I am new to Dynamics CRM 2011 Development and Deployment.But recently, I need to upgrade changed web resource files (IE. Html,java script) only into the QA Environment.
The following is what I do this, currently.
export an unmanaged solution for webresource files to be updated.
use solution packager to extract the solution zip file into a working folder.
make code changes to web resource files.
pack the working folder into an unmanaged zip for deployment.
Would you please give me some suggestions about best practices to this.
How to package web resource files into an import unmanaged zip file?Any other tools?
Is there a vs template or do I need a vs solution to hold all the changes?
Thanks in advance.
I don't have an answer to your question per se. However since you are working with an unmanaged solution the most straightforward approach would be to load the solution into your UAT environment and modify the web resource files directly in the solution on UAT.
Related
Hy,
I put SSIS dtsx task from a server to another server.
I needed know what assemblies have to using and where are they?
Is anybody can give me some advice?
I nearby know what own dll-s, but maybe near more.
My project run, but I get watermarks when project use dll, but we paid for this.(early not watermark on other server.)
Maybe how export dlls from GAC to another server.
I am in a development environment and have edited the site map using the following steps
-
creating an unmanaged solution
added existing site map
exported solution as ummanaged
edited customisations.xml
zipped up files and give same zip file name as exported solution
reimported solution into same environment
this has worked ok, but how should i now migrate these changes to a different environment namely training and ultimately live environment. Do i export as a managed solution and import into train/live or do i customise the site map on ea`ch environment
thanks for any advice
richard
As you should not modify the sitemap in your production/training organization I would recommend to export it as managed solution. With the managed approach it's possible to update the solution later on or to revert the changes by deinstalling it.
An unmanaged solution is more like a logical container. If it's imported into an organization, the changes are not reversible.
I'm using WSPBuilder and it is being very helpful. However, it was being hard to understand the strength of WSPBuilder because of missing manual. I've to create a solution file to deploy "Return of SmartPart" (.wsp file), "Application Template Core" (.wsp file) and also "AJAX Extensions" (.dll files). So, I won't have to edit the web.config to mark them safe controls. Please, suggest HOW?
Quick answer:
C:\Program Files\WSPBuilder\WSPBuilder.exe.config
(or where ever you've installed it)
add key="BuildSafeControls" value=""
Long answer:
WSPBuilder is great for when you want to do a quick deployment via Visual Studio to your SharePoint installation. I have found that that it gets harder to configure when you need to deploy CAS policies but I'm sure they will do work in this area for future versions.
WSPBuilder in your scenario can automatically build and deploy the safecontrol entries that need to go into your site. Good thing about WSP's are that once you retract a solution, it will also go back and remove the safecontrol entries so you don't need a tidy up job.
Regarding different projects, if you need to install third party wsps, then WSPBuilder hasn't been designed for that purpose, I suggest a simple batch file with some stsadm commands. If some of these solutions are your own code, you should divide each into a different VS project and build their WSP's seperately. You may even need to divide them into different .sln (solution files) but I've not tried this way myself so couldn't say for sure.
Personally, I would only use use WspBuilder to build deployment packages that need to be deployed to live environments if I can be sure its not adding extra bits that may become a problem. Therefore you'll need to think about WSPBuilder wsp's are good enough for you.
Recently I came accross an issue with CAS policies and decided to make my WSP's manually. Under the hood, WSP files are CAB files, you can just create a CAB file and rename its extention to .WSP. I would advise, creating a WSP, rename it to mysolution.cab. Open it and up and extract the files, and have a look to see whether its doing what you want. Key file to look at: manifest.xml.
As far as I know, you can't nest WSP files in other WSP files. You'll have to install those separately.
If you want to install DLLs (other than the one that's built as part of your WSPBuilder project), create a folder in the project called GAC and put them there. All DLLs in that folder will be installed to the GAC when the WSP is installed.
To install a WSP package, you'll need to run:
stsadm -o addsolution -filename MyFeature.wsp
You can then deploy it from SP Central Administration.
You can also create a WSP file manually without WSPBuilder - it's a CAB archive and you can create a WSP file using the makecab.exe utility that comes with Windows and an additional description file that lists the files that should end up in the WSP file.
I have a .browser file that I need to deploy to the following location:
c:\browsers\
as part of a moss .wsp file. Can I do this in the manifest.xml or as part of a feature?
It is not possible. You can use the wsp solution to deploy any File to
Inside 12 Hive Folder Hierarchy
GAC
bin Folder of the Web Application.
Rest of the other location you need to look out for the custom solution. One option I can say is to use a Feature Installed event and keep it a Farm Feature.
I have multiple projects/wsp solutions for my different Sharepoint webparts and event receivers. This is fine for development, however I would like to merge the resulting .wsp files into a single one for production deployment.
Is there a way to do so? I am using vsewss 1.2 only.
This is going to be painful, but to really do this correctly for production pushes you should drop vsewss 1.2, re-organize your projects inside of Visual Studio and use WSPBuilder.
WSPBuilder is great because it takes a lot of the manual work out of creating manifest, ddf and compiling the CAB.
You are going to have to do a lot of the work that vsewss is doing in the background your self. there is a artical on MSDN about the basics on creating a WSP Creating a Solution Package in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
A WSP is a cab file that contains a manifest.xml and a file structure, it is imortant that you place files in the right location in the WSP so they are deployed to the right location in SharePoint.
I agree with JD
This is going to be painful, but to
really do this correctly for
production pushes you should drop
vsewss 1.2, re-organize your projects
inside of Visual Studio and use
WSPBuilder.
This would be a good time to restructure you code and assembly structure so as to minimise the number of assemblies you need to deploy.
If you have any Web Parts be sure to check that the Feature xml files are all corect as vsewss preparses and does text replacment befor generating its WSP files.
It commanly stores a guid in the file where a full assembly name is requierd.
If you are going to be doing a lot of SharePoint dev work it is probly worth spending a bit of time learning how the manafest.xml and rest of the WSP packages work.
I haven't seen a tool which does this, but it shouldn't be hard to create:
Unzip the wsp packages (They're just
cab files with an odd extension)
Merge the directory structures
Merge the manifest.xml files
Zip the combined package
There is an advantage to not having all your code in a single WSP.. you can do partial deployments and you don't have all your code in a single gigantic Visual Studio Solution.
Why don't you script all WSP deployments in 1 script file? It seems a far more transparent solution than fiddling with the WSP itself.