Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 3

Stefan Goßner — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:00:16 GMT

Providing some real world samples for import After we managed to export content in part 2 lets now focus

SharePoint Content Deployment and the Migration API

Noticias externas — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 07:41:37 GMT

Stefan is back! J Stefan is in Redmond this week, and we had a chance to catch up! In fact, I had dinner

Deep Dive in SharePoint Deployment und Migration API

SharePoint, SharePoint and stuff — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 12:32:44 GMT

Stefan Goßner taucht in einer vierteiligen Serie in die Tiefen der SharePoint Deployment und Migration

Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 4

Stefan Goßner — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 00:38:20 GMT

[ Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 ] Advanced content deployment scenarios Till now we have covered

Fantastic, incredibly detailed, content on content deployment by Stefan

Andrew Connell [MVP MOSS] — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 04:40:35 GMT

Fantastic, incredibly detailed, content on content deployment by Stefan

Mirrored Blogs — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 05:00:27 GMT

[via Stefan Gossner ] This past week I was in Redmond teaching my WCM401 development class in an open

Content migration API "Deep Dive" by Stefan Goßner

Mirrored Blogs — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:03:24 GMT

Body: Great series of posts by Stefan on how to use the Content Migration API. Very timely for me as

MOSS2007 deployment on WSS 3.0 Server

sachin sharma — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 15:14:40 GMT

Hello,

We can have full license for MOSS 2007 for intranet / CMS access for content management, though for the public-facing content delivery part we intend on using Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (which comes w/ Windows Server 2003), and not have to purchase internet connector for MOSS 2007.

To get a little deep into the scenario, for authoring and content management, MOSS 2007 with SQL Server 2005 as the database would be used. The content authored (we plan to) would eventually be exported on a different box with Win 2003 machine with WSS V3 and SQL Server 2005 installed. Once this is done we can currently think of the below mentioned scenarios to publish our site –

- Write a custom engine that pulls out content from the database (using APIs, if provided by WSS 3.0) on every hit to the page.

- Use Out of the box features provided by WSS V3 to pull out content from the database on every hit to the page.

I would really appreciate if you could give us some insight into the feasibility of the approaches that we are intending to take up.

Regards

Sachin

sachsharma@sapient.com

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 18:39:28 GMT

Hi Sachin,

I don't think this method will be practically useful. Without MOSS you will not have the page layout concept of the pages layout. So you only see the fields.

You will not be able to influence how the fields are arranged in the page and within a master page.

Cheers,

Stefan

SharePoint内容部署与迁移API

Joycode@Ab110.com — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:02:14 GMT

今天凌晨加班的时候偶然翻到 Stefan Gossner 的这几篇文章，强烈推荐给大家： Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Flemming Carlsen — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 11:47:06 GMT

Hi,

Thank you for these great articles - they gave me a kickstart on content deployment at the right time!

I have a scenario where we need to move contents from lists on developer servers, to test and further on to production. The site structure is not neccessarily the same on the different environments, so the sample for importing in a different structure is a great starting point.

A note on incremental import should be said - it is not supported on lists - only sites and webs. I get around this by using an importhandler that checks the imported ListItem, and if it already exists (checked by CAML query on list-webservice) is deleted again. I find this approach easier to code compared to manipulating the manifest.xml file.

I think the performance is a bit problematic. Exporting 196 ListItems take in average 10 minutes. I fear the time, when we get 1-2000 items in the list. I am currently looking into ways to improve performance and will be investigating the usage of indexed columns. Any hints are welcome..

Regards

Flemming

MOSS / SharePoint Content Deployment

Connecting Systems the Microsoft Way — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 12:49:32 GMT

Great set of articles by Stefan Goßner : Deep Dive Into the SharePoint Content Deployment...

