I will never manually create a database again. As long as I work in Drupal, every database I create or user I grant permissions to is managed by the Aegir hosting system.

I will never manually set up the code on my server. As long as I work in Drupal, every new site will come from a Git repository, and will be installed onto my server via DevShop and Aegir, through the web browser.

The reasons behind this are simple: the machines can do these things better than we can. Why pretend that all of us should remember the exact file permissions that should be set for the entire Drupal codebase? Why oh why must I remember where that blog post about installing apache solr is every single time I have to install a new website?

My motivation for the past year has been to work on the edge of automation, pushing it forward. I created DevShop last year as a way to make Aegir even more efficient and much more organized. I designed DevShop to be the place where Drupal developers get the information they need and have buttons they can push to get the job done.

There is so much struggle and time wasted in the setup and management and debugging of Drupal sites. My goal with DevShop is to release code that would normally be created internally on a case by case basis.

Project specific "Launch Scripts" should be a thing of the past. Hosting providers like Pantheon and Acquia have demonstrated that you can automate the tough command line processes, and you can simplify typical Drupal site management and development workflow.

Now, with DevShop, we have an open source tool that provides much of the same experience and functionality as these platforms.

Tags: devshopautomationPlanet Drupal