Exporting views with ease

Fortunately Views 2 includes a Bulk Export module, which lets you export a whole bunch of views at once and even pre-creates the hook_views_default_views() function for you. Score! At least, score until you need to update one of those views later. Do you export it individually and then hunt through the gigantic hook_views-default_views() implementation for the view you're looking for? Or do you re-export everything, which means trying to remember all of the views in that particular file? Because woe is you if you forget one and overwrite it (unless you're using a source control management system like Subversion).

You do neither, of course.

Views 2 also includes a handy ability to "tag" views. The Views Bulk Export module has the handy ability to filter views by tag. See where this is going?

Simply tag all of your views for a given module with the name of the module. You can do that when building out the module or site. It's particularly useful when building views and a custom module for a specific site, as you're likely to have a dozen or more views. Then when you're ready to push them to code use the Bulk Export module to filter by that tag, click the "select all" checkbox, and export. Poof, you now have the entire new contents of your module.views_default.inc file, ready to copy and paste into the file. Done. Made an update to a View? With proper tagging it takes about a minute to regenerate the entire file and commit it to your repository.

Nothing earth-shattering, but still useful.