MOSS / SharePoint Content Deployment

Connected Systems Chilled Out Blog — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:38:41 GMT

MOSS / SharePoint Content Deployment

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Tihomir Ignatov — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:18:01 GMT

I' trying to export my "Pages" library with this code:

SPSite site = new SPSite("http://vm-spwf");

SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb();

SPList list = web.Lists["Pages"];

SPExportObject exportObject = new SPExportObject();

exportObject.Id = list.ID;

exportObject.Type = SPDeploymentObjectType.List;

SPExportSettings settings = new SPExportSettings();

settings.SiteUrl = "http://vm-spwf";

settings.ExportMethod = SPExportMethodType.ExportAll;

settings.FileLocation = @"c:\export.1";

settings.FileCompression = false;

settings.ExcludeDependencies = false;

settings.ExportObjects.Add(exportObject);

SPExport export = new SPExport(settings);

export.Run();

web.Close();

site.Close();

I received the following Exception:

Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint 'PK__#ExportObjects____73DFBB75'. Cannot insert duplicate key in object 'dbo.#ExportObjects'.

The statement has been terminated.

Where is the problem ?

Regards

Tihomir Ignatov

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:51:46 GMT

Hi Tihomir,

please ensure that the latest security fixes for WSS and MOSS are installed. If this does not fix the problem, please open a support case to get this analyzed.

Cheers,

Stefan

Export Content Types

Joe — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 19:58:30 GMT

Hi Stefan,

I've successfully written some tools to run site exports and imports. Thanks for the examples, they worked well. I am now trying to write some code to export a single page layout with the corresponding content type. I was hoping that exporting the page layout would grab the content type as a dependency but this doesn't seem to be the case. Since content types are SPContentType objects and do not have GUID IDs, I am having real trouble writing the export code for a content type. Any chance you can add a sample on this?

Thanks!

Joe

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 16:29:50 GMT

Hi Joe,

sorry that is not possible this way.

You should handle content types using custom features.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Helmut — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:56:01 GMT

Hello again.

Will the Import/Export functions via the API take care of this situation:

1. I have a test site called

http://mysitetest.com

2. I'd like to import the export package into a site called http://mysite.com

The OOTB tools would create a site called:

http://mysitetest/mysite.com, which I do not want. Again, will the API handle this situation? I need to have a proof of concept done by next Wednesday. Thanks!

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Marees — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 08:34:30 GMT

i have exported a http://servername:6000/Test.

i need to import this site to the url http://servername:6000/a000123.(insteads of Test, it shouls create in a000123)

but it tries to import to http://servername:6000/a000123/Test.

how to import this to particular site?

-Marees

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:19:07 GMT

Hi Marees,

export import does not allow to rename an item. Only to export and import it to different locations.

When exporting http://servername:6000/Test then the web Test and most likely the items underneath are exported.

When importing this package to a different location you can decide where to place the exported objects. That what you did. You decided to import at a000123 rather than at the root.

But still all items in the package (including the exported Test web) will be imported here.

I assume what you are looking for is to export all items inside the Test web and then import them into the a000123 web.

If this is what you are looking for then you need to export only the included items (e.g. the document libraries and lists) and child swebs and not the Test web itself.

Then you can decide that all the items in the export package should go below the a000123 web.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Marees — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:51:04 GMT

Thanks Stefan for the quick response.

my requirement:

Export "http:\\servername:6000\Test" site using SPExport object.

When i try to import this "Test" site to other webapplication "http:\\servername:6001\g000123"

.Its throwing exception "\g000123\test" is not found in the server.

note: there is no site g000123 in this web app. "Test" site should be created in the name of g000123.

I need the imported site url as http:\\servername:6001\g000123 not as

http:\\servername:6001\g000123\Test

so, i exported "Test" site using SPExport object and then imported the site using stsadm command.

stsadm -o import -url http://servename:6001/g000123 -filename export.cab

(note:there is no site g000123 in this web app)

now the "Test" site is created in the name of g000123.

Is this is right way to do it?

How this stsadm import command did it?.

how to do this using API?

