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Feature Analyzer Feature Analyzer

What is Feature Analyzer?

Feature Analyzer is an intelligent tool that transforms complex technical version updates into clear, actionable "What's New" reports. Designed specifically for enterprise Drupal distributions like YMCA Website Services, it bridges the gap between technical change logs and business stakeholders.

The Problem It Solves

When upgrading software from one version to another, teams face a critical challenge: understanding what actually changed. Traditional approaches involve:

  • Manually reviewing hundreds of commits across dozens of packages
  • Interpreting cryptic technical changelogs
  • Missing important security updates buried in dependency changes
  • Spending hours correlating package updates with feature improvements

Feature Analyzer automates this entire process, saving teams 8-16 hours per version upgrade while ensuring no critical change goes unnoticed.

How It Works

  1. Version Comparison - Specify two versions (tags, branches, or commits) of your distribution
  2. Recursive Dependency Resolution - Automatically discovers all direct and transitive dependency changes, respecting Composer constraints and release timestamps
  3. Git Log Analysis - Fetches commit history for each changed package to identify features, fixes, and improvements
  4. Intelligent Categorization - Groups changes by type (Core, Modules, Themes, Libraries) and significance
  5. AI-Powered Summarization - Uses AI to transform technical details into user-friendly descriptions categorized by audience (Content Editors, Site Admins, Developers, End Users)
  6. Report Generation - Produces professional reports in Markdown and HTML formats

Key Features

  • Complete Dependency Tree Analysis - Resolves entire dependency hierarchies, not just direct dependencies (often discovering 10x more changes)
  • Time-Aware Resolution - Resolves versions based on what was available at each release date, ensuring accurate historical comparisons
  • Smart Caching - Caches package metadata permanently (immutable) to speed up subsequent analyses
  • Progress Tracking - Real-time progress updates with detailed logs for transparency
  • Per-Package Reports - Generate focused reports for individual packages when needed
  • Downgrade Detection - Automatically flags potential version regressions
  • Multi-Language Support - Reports available in multiple languages (English, Spanish, Ukrainian)

Technical Architecture

  • Backend: Drupal 11 custom module with service-oriented architecture
  • Frontend: React + TypeScript + Vite for responsive, real-time UI
  • API Integration: GitHub, GitLab (Drupal.org), and Packagist APIs
  • AI Providers: Google Gemini or local LLM via LM Studio

Use Cases

  • Release Planning - Understand what features are coming in the next version
  • Upgrade Documentation - Generate stakeholder-ready reports for version upgrades
  • Security Auditing - Identify security patches and vulnerability fixes
  • Impact Assessment - Evaluate how changes affect different user roles
  • Compliance Reporting - Document all changes for audit trails

Built for Enterprise

Feature Analyzer is designed with enterprise needs in mind:

  • Handles large distributions with 500+ dependencies
  • Batch processing prevents memory issues
  • Queue-based architecture for reliability
  • Detailed error tracking and retry logic
  • Configurable caching strategies

Feature Analyzer is developed by ITCare Company as part of our commitment to making Drupal ecosystem management more accessible and efficient.