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Version 5.x > Installation and deployment > Dev to Staging/QA to Production workflow

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Deschutes County - 3/25/2011 5:44:30 PM

Dev to Staging/QA to Production workflow

Has anyone come up with an elegant way to manage the developer workflow with Kentico? We're using 5.5.4097R2.

For general content, we have the "Content Staging" module configured and running. Users have access to CMS Desk on our Staging/QA server. It works well, and will cover most of our daily needs.

But the back-end files are a bit of a head-scratcher. Currently we develop using Visual Studio and use SVN to keep files in sync. Periodically we run "Publish Web Site" from VS to get the files to the Staging/QA server. From there, I haven't been able to figure out a good way to migrate updated files from there to the Prod server.

The "Publish Web Site" function deletes the site files first, and re-copies them over from the dev environment. So there are no modification dates to compare for an automated solution.

Short of changing the connection string and re-publishing to the Prod system (causing a 5-10 min outage) can anyone recommend a good way to promote the files NOT covered by Content Staging from Staging/QA to Prod?

Thanks,
Jen


Certified Developer 8	dvanbale - 3/26/2011 2:16:14 AM RE:Dev to Staging/QA to Production workflow Dear Deschutes, Have you tried using the site export? We have a default selection for all the features that we want exported (minus the site wide and engine wide settings) and use that to sync our staging environment and production environment

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jenf-deschutes - 3/28/2011 4:06:54 PM

RE:Dev to Staging/QA to Production workflow

Hi -

I've tried that but I think since it's a published web site, it doesn't work well for us.

When I publish the site with the "Allow this precompiled site to be updatable" box UNchecked I only get stubs. If I check that box, then there are numerous .NET errors (too many to make hand-fixing each worthwhile).

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Jen

Kentico Developer

kentico_helenag - 3/29/2011 8:31:49 AM

RE:Dev to Staging/QA to Production workflow

Hi Jen,

I am not sure if you need the published site or if it is a tool for the synchronization.

If you want to synchronize the physical files, you can use an external tool. You can see a comparation of those tools here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_synchronization_software

More information about pre-compiled Kentico sites is here: Publishing sites

I am not sure what kind of errors you get if the site is updatable. However, then you could update .aspx files. If it is not updatable, then you need to publish the site every time you need to change a physical file. Please note that the published web sites should be the sites with the finished development.

Best regards,
Helena Grulichova

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