I used SPExport object because it supports exclude subsites option but stsadm export command does not support this, it export all sites and it subsites.

Please help me.

Marees

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:19:33 GMT

Hi Marees,

again: you cannot rename items using the export import mnethod.

Please do not export the test web. Only export the items inside.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

marees — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:00:01 GMT

Stefan,

Thanks for reply.

How to export only the items inside the TestWeb ?

-marees

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 11:20:46 GMT

Hi Marees,

you need to enumerate them and add them to the ExportObjects collection one by one.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Sammuello — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:51:57 GMT

I'm having trouble finding a solution to deploy Sharepoint artifacts (master pages, page layouts) WITHOUT content. We're in a situation where we're about to deploy a site to a client's web environment; they'll be making changes to content, but we'll no doubt be making changes to the master pages, page layouts, etc over the coming months and we're not wanting to overwrite the content by using the backup/restore method. Are the import/export methods either via the command line or through the API capable of acheiving this?

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:11:35 GMT

Hi Sammuello,

these things should be deployed using features - not using content deployment.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Sammuello — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:57:43 GMT

Thanks Stefan - appreciate the quick response. I'm now going down the features route. This probably isn't the thread to discuss this in detail, but do you happen to know if there are any tools in existence to automatically package up artifacts into a feature, without manaually having to extract the files & describe them in an xml document?

Cheers,

Sam

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:36:21 GMT

Hi Sam,

sorry haven't looked into this.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Ceej — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:30:47 GMT

Hello Stefan,

Great series of articles, thanks.

For incremental updates where is the change token stored? i.e. is it possible to find out what the change token is following the last time a central admin incremental content deployment job ran?

Also, when writing a custom incremental export where should the value of settings.CurrentChangeToken be stored? When executing the next incremental job the token must be picked up from somewhere?

Thanks,

Chris

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:38:35 GMT

Hi Chris,

you would need to keep the change token returned from the earlier run yourself.

You cannot query it.

That is what content deployment does as well. It stores the change token in the configuration settings of the deployment job.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Ceej — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:07:55 GMT

Thanks Stefan,

That makes sense. So presumably in the case of the content deployment job you can get hold of it through the API and access the settings and change token etc?

Cheers,

Chris

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:13:57 GMT

That is correct.

E.g. using the following code:

ContentDeploymentPathCollection deployPaths = ContentDeploymentPath.GetAllPaths();

foreach (ContentDeploymentPath path in deployPaths)

{

foreach (ContentDeploymentJob job in path.Jobs)

{

foreach (SPExportObject o in job.ExportObjects)

{

Console.WriteLine("ExportChangeToken=" + o.ExportChangeToken);

}

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Tim — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:10:19 GMT

Stefan,

We've been having problems pushing content through central admin, timeouts etc. I believe this is because the site is around 35 gigabytes. We can create MANY jobs that each define a few webs, and then everything works. But pushing the entire site collection "/" has been a no go. So, rather than having to define all these jobs I was thinking I could just write some code to do an initial full content export. Then copy and paste those cab files and reimport on the other farm.

Then what I would *like* to be able to do is keep the one job specified by CA but just push changes. I expect however that this will not work because CA will not have my change token and so it will just try to perform a full content push.

So, I guess my question is, is it possible for CA to know about the content that I pushed through the API?

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 10:56:43 GMT

Hi Tim,

your assumption is correct. The Central Admin will not know about this.

It might be possible to adjust the Change Token in the deployment job using the API but I haven't tried this.

Cheers,

Stefan

Deep Dive Into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API

Mike's Blog — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:53:55 GMT

Stefan Goßner posted a great series of posts about the Content Migration API (formerly known as PRIME

Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 6

Stefan Goßner — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:37:45 GMT

[ Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 ] Requirements for a successful content deployment

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Adam — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:12:28 GMT

Hi Stefan,

Great series of articles.

Do you know if it is possible to export/import workflows created with SharePoint Designer using the API?

stsadm import/export seems to do it (but loses the association to the list/doc lib beacuse of the new guids) so I would have thought the API would also support this.

