@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

ENVIRONMENTS & VERSION CONTROL

The Why & How

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

WHO IS THIS GUY?

2

EE Reactor team member

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

WHO IS THIS GUY?

3

Partner & Lead Developer

Survey Submissions

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

784

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 20115

35

24

19

6-10 years

3-5 years

Over 10 years

SURVEY SUBMISSIONSWeb Development Experience

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 20116

40191243

3-4 years

SURVEY SUBMISSIONSExpressionEngine Experience

0-2 years

5-7 years

pMachine

None

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 20117

666438212019

HTML/CSS/JS markup

SURVEY SUBMISSIONSWeekly Responsibilities

EE site planning

PHP/MySQL development

Add-on development

Content management

Team leader

Caught my Monty Python reference

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

73%8

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

VERSION CONTROL

9

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

SYNONYMS • Version Control

• Revision Control

• Source Control

10

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

COMMON SYSTEMS• Git

• Subversion

• Mercurial

11

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

SURVEY STATS

12

Devs not currently using a VCS regularly

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

34%13

Devs only using a desktop GUI for VCS

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

21%14

Devs only using command line for VCS

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

21%15

Devs using both CLI and a GUI for VCS

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

24%16

Have used CVS

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

6%17

Have used Mercurial

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

13%18

Have used Subversion

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

54%19

Have used Git

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

77%20

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201121

WE USE GIT

Linux jQuery Rails Android

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201121

WE USE GITAnd so do the cool kids

Linux jQuery Rails Android

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201121

WE USE GITAnd so do the cool kids

Linux jQuery Rails Android

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

OLD WAY

1. Duplicate index.html

2. Test changes

3. (Maybe save a backup of the previous version)

4. Save over old version losing previous state

22

Single Developer

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

NEW WAY

1. Change and save the file contents

(Retain history of file for future use)

23

Single Developer

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

OLD WAY

1. Bob changes part of index.html

2. Suzie changes a different part of index.html

3. Bob and Suzie carefully merge changes together

4. Overwrite old version of index.html

24

Development Team

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

NEW WAY

1. Change and save the file contents

(Retain history of file for future use)

25

Development Team

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201126

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201126

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201126

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

KEY CONCEPTS• Track certain files

• Ignore certain files

• Commits (History)

• Branches

• Remote branches

27

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

“WHAT DO I TRACK?”VS

“WHAT DO I IGNORE?”

28

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

IGNORED FILES• Operating System files

• Caches

• .htaccess (possibly)

• Custom uploads from EE

• Dynamic images (captchas etc)

29

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

# Lame OS files Thumbs.db.DS_Store

# EE System cache/system/expressionengine/cache/*

# Local dev database file/config/config.local.php

# Custom Upload Directories/public_html/uploads/*

# Captchas/public_html/images/captchas

# Asset minification/public_html/min

30

.gitignore

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201131

TRACKED FILES• EE System directory

• Add-ons

• Template flat files

• Images, CSS, Javascript & other assets

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

COMMITSCreate your history

32

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

COMMIT TIPS• Commit o"en (common Git practice)

• Write detailed commit messages

• Review commit log when returning to a project a"er a break of any sort

• Review commits of development team members

33

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

BAD COMMIT MESSAGEUpdated config file.

34

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

GOOD COMMIT MESSAGEUpdated config file with new Minimee cache path directory

This allows our cache path to be dynamicly absolute based on the environment out code is in.

$config[‘minimee_cache_path’] = $base_path . ‘/min’;

35

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

BRANCHINGKeeping things organized

36

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

BRANCHING WORKFLOW

Do what works best for you

37

Just make sure you do it for a reason

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

REMOTE BRANCHES• Destination for your repository / branch

• “Origin” of your repository / branch

• Server environment for your site

• Other team member’s repository / branch

38

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

TOPICAL BRANCHING• master

• dev

• feature/x

• upgrade/y

• bugfix/z

39

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201140

“It's like not wearing a seatbelt in your car because you haven't had an accident yet.

Don't be silly, version your work.”

Iain Urquhart / @iain

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

GIT RESOURCES• Book: Pragmatic Version Control Using Git

• peepcode.com/products/git

• whygitisbetterthanx.com

• github.com

• More available with the presentation download

41

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

ENVIRONMENTS

42

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

AN ENVIRONMENT ISany server running an instance of your site

43

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

COMMON ENVIRONMENTS• Production - the public-facing “live” site

• Staging - typically used for a final test

• Development - shared team development

• Local - each developer’s local instance

44

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

SURVEY STATS

45

Devs currently using a Production Environment

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

100%46

Devs currently using a Staging Environment

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

59%47

Devs currently using a Shared Dev Environment

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

32%48

Devs currently using a Local Dev Environment

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

77%49

Devs who keep using environments post-launch

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

29%50

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201151

WHY DO YOU USE ENVIRONMENTS?

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201152

“Local development is incredibly fast and you don't have to worry about setting up crazy conditionals and memeber preferences to hide what you are working on on the live site.”

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201153

“Multiple environments allow us to build locally without affecting others and preview new features to clients - without losing the ability to quickly apply updates to the current live site.”

