Cloud API & Hooks

Drupal has so much to offer to developers. It allows you to experiment, innovate and work with innumerable modules. Drupal does not try to limit you. Wouldn't it be great if your hosting platform also offered multiple interfaces and functionality?

Well, Acquia Cloud allows you to extend its capabilities using cloud API and cloud hooks. Some of you are perhaps familiar with the workflow UI page on the cloud platform. The UI lets you instantly deploy code, files and databases using a simple Drag and Drop function.

But as a developer, I would like to know that I have more options to work with than just the UI. The cloud platform comes with an additional interface called the Cloud API. This lets you do most things that you would otherwise do on the UI, using API, Drush command line and custom scripting. Lets face it, while UI makes our life easy by allowing us to drag and drop data, there are days when we feel like we should run some scripts or use the command line to get the satisfaction of being a developer.

With Cloud API, you can deploy code between environments (Dev, Stage and Prod), create and delete backups and also create and manage domain names and SSH keys and run a branch from your GIT or SVN repository. You can develop on the Dev environment and play with it as much as you like. Once you feel you have innovated enough, you can use Drush to deploy your code to the staging environment and test it to perfection.

Here's a video demonstration of How-To use Cloud API to optimize your cloud experience:
Acquia Cloud API

Out of the many Easter eggs in the cloud platform, you'll find one that is extremely useful, called the Cloud Hooks. Many a time, we copy databases from production to development, often times not realizing that some sensitive data such as customer email addresses will now be available in Dev environment. This is where Cloud Hooks come in handy. Cloud hooks are nothing but custom scripts that run on your behalf when instances such as the one described above occur. When databases are copied from the production environment to Dev, cloud hooks scrub the databases automatically. They also perform automatic database updates and run website performance tests whenever you develop and deploy new code. By automating such essential tasks for you, Cloud hooks let you focus your energy entirely on creating innovative and better web experiences.

To learn how cloud hooks actually work, check out this video demonstration of it:
Acquia Cloud Hooks