Thanks,

Adam

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:25:03 GMT

Hi Adam,

honestly I haven't tried it. If it is a GUID related thing it should work when using RetainObjectIdentity on import which preserves the GUIDs.

Did you try this?

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Enrique_Blanco — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:24:38 GMT

I'm having some problems while trying to create a tool to copy list items to another list:

a) When I export the items the file RootObjectMap.xml (which contains the items I can reparent) is empty, so I can't reparent the items (I export the items one by one adding them to the Export objects collection). It happens only with some lists, with others the items are orphaned as I would like... ¿Any ideas?

b) When an item with more than one version is imported the last version has the correct modified date, but all the other versions have the time when the import is run. I seems that is a bug... any workarround?

Thanks!

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:18:52 GMT

Hi Enrique,

a) this will happen if you used the incremental export. You cannot remap files if you used this option.

b) I haven't heard about this. Please open a support case for this.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Enrique_Blanco — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:56:12 GMT

Thanks for the quick answer, but I specify SPExportMethodType.ExportAll as ExportMethod.

If I run the same code against two different lists I don't get consistent results... can I be missing something?

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:06:21 GMT

Hi Enrique,

I haven't see this.

Cheers,

Stefan

SharePoint Site vs. Web exports/imports and Custom Layout Pages

kindohm.com — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:28:31 GMT

SharePoint Site vs. Web exports/imports and Custom Layout Pages

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Ajay — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:57:19 GMT

Hi Stefan,

Can we increase the cab file size.

By default it breaks the big files because of the 25 mb default.

Thanks

Ajay

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:55:42 GMT

Hi Ajay,

yes this can be done. Please check the following article for details:

http://blogs.technet.com/stefan_gossner/archive/2008/05/28/pimp-my-content-deployment-job.aspx

MaxFileSize is the parameter you need to adjust.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Elhadi — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:05:39 GMT

Hi,

Curious and urgent ! you don't talk about the ExcludeChildrens property. I am confused between IncludeDescendants and ExcludeChildrens properties, what's exactly the difference between descendants and childrens ?

The MSDN do not explain that, so you are the last hope ;)

Thanks,

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 01:43:35 GMT

Hi Elhadi,

if you check above you will find that I have explained the two properties. The Include Decendants allows to decide whether to export referenced items like page layout and images (which can exist in different sites and libraries) are exported together with the referencing page or not.

The ExcludeChildren allows to decide whether to exclude child galleries (means galleries inside the current web) or not.

So they are completly different.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Elhadi — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:02:15 GMT

Hi Stefan,

I am really worried, in the article you explain the properties SPExportSettings.ExcludeDependencies and SPExportObject.IncludeDescendants, but not the SPExportObject.ExcludeChildren.

I think also that you in your last post you confused the definition of IncludeDescendants with ExcludeDependencies.

I'm really embarrassed to insist like that but please verify

Thanks,

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:25:34 GMT

Hi Elhadi,

sorry for this! You are right. What happens when using ExcludeChildren = true is that it sets IncludeDecendents to SPIncludeDescendants.Content if you set it to false it will set IncludeDecendets to SPIncludeDescendants.All.

So this is more or less an option to use an oposit logic. You should not mix the use of IncludeDecendent with ExcludeChildren.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Frankie — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:02:24 GMT

Dear Stefan,

Does incremental update support SPList? If not, is there any suggestion to implement it? Thanks!

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 23:14:51 GMT

Hi Frankie,

íncremental update supports also SPList and SPListItem objects.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

FLPF — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:18:40 GMT

Dear Stefan,

But when i used SPExportMethodType.ExportChanges to export a specify list changes, i got below errors.

Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException: Incremental export is only supported for SPSite and SPWeb objects.

