I would like to know if there is a way to deploy the definitions of smart objects and processes to a BlackPearl server without having to involve Visual Studio. What I am trying to get at is to have some deployment package that can be installed by an installation program, instead of needing a developer to deploy all the components manually. For example, if you have a service-object DLL and its associated SmartObject definitions (i.e., the *.sodx files), how do you package this together for deployment to a BlackPearl server if you want to use a standard installation program? Or if you have the definitions of some processes (the *.kprx files) along with their supporting smart-object definitions, is there a way to collectively package this in a single unit that could deploy using an installation program? I noticed that the SmartObject and Process projects do generate DLLs, but they don’t seem to contain anything (through inspection using .NET reflection), nor does it seem like you can version these DLLs and use them for deployment. Perhaps it is possible to use the XML from the *.sodx and *.kprx files along with a management API to deploy the definitions using an installation program (such that these source files are in effect also the deployable components for the install program), or how can you do this? I guess my requirements are the same as these ones expressed a while ago for the K2.net 2003, but I am now interested in a way to do this in BlackPearl...
http://k2underground.com/forums/thread/10641.aspx
http://k2underground.com/forums/thread/14123.aspx
Thanks.
Writing installation programs for BlackPearl projects
+1
+7You can create a 'deployment package' in Visual Studio in your development environment, and install to your staging or production environment using 'msbuild'. Is this the sort of thing you are after?
Martin
Note: you'll need to copy the ..../obj/Debug/Deployment folder to your staging or production environment to invoke MSBUILD on it.... also, you'll need to populate a valid environment for your target server on the development server so the deployment package can be build for the target server.
There was some documentation on using msbuild, but essentially all you do is:
cd C:WINDOWSMicrosoft.NETFrameworkv2.0.50727
msbuild c:your.msbuild /p:TestOnly=True;Environment=
which will test whether your deployment will work... and when you are happy with that, run:
msbuild c:your.msbuild /p:Environment=
which will deploy it to your blackpearl server.
Martin
Note: you'll need to copy the ..../obj/Debug/Deployment folder to your staging or production environment to invoke MSBUILD on it.... also, you'll need to populate a valid environment for your target server on the development server so the deployment package can be build for the target server.
There was some documentation on using msbuild, but essentially all you do is:
cd C:WINDOWSMicrosoft.NETFrameworkv2.0.50727
msbuild c:your.msbuild /p:TestOnly=True;Environment=
which will test whether your deployment will work... and when you are happy with that, run:
msbuild c:your.msbuild /p:Environment=
which will deploy it to your blackpearl server.
+7Aha...
I have the K2 Knowledge base article on it :-) ... and it's attached!
I'm sure you could write an application to invoke those commands.... the challenging part would be coping with any errors in the deployment.
Martin
Also... why do my posts have no formatting... hmmmm (see previous post)
+1Thanks a lot! I think this should do the trick. I missed KB000188 and the "Create Deployment Package" menu option. One can then just call msbuild from such an installation app. It seems that the resource files would then, in effect, become the deployable components, along with the XML configuration files required by msbuild.
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