Want to use version control and follow enterprise-grade workflows without slowing down? Pantheon makes the best practice the path of least resistance. Developers who use Pantheon launch faster and collaborate with ease. You’ll never want to go back.
Use Version Control, Skip the Learning Curve
Every Pantheon site comes with a Git repository out of the box. Changes made directly in a development environment are tracked by the dashboard, and can instantly be turned into a git commit. No need to open a terminal or learn a new toolset. Develop the way you always do, and commit when you hit a good checkpoint.
Want to introduce version control to your team? Now developers at all levels can collaborate. Get everyone using best practices. No hassles.
Develop Directly On the Platform
Pantheon is the only platform that lets you use both version control (like git push) and direct development. Make changes via SFTP or use CMS tools for adding plugins and themes. Developers familiar with local development using version control can push their changes to the platform. Those who prefer working online can work directly in a development environment.
Experienced developer who prefers to work locally? Pantheon gives you the best of both worlds. Debug against the platform directly, and quickly show work to a client or stakeholder by sending them a url.
Continuous Integration: Dev, Test, Live
Every site on Pantheon comes with three identical environments out of the box—Dev, Test, and Live. This allows you to run the industry-standard continuous integration workflow.
In a Continuous Integration workflow, new work happens in a development environment. Once stable, changes integrate immediately with a copy of the live site in the testing environment. At that point, you can run automated testing or conduct manual QA and regression testing. This shortens the feedback loop for developers, allowing development to happen in parallel with QA. Most importantly, this workflow prevents any go-live surprises. Hit the deploy button with confidence. You’re testing against a high-fidelity copy of the live site on a consistent platform.
Git Flow and Feature Branching
For development teams, the leading workflow is based on git flow, where new branches are created for a feature or sprint, and then integrated into the main codeline as they become ready to deploy. Pantheon makes following this practice easy with Multidev.
Multidev allows you to create disposable development environments for any purpose, from training to R&D to out-of-band QA. The feature-branch style workflow of “branch, work, merge, delete” is fully supported and works out swimmingly.
Cloud Integration Tools
Pantheon’s Cloud Integration Tools are a suite of offerings which enable a better and more efficient experience with projects on Pantheon, more automation of workflows, and better visibility into workflow operations. Pantheon provides several tools for automation and integration including Quicksilver which provides the ability to script actions to happen automatically in response to activity on the Pantheon platform, including triggering outbound events like notifications and cache-clearing, Terminus, and SAML.
Quicksilver Platform Hooks works by allowing users to trigger a Pantheon-enabled workflow. Then Pantheon runs Quicksilver operations identified in a pantheon.yml file stored in the database. Finally, you can get debugging output via Terminus, Pantheon’s Command Line Interface.
Quicksilver Platform Hooks supports the following workflows:
-
deploying code between environments
-
pushing code via Git or the Pantheon dashboard
-
cloning the database between environments
-
clearing the cache
Quicksilver Platform Hooks + Terminus Machine Tokens
With Terminus, users can generate specific authentication tokens for specific machines (e.g. one for a user’s laptop, one for a CI service) to manage access across a range of use cases. Together with Terminus Machine Tokens, Quicksilver Platform Hooks can be used to automate processes that run outside the user’s computer without needing to share passwords.
