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Most Web content management solutions involve a number of environments, such as a developer’s workstation, an integration test server, user acceptance testing, production content management, and production content delivery.

Infrastructure such as presentation components generally move forward, from development through test and into production. Certain changes, such as a new site section, may follow the same process from development.

Most content changes begin in the production content management environment, which publishes to the production content delivery environment. In such cases, administrators may push data resources backward. For example, an organization may want the latest production content in the user acceptance environment.

Sitecore provides several mechanisms for moving resource between environments. Use the right approach for the task at hand:

• Backup and Restore: Manually or programmatically archive and restore all versions of all items in a databases or an entire Sitecore system to duplicate data or a solution, such as from production to test.  

• Publishing and Staging: Automatically push the latest version data and optionally file resources from the production content management environment to the production content delivery environment.

• Sitecore Packager: Manually or programmatically push items, individual versions of files and security accounts from any environment to any other environment using a graphical interface, such as to install a module.

• Sitecore Serialization: Manually or programmatically push items from any database to any database using text files supporting version control, such as to migrate infrastructure items from development to test.

• File System Replication: Manually, programmatically, or automatically push files, such as .NET assemblies, presentation components, JavaScript libraries, and Cascading Style Sheets, from any environment to any other environment using operating system or source code and build management tools, such as to manage a software release.

You can only use backup and restore to push an entire database. You can use the packager or file system replication to push an individual file, or a group of files. You can use the packager or serialization to push an individual item. You may experience performance issues if you use the packager to migrate too many resources at once.

Sitecore modules are packages. You can use the package to create modules. Some administrators use the packager to install updates to custom code and definition items.

Packages can contain serialized Sitecore items, files and security accounts. Sitecore package files have a .zip extension, but the format differs from the standard for zip archives. Packages are also used to install Sitecore modules which introduce additional features to the Sitecore user interface.

Refer to this section to learn about the Package Designer Ribbon

Refer to this section to learn about the Package Designer basic operations

Refer to this section to learn how to add items, files and security accounts

You can preview the whole package by selecting the Preview button in the Build chunk

Packages are stored and distributed among the Sitecore installations in ZIP packages, but their format differs from the standard for zip archives

The installation wizard is used to install packages from zip files

Some notes concerning Package Designer functionality

Known issues concerning the Package Designer.

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