Thread

I’m learning Expression Engine right now and I’ve been reading about the ability to keep much of the configuration in the config.php file. This allows it to be version controlled and makes it easier to work in teams as well as making deployments easier.

I’m wondering what all I can keep in code. Is it possible to define my custom fields and channels here? I know I can export my templates to files.

It’s not such a big issue when a project starts out because you can just work locally and migrate everything to the live db on launch.

My big concern is that after the client has been using the site for a while I will need to deploy (changes/fixes/new features) without overwriting the content that they’ve been writing since launch.

What are the best practices for handling the deployment cycle with an expression engine site?

Unfortunately there’s no way that I know of to store channels or custom fields in your files, but you can store just about every other setting in the config file or your own bootstrap (http://ee-garage.com/nsm-config-bootstrap).

Saving templates as files also helps a lot. In the case of working with an existing site, I often download their database first and work with that content. But there’s always an issue if they are continuing to update content on the live website while you are still developing.