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201154

“Automated deployments and multiple environments are essential to any agile-oriented developer. They save time, reduce errors and streamline site maintenance.”

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201155

GETTING SET UPWhat is potentially unique to each environment?

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

GETTING SET UP

• Server paths

• URL root

• EE upload paths

• Debug mode intentions

• URI support (PATH_INFO)

• Cache settings

56

What’s Unique?

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

ROBUST CONFIG FILESaves time and adds flexibility

57

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

GETTING SET UP

✓ Server paths

✓ URL root

- EE upload paths

✓ Debug mode intentions

✓ URI support (PATH_INFO)

✓Cache settings

58

What can be changed?

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

GETTING SET UP

/config/

config.env.php

config.master.php

config.{ENV}.php

/public_html/

/system/

/tpl/

59

Directory and file structure

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

GETTING SET UP

if ( ! defined('ENV')){ switch ($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']) { case 'focuslabllc.com' : define('ENV', 'prod'); define('ENV_FULL', 'Production'); define('ENV_DEBUG', FALSE); break; case 'ohsnap.focuslabllc.com' : define('ENV', 'stage'); define('ENV_FULL', 'Staging'); define('ENV_DEBUG', FALSE); break; default : define('ENV', 'local'); define('ENV_FULL', 'Local'); define('ENV_DEBUG', TRUE); break; }}

60

config.env.php sample

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

GETTING SET UP

<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');

/** * Development config overrides & db credentials * * Our database credentials and any environment-specific overrides * * @package Focus Lab Master Config * @version 1.1 * @author Erik Reagan <erik@focuslabllc.com> */

$env_db['hostname'] = 'localhost';$env_db['username'] = '';$env_db['password'] = '';$env_db['database'] = '';

$config['webmaster_email'] = 'dev@focuslabllc.com';

/* End of file config.dev.php *//* Location: ./config/config.dev.php */

61

config.dev.php sample

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

GETTING SET UP

/** * Template settings * * Working locally we want to reference our template files. * In staging and production we do not use flat files

* (for ever-so-slightly better performance) * This approach requires that we synchronize templates after * each deployment of template changes */$env_config['save_tmpl_files'] = (ENV == 'prod') ? 'n' : 'y';$env_config['tmpl_file_basepath'] = $base_path . '/../tpl/';$env_config['hidden_template_indicator'] = '_';

62

config.master.php sample

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

GETTING SET UP

/** * Debugging settings * * These settings are helpful to have in one place * for debugging purposes */$env_config['is_system_on'] = 'y';$env_config['allow_extensions'] = 'y';$env_config['email_debug'] = (ENV_DEBUG) ? 'y' : 'n' ;// Show template debugging if we're not in production$env_config['template_debugging'] = (ENV_DEBUG) ? 'y' : 'n' ;/** * Set debug to '2' if we're in dev mode, otherwise just '1' * * 0: no PHP/SQL errors shown * 1: Errors shown to Super Admins * 2: Errors shown to everyone */$env_config['debug'] = (ENV_DEBUG) ? '2' : '1' ;

63

config.master.php sample

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

GETTING SET UP

/** * 3rd Party Add-on config items as needed */$env_config['minimee_cache_path'] = $base_path . '/min';$env_config['minimee_cache_url'] = $base_url . '/min';$env_config['minimee_remote_mode'] = 'auto';$env_config['minimee_debug'] = 'n';// Disable minimee in dev but not in staging and production$env_config['minimee_disable'] = (ENV == 'local') ? 'y' : 'n' ;

// Greeny (auto-updating of upload directory paths)$env_config['greeny_enabled'] = (ENV == 'prod') ? 'false' :

64

config.master.php sample

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

FOCUS LABCONFIG SETUPgithub.com/focuslabllc/ee-master-config

65

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

MULTI-ENVIRONMENT CHALLENGES

You didn’t think it was that easy, did you?

66

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

BACK TO THE SURVEY

67

100%@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201168

100%@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201168

Keeping database changes synced across environments

72%@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201169

72%@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201169

Maintaining custom upload directory paths

Devs who say the headaches are worth the trouble

100%@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201170

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201171

DATABASE ISSUES• New custom fields alter the DB schema

• Installing or updating add-ons can alter the DB schema

• Updating EE can alter the DB schema

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

DATABASE ISSUES

• Custom upload directory paths are stored in the DB and cannot be dynamically altered

• Relative upload directory paths work sometimes, but not with all add-ons

• “Content” is very likely changing in the Production environment while you build and test in your other environments

72

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201173

http://expressionengine.com/forums/viewthread/196480/

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

QUICK TIPS• You need to understand EE’s database

• Learn about 3rd party add-on’s DB tables

• Establish a ruleset for your workflow

• Understand that there will be exceptions

74

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201175

Schema / Structureflows up stream

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 201176

Content flowsdown stream

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

FINAL NOTES• These practices make you a better developer

• They help prepare you to work with a team

• They help your team work more efficiently

• You can provide a better service to your clients

77

@ERIKREAGAN • EECI 2011

!ERIKREAGANPartner, Focus Lab, LLC!FocusLabLLC

78