Here here Sezai - I totally agree. To add....to the MCMS thing....connected postings we lost (OOTB)
The deployment option in WSS is not as simple as you may think as there's many different entities that need to be considered through the deployment environments (e.g. dataview web parts inject IDs into its page config, which don't exist in new environments) - there's a bunch of others. Essentially the problem is much more than a page here and there. Generally ghosted pages is the go - files that are linked from lists directly to the file system. I think deployments can be broken up into two main parts - the site + components, the content within the site. (content + deltas in content for patch upgrades is difficult between environments) Pages/webparts etc also need to be considered on a webpart by webpart basis (even site columns -e.g. lookup fields are attached to lists via localized IDs - i.e. the list it uses as a lookup is ID based- you can go and edit the list XML through tools to modify, but it does half a job) So folks.....the question of deployment is not really answered that well in the land of sharepoint. I'll leave you with this thought - if you think this Sharepoint V3.0 is bad, then you should have seen Sharepoint V1.0 :( Take care, Mick. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sezai KOMUR Sent: Monday, 5 November 2007 7:41 PM To: listserver@ozMOSS.com Subject: [OzMOSS] RE: Deploying between environments It's great you ask Aaron, because my opinion is that the whole "deploying between environments" story in MOSS is overly complicated and has severe problems, see this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P9QlojtrWs . This was all a lot easier to do with MCMS ! You could export content from Site Manager to an SDO file, and easily setup a new MCMS web application, and move the SDO content to the new environment. >> provision/manage releases between environments? Use a Solution to deploy a custom site definition and its features to the new server, but when you create a new site collection on the new server, this simply creates a new empty shell of a site with none of your content, so you then need to do a Site Collection Backup / Restore over it to get your latest content in. If your site has un-published items then they won't make it across to the new server. Andrew Connell just released an update to his custom STSADM commands, http://andrewconnell.com/blog/archive/2007/10/29/My-MOSS-WCM-STSADM-custom-commands-have-been-updated.aspx one of the commands is PublishAllItems, you need to run this over your site before backup otherwise items not checked-in will mysteriously disappear. >> customised site with custom features and custom site defs Deploy your custom site definition and features using a SharePoint Solution. >> How do you move site content between these environments as well? Site Collection Backup and Restore, it's not fool proof and I don't trust it most of the time, but it does the job. I try to minimize this process as much as possible because I find files and items seem to go randomly missing from the site, you then have a team of content authors complaining about their lost images and screwed up content. >> Any tools etc you use ? Any tips etc? We developed a nice WinForms tool(Object Model Code) in-house with a simple Wizard interface. You specify an existing Web Application, the tool deletes the top level site collection in the web app, it then retracts the previous solution, removes/uninstalls Features, redeploys the new Solution, including Custom Site Definition Files and All Features, then it creates a fresh new Site Collection on the Web App for you. This roles-up half-a-dozen steps into one single installer application that is quick and easy to run. A Batch file(STSADM Commands) works just as nicely, it's worth having something like this to run to automate the whole process and help cut-down the number of steps and time taken to run through it all. That's it... Not a great story, very messy, but that's what we all have to work with I guess, it would be great to hear other opinions and stories on this, I want to learn more to stream-line our deployment processes here. Just like Aaron, I too would like to learn how others managed all of this in their environment(s). So Everyone Please Share! Sezai Kömür Senior Developer - Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Aaron Saikovski Sent: Monday, 5 November 2007 3:32 PM To: listserver@ozmoss.com Subject: [OzMOSS] Deploying between environments Dear All, I have a question more out of curiosity than anything else. How do you (as in you in your're organisation) provision/manage releases between environments? Ie dev - stage - prod Also if you have a customised site with custom features and custom site defs manage the deployment between environments? How do you move site content between these environments as well? Any tools etc you use ? Any tips etc? I wanted to get an idea on how others managed this in their environment(s). I have been getting asked this by many people of late and wanted to see how others tackled this problem. Cheers Aaron ------------------------------------------------------------------- OzMOSS.com - to unsubscribe from this list, send a message back to the list with 'unsubscribe' as the subject. Powered by mailenable.com - List managed by www.readify.net ------------------------------------------------------------------- OzMOSS.com - to unsubscribe from this list, send a message back to the list with 'unsubscribe' as the subject. 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