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.SPExportSettings.Validate()

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.SPExport.InitializeExport()

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.SPExport.Run()

at WSSMigration.ContentMigration.ExportList(String SiteURL, String sWeb, String sListName, String exportFileLocation, Boolean bCompress, String strToken)

at WSSMigration.Program.Main(String[] args)

Please give advise. Many thanks!

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:34:18 GMT

Hi Frankie,

sorry I misunderstood you. I thought you are exporting a site or web and would like to know if the included lists will be exported incrementally.

It seems you have defined a SPList object as SPExportObject. Here the incremental method does not work.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Freda — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:18:03 GMT

Hi Stefan,

I have read your great post. Thanks

I have a situation. I would like to copy all content from a source site to a destination site but want to just exclude the custom lists from the source site.

Any idea how i can achieve this?

Appreciate your help.

Thanks,

Freda

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:34:13 GMT

Hi Freda,

that cannot be done out of the box. I think the easiest way would be to export/import everything and afterwards delete the unwanted content using a script.

Alternatively you could modify the content of the manifest.xml file after export and remove all references to the unwanted content which will ensure that the content is not imported.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Freda — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:33:47 GMT

Thanks for the ideas Stefan,

I will be trying this today...will keep you updated.

Thanks,

Freda

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Freda — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:08:06 GMT

Hi Stefan,

As suggested by you I did the following...

1)From the 12 hive, ran the stsadm -o export command.This gave a .cab file in BIN folder.

2)Extracted the contents using winrar and Got a folder with .dat files and .xml files

3)Opened the manifest.xml file and removed unwanted content.Saved the file.

5)Since I dint know how to cab it back again. I just re-compressed the same folder using winrar and renamed it to .cab

6)I then ran an import command from same Bin folder, but unfortunately ended up getting the following error:

"FatalError: Failed to read package file.

Error: Unable to read cabinet info from C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft

Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN\AuthoringExport.cab

Start Time: 1/7/2009 3:28:13 AM.

Progress: Initializing Import.

Error: Unable to read cabinet info from C:\AuthoringExport.cab

FatalError: Failed to read package file.

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ImportDataFileManager.Uncompress(SPRequest

request)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.SPImport.Run()

*** Inner exception:

Unable to read cabinet info from C:\AuthoringExport.cab

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.ExtractFilesFromCabinet(String bstr

TempDirectory, String bstrCabFileLocation)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ImportDataFileManager.<>c__DisplayClass2.<

Uncompress>b__0()

at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurity.CodeToRunElevatedWrapper(Object state)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurity.<>c__DisplayClass4.<RunWithElevatedPrivile

ges>b__2()

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SecurityContext.RunAsProcess(CodeToRunEleva

ted secureCode)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(WaitCallback sec

ureCode, Object param)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(CodeToRunElevate

d secureCode)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ImportDataFileManager.Uncompress(SPRequest

request)

Progress: Import Completed.

Finish Time: 1/7/2009 3:28:14 AM.

Completed with 0 warnings.

Completed with 2 errors.

Log file generated:

C:\AuthoringExport.cab.import.log

Failed to read package file."

I dont know if I am doing something wrong?

Inputs from you are appreciated!

Thanks,

Freda Grace

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:23:27 GMT

A rar is not a cab.

Both use different compression. Winrar can decompress many different compression types but it will always create a rar file.

But you don't have to compress at all.

Or uncompress.

STSADM -o export/import has a parameter which allows to use uncompressed data: -nofilecompression

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Freda — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:09:58 GMT

Yea, I used the same parameter immediately after posting the comment you and it worked!

The Custom list was not created in the destination site as was required,but I feel this manual procedure of making changes in the manifest.xml file is quite risky. Also how can we achieve it if we have number of such custom lists to remove. Because for removing content related to just one list (for testing), I had to remove atleast 5 xml tags.

Can you suggest any better way? Or any way in which we can atleast automate this process?

Thanks,

Freda Grace

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:43:33 GMT

Hi Freda,

it is indeed risky. And if the content in the DB would not be correct afterwards it would be your responsibility to correct it.

