and since all of these are constantly changing, the best way to keep up with the rest of the world is being part of it. As a lead developer, I am at least partially responsible for the overall client satisfaction - but for the satisfaction of my fellow developers as well. While one can use Drupal as a one-man-business, and may even be successful with this approach, it seems there is not a single person having all the talents that even a moderately big website needs. This is the point when we do have to work in a team.

Working in a team may be frustrating, especially if one comes from the world of an ivory tower using proprietary software. Working with Drupal is more close to the bazaar model: we have so many building blocks (call them modules, themes, jQuery plugins and whatsoever) that we cannot even know all of them, at least not as a single person. Part of the frustration may come from the unfamiliar workflow of a team that shares the work. Drupal is not only scalable by the means of web server load, but also scalable by development manpower. By the way, is there any other web tool with more than a hundred thousand developers, eagerly waiting for your issues to be solved? ;)

I was sucked in by this enthusiastic attitude of the Drupal community. We, as a company, are trying to utilize this wonderful experience - not only in-house, but also as a part of international and local Drupal communities. This continuous integration of the whole Drupal community is such an experience that allows me to sleep well, since about 9 out of 10 Drupal-related questions that I submit to Google are already answered. I want to share this knowledge with you, especially about the workflow we are following that allows even my boss to sleep well.

...so you will continue to develop happily ever after.