Features workflow issue with deleting a field

Question

Suppose I have a content type Person with fields: Name, Age, Email

This content type is controlled by a Feature called test so I can source control it and push it to the live site.

My workflow goes like this:

• I add a new field on Person called Phone
• locally I do: drush fu test -y
• I edit the test.info to increase the version number
• I commit the changes to my repository
• I push the feature to the live site (copy the feature files)
• on the live site I do: drush fr test -y
• on the live site I do: drush cc all

Then the new field appears on the live site's Person.

If on the first step I remove a field of Person the field will not be deleted from the live site. How do I solve this? I don't want to have to manually delete it from the UI on the live site.
Is this workflow correct?

Answer 1

This is a double edged sword, it's like this to prevent data deletion which is always a good thing. There's nothing really to solve, this is expected behaviour.

It's the same workflow we use and have been doing for over a year and it works really well. I'd say it's correct but that's a very subjective answer.

Answer 2

The correct way to remove Features-created content is via hook_update_N (which should be implemented in the file your_module.install).

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The main idea with Features is to manage configuration with code. Using hook_update_N is consistent with that, since the field deletion is in code (which can be managed with version control) — whereas the equivalent command drush field-delete field is not being called from managed code; it's a separate command-line step you need to perform (and to remember to perform).

Answer 3

Create a new file called "your_feature_name.install"

Inside the file declare hook_update_N, there you can use field_delete_field() and specify the name of field that you want to delete as parameter.

Run update.php and the fields will be deleted.

Answer 4

If you are using field_phone in other areas, you might just want to remove it from your Person content type, but not delete it entirely from your site. Manually create a YOUR_FEATURE_NAME.install file in your feature's folder like so:

/**
 * Implements hook_update_N().
 *
 * Removes field_phone from Person content type.
 */
function YOUR_FEATURE_NAME_update_7001() {
  if ($instance = field_info_instance('node', 'field_phone', 'person')) {
    field_delete_instance($instance);
  }
  field_purge_batch(500);
  features_revert_module('YOUR_FEATURE_NAME');
}

If you were deleting this from a Person Paragraph instead of a Person Content Type, you could change the first conditional statement to something like this:

if ($instance = field_info_instance('paragraphs_item', 'field_phone', 'person')) {
  ...
}