sitecore: Serialization and package designer

1
votes

I have a large amount of data(content created by user, not developer) created in Sitecore. I know that in order to transfer large amount of data from one environment to another, I need to serialize all the content first.

My question is, after I serialize the content, do I need to create a designer package that contains the data I want to move? Or after I serialize, I use the serialized file?

4
sitecoresitecore6

4 Answers

6
votes

Serialization is an option, but you could also create a package through the Package designer, download it and install it on the other environment.

If you are installing big packages, it is a good practice to set the value of Indexing.UpdateInterval in the web.config to 00:00:00 to prevent starting the Lucene indexer during the package install which results in much longer install times.

5
votes

You don't need to create a package, use the serliazied file and update via the UI as below.

To update an item from the text file:

  1. In the Content Editor, select the item that you want to update.
  2. On the Developer tab, in the Serialize group, click Update Item.

To update an item with all its subitems from the file system:

  1. In the Content Editor, select the parent item that you want to update with all its subitems.
  2. On the Developer tab, in the Serialize group, click Update Tree.

To update the whole database:

  1. In the Content Editor, select any item.
  2. On the Developer tab, in the Serialize group, click Update Database
2
votes

You can also use the "Transfer Item to Another Database" feature.

Just select the database where you want to go, go to Control Panel, Database, Transfer Item to Another Database.

This will open a wizard. Then you can select the Source items (the items you want to transfer to another database), then select the Target database and select where you want the items to be in the tree (i.e. under Home or some other node).

For some more information you can go to this blogpost by Sam J. Griffin, which explains it step by step.

One very important side-note though - don't copy the /sitecore/templates/sytem if you want to do all templates. This will result in some circular reference issues. If it's just content that you're copying it should be fine.

1
votes

If you have a spare $149 then you should also take a look at the new Sitecore synchronization tool from Hedgehog:

http://www.hhogdev.com/Products/Razl.aspx