Best Practices: Changing a custom module

Question

Hey guys. I&acute;m making my first module and I saw these best practices http://support.sugarcrm.com/Documentation/Sugar_Developer/Sugar_Developer_Guide_7.6/API/Application/Module_Builder/Best_Practices_When_Building_Custom_Modules/ But what is the proper way to maintain the module ? Scenario: Custom module "pizza" is made on TEST. It is has already been deployed in PROD. Lets say I want to add a field to it or something. Is that done in Studio on the PROD or do should I maintain the module on TEST and then redeploy (which seems to be NOT recommended)? Probably just maintain in Studio, huh... Thanks KGM

Kristjan Geir Mathiesen · Accepted Answer

Once in PRD I make all changes in the Extension framework and treat the module as if it was a core Sugar module because redeploying will also delete relationships with other modules, and, if I'm not mistaken, dropdown definitions for your fields. I suppose you could export your data, back up any customizations, change and redeploy but I think it's more of a headache than it's worth. An easier route to avoid custom would be to make modifications for the module directly in code instead of using Studio, like adding field definitions by hand in code to keep the application from generating a _cstm table and _c fields, but you have to be careful to follow all the rules that Studio and Module builder would otherwise check for you in terms of name choices, vardef options etc. and you have to be careful about what you do and don't do in Studio. You could then use version control to commit and deploy your changes. HTH FrancescaS