If you would like to go this route I would suggest to write a tool which does the cleanup of the manifest.

Alternatively you would need to delete the lists after import.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Freda — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:19:31 GMT

Yes,

I guess your right...was just wondering if I write a tool to do the clean up, what about the dependent objects? Dont we have to clean them up too? If yes, then is there a way that we can find out dependent objects of a particular list say for example which workflow is being run on it, etc?

Thanks for your time..

Freda

Regards,

Freda Grace

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:31:33 GMT

Hi Freda,

yes you need to cleanup all dependent objects and also all references in other objects to the removed ones.

It depends on the complexity of your site structure how much cleanup would be required.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

judith — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:10:18 GMT

Hi!

I'm looking for a code to move pages between webs ( for archival )

most of the codes use export/import API, but this only copy the page instead of moving it!

any idea? should i delete the page after export/import? there is no elegant way?

thank you

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:41:27 GMT

Hi Judith,

after the successful import you have to delete the old page.

That is what happens when moving in manage content and structure as well.

Cheers,

Stefan

Content Deployment - Best Practices

Stefan Goßner — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:42:20 GMT

In the past I have released several blogs about the various problems that can occur with Content Deployment.

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Rahul Singh — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:47:56 GMT

Hi,

I am using two sharepoint sites one as primary and other as secondary, and these sites are being used to store video's. These video's are attached as attachments in a list. I am using Windows Sharepoint Services. Along with that I am using External Blob storage to actually store these video's.

I am using Content Deployment API to synchronize data b/w the two sites. I am always using Retain ID's to ensure no duplicate data is being created.

My problem is that Content Deployment API while importing List Items updates the meta-data but doesn't update the attachment if the attachment name remains same , even if the actual attachment has changed. Like in my case, the attachment size and duration has changed but name remains same, yet it doesn't replaces it.

Is there anyway where i can force the replacement of attachments. Any other suggestion would be welcome.

Regards

Rahul Singh

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:47:55 GMT

Hi Rahul,

I haven't seen this. Please open a support case with Microsoft to get this analyzed.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

FLPF — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:56:37 GMT

Dear Stefan,

Currently, We are testing our deployment program within one stand alone MOSS server (As export and import server). But we met below errors. Could you give advise? Many thanks!

[3/18/2009 9:41:54 AM]: Progress: Importing File WorkflowTasks/NewForm.aspx.

[3/18/2009 9:42:09 AM]: Progress: Importing List fpdatasources.

[3/18/2009 9:42:10 AM]: Progress: Importing List List Template Gallery.

[3/18/2009 9:42:11 AM]: Progress: Importing List Master Page Gallery.

[3/18/2009 9:42:12 AM]: FatalError: Value does not fall within the expected range.

at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFileCollection.get_Item(String urlOfFile)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPContentTypeCollection.Add(SPContentType contentType)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ContentTypeSerializer.CreateContentType(SPContentType sourceContentType)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ContentTypeSerializer.ProcessContentType(SPContentType sourceContentType, String contentTypeXml, ImportObjectManager importObjectManager, Boolean IsParentSystemObject)

Best Regards,

Frankie

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Soumyadev Bhattacharya — Sat, 16 May 2009 02:35:39 GMT

Hi Stefan,

We were running a full content deployment between two farms, but while it was importing objects there was a connection loss between database and app servers which caused the job to go into running state.

I have tried to restart the timer job on both the authoring and publishing farms, but it didn't helped.

Can you suggest how to fix this.

Thanks,

Soumyadev

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Mon, 18 May 2009 09:55:21 GMT

Hi Soumyadev,

on source and target please do the following:

Open Central-Admin - Operations - Timer Job Status.

Choose "Service" for the "View"

Select "Central Administration" for the Service

Can you find a Content Deployment timer job?

If not, then the job is indeed no longer running.

