Module Monday: Configuration Builder

The popular Features module is the current king of the hill when it comes to bundling up Content Types, Views, and other custom configuration data for reuse on Drupal projects. Sometimes, though, a Feature needs site-specific tweaks before it's ready for prime time. Changing the API keys for external web services like Google Analytics and Disqus, for example, can be done using those modules' native configuration screen. But if your Feature module is consolidating the configuration work, wouldn't it be great to consolidate the settings forms, too? That's where Configuration Builder comes in. It allows you to build custom Drupal settings screens that can be exported and stored in a standard Feature module.

Creating a new configuration screen, or altering an existing one, is clean and simple. Site builders can choose what URL their config screen will live at, as well as what permission or role will be necessary to access it. Config Builder leverages the powerful but little-known Form Builder module for the meat and potatoes work of designing the config form itself. Drag and drop addition of new form elements and re-ordering of existing ones makes things fairly straightforward; if you've ever used the WebForm module, it's leveraging the same interface tools.

By default, the forms that you've created will simply save their settings like a standard Drupal system settings form. It's up to you to write code that doessomething with the values. However, if you manually set the names of the different form fields to match the names of existing settings fields on other Drupal configuration pages? Voila! Your custom configuration form will begin loading and editing the same values. This means that you can create consolidated configuration forms that control specific important settings, like the Site Name or the Google Analytics API Key, without forcing users to hop from one screen to the next.

Once that's done, the custom settings forms can be saved and exported into a Feature just like your content types, Views, or custom site variables. If you'd rather bypass all the importing and exporting, Configuration Builder can also output the form you've designed as a standard set of Drupal hook implementations that can be pasted into a custom module, with no outside dependencies.

Configuration Builder may be overkill for developers who are used to slinging around custom settings forms and are comfortable embedding them in Feature modules. For site builders who want to tide up their own features, or developers working on larger multi-site platforms that need cleanly encapsulated and overridable settings forms, this module could be just what the doctor ordered.