We have to manage the migration and synchronization of solutions between different environments.
We must ensure that we can deploy custom assemblies and artifacts from development environments to the integration environment in a team-model way. There is a variety of tools for deploying custom assemblies and artifacts, such as xcopy, gacutil, Microsoft Windows Installer packages, stsadm.exe, a solution file and Visual Studio Project Deployment tools.
We must also ensure that we can deploy content between authoring, staging, and production environments. We can use the built-in content deployment features of Office SharePoint Server 2007 to achieve this. For complex content deployment solutions, we might also create routing workflows based on Windows Workflow Foundation technologies.
Overview of Team Development in SharePoint Server 2007:
Team-Based Development in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
There is a variety of different environments in deploying SharePoint Solutions.
Solution Deployment in SharePoint 2007
A solution is a deployable, reusable package that can contain a set of features and site definitions, templates, Web Parts, and assemblies that you can apply to a site, and individually enable or disable.
Using Visual Studio 2005, MakeCab.exe and MSBuild to Create Window SharePoint Services v3 Solution Files (*.WSP's)
Moving layout files (master pages, page layouts, CSS, etc.) in a MOSS Publishing site between multiple environments
Each solution package contains two important files, one manifest.xml that defines the elements of the solution and a .ddf file that instructs MAKECAB.EXE which files to include in the output CAB file.
Creating a Solution Package in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Here is a Solution Package i created for demonstration purpose.
This solution contains a demo.aspx file that lists all sites in the collection, a feature called LitwareFeature that adds the Demo.aspx file to the _layouts folder, adds a link to the Demo.aspx file under Site Actions and adds the FeatureReceiver assembly which updates the title of the site when activated/deactivated. The Feature contains two files, an Elements.xml file and a Feature.xml file.
The two files that actually contains the instructions for build
ing the solution package is called Manifest.xml anbd Cab.ddf.
(You can find the whole solution here)
This is an .aspx file with OM code to list all the sites in the Site Collection
The Feature file:
The Features Element file:
The FeatureReceiver file:
The DDF file:
The Solutions file:
How to deploy a Solution Package
You have now seen how to package a solution for SharePoint and now i will show you how to deploy/install it on the SharePoint Front-End.
Solution Package Folder Structure:
Download Complete Solution
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