In this situation you can change the status to Failed manually to allow restart:

Browse to http://central-admin-url/Lists/Content%20Deployment%20Jobs

choose the list item related to the job that shows the incorrect status

edit the job and change the "LastStatus" field to "2" which means Failed.

Now you can restart the job manually using the manage content deployment paths and jobs page.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Vincent — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:48:15 GMT

Hi Stefan,

First of all thanks a lot for your great sharepoint articles.

I've got a very annoying issue with content deployment.

I'm using Content deployment to replicate publishing pages.

I was hoping to benefit from "ExcludeDependencies = false" to retrieve images and such. But i'm starting to think that was not a good idea...

I had a first issue with SummaryLinks dependencies not included in export. I fixed that exporting them with custom code then fixing Summary links after import.

Now i have the *BIG* issue.

Sometimes, didnt find why yet, while i'm exporting only one page, Content deployment include RootWeb as a dependency... 90 MB today on a test server, will surely become a lot more in production environment.

Anyway what is the reason, RootWeb should never be exported (and hopefully because of a different destination template, the import fails)

In fact i would like to exclude any SPWeb from export.

But i found no way to control Dependencies export except with the ExcludeDependencies Flag...

I've spent some time digging the API with reflector, sealed class and internal methods prevent me to override that bad behavior.

I hope i missed something... Or i'll have to rewrite my code without Dependencies feature of Content Deployment = i will forget using Content deployment and probably some SPListem.Copy or worse custom Export / Import code (like OCD Export Page)...

Thanks for your help and sorry for my english, which is not my native language... (hello from paris ;)

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:58:22 GMT

Hi Vincent,

the rootweb is vital for the publishing feature.

It holds the page layouts, the reusable content, ...

so every publishing page will have a dependency to at least the page layout in the root web.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Vincent — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:09:26 GMT

Hi Stefan,

Of course RootWeb is vital, and 99% of times, content deployment dependencies mechanism only adds one master page or Page Layout in my export packages...

But the last 1% brings the FULL RootWeb, i mean all Lists, masterpages and so on... which is not acceptable, since i bet the RootWeb will be growing fast in production and since i have many transfers to be done...

I just want to copy only few pages... with the benefits of that dependency mechanism...

Anyway, thanks a lot for your (very) fast answer.

/me taking the "full custom code road"...

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Vincent — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:41:22 GMT

Me again,

Since i cant control the exported objects by dependencies, could it be possible to control objects to import, i mean excluding them "on the fly".

Nothing found in SPImportSettings... (Would like to exlude all SPWebs)

And on SPImport.Started, SPIMportObjectCollection is not setable nor mutable...

Some trick playing with SPImportObject.TargetParentUrl + ignoring errors maybe...? :/

Vincent.

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:27:37 GMT

Hi Vincent,

you would need to modify the manifest file and remove the items you would like to exclude before starting the import.

You could do this (e.g.) in the Started event handler. See part 4 for details.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Vincent — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:38:31 GMT

Thanks again for your answer stefan,

That's what i will surely do soon... As a temp workaround.

After studying my export 10MB (!) manifest file i come to the conclusion that ins ome cases, exporting one single page with dependencies brings not only the RootWeb but the full site collection...

/me thinking of opening a case @ MS

Vincent.

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:00:53 GMT

Hi Vincent,

a case might indeed be the best way to isolate this.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

David Bullock — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:47:54 GMT

Hi Stefan, your blog here has saved me a few times - thanks for writing this good stuff (and even more for formalising with the Sharepoint product team).

I'm interested in an incremental migration situation where various SPLists have had items modified or added, but the ExportChangeToken was not saved [1].

Is it reasonable to use the GetChanges() method of a change-exportable object [2], locate the change of interest [3], and assign:

anExportObject.ExportChangeToken = anSPChange.ChangeToken.toString()

[1] In this case, the changes were made in an SPS 2003 database and the customer wants changes to be 're-migrated'

[2] It puzzles me that SPList and SPListItem cannot be targets of an incremental export. Do you have any insight as to why this is?

[3] It would surely have helped if SPChangeQuery had properties for 'Before' and 'After' which took a DateTime instance.

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:49:59 GMT

Hi David,

yes you can use this method to deploy from a specific change.

[2] for a list item it does not make sense as the target has to be a container. Regarding the list: it was a design decision to have the granularity on SPWeb level. For lists you can achieve this using an event receiver as outlined in part 3

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Riza Ture — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:39:20 GMT

If two lists are not identical(different column names) and I performed copy list item operation via API and Sharepoint UI(Collabration Portal>content and structure). The columns (which does not exist at the destination) in the source list are ADDED TO THE DESTINATION LIST but EditItem.aspx pages seems like corrupted and only show the newly added columnns to use/edit.

Is it a bug? or What is the logic behind that?

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Sara Tenenbaum — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:58:27 GMT

Thanks so much for your help yesterday! One quick question - where in the manifest or any of the other files, can you change where the site will end? Also as a sub web I had to enter the name without the slash i.e. "Toolbox" is that common? Is it because its a sub-site and not a web?

Thanks again.

Sara

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:09:19 GMT

Hi Sara,

there is no end for the site. Each object is separate. There is no hierarchical ordering in the manifest file.

Not sure what you mean with the slash.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Sara Tenenbaum — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:31:44 GMT

What I meant is, if there is a way to move the site to a different URL completely via the manifest. I saw your answer above, where you recommend the movement of objects, rather than the sites.

Thanks :) (and cheers!!)

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:34:33 GMT

Hi Sara,

you would need to adjust the URL of the site and all included lists and items and so on.

Its better to export the site as is and then import it at the desired location using the API properties.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

William Man — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:04:04 GMT

Dear Stefan,

I am using spexport/import such that I can simulate replication between 2 sites, (testing is current on a seperate sub-web).

Export is all content within a spWeb, and the Initial Export where ExportAll is specified, and Import is successful. (Identities not retained)

The next export, only use ExportChanges, with the following changes,

Add new list, with or without items: Import success

Add item in an exisiting list: Failed to import, as the TargetParentUrl is wrong. I attented to set this using the OnImportStarted Event, but i get an Invalid File error.

In additional to this error, I noticed that when Retain Identities = false, Overwrite Changes does not work, new items are added.

Can you please advise whether using SPExport/Import is a feasible way to create a replication module. Furthermore, is there anyway to access the serialised objects, such that I can deserialise manually from the objects?

Many thanks in advance.

William

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 02:14:31 GMT

Hi William,

please read all the other parts of this series. It answers the questions you raised.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

William Man — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:14:54 GMT

Hi Stefan,

Many thanks for your reply. Am I correct in reading that there isn't really a solution to resolve the Overwrite migrate issues when Retain Identities = false, other than setting this to true. But for this, guid/names must be unique.

And if objects need to be different in location for migtation, another tool needs to be written. I'd already thought of this, but would rather not do it that way. Just hoped there was something in the API would could be used, or rather we could access the serialised objects and re-write part of the api.

Many thanks for your reply.

William

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:45:00 GMT

Hi William,

that is correct. If overwrite is required you have to use RetainObjectIdentity as this is the only method that allows checking if the identical item already exists and has to be replaced or not.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Vijay Agarwal — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:17:11 GMT

Hi Stefan,

I am in a problem. In my scenario, I want to export all sharepoint groups, users and permissions. I can export them if I am exporting and importing complete site collection but if I am attempting to export only one list in a site then sharepoint groups and users are exported and imported but the permissions of them are not exported which will eventually cause them to fail.

My requirement is so that i want to export one list(or limited number of items but not complete site) only and all the Sharepoint groups, users and permissions should be exported and imported with that.

Any help is highly appreciated.

Thanks,

Vijay

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:12:07 GMT

Hi Vijay,

with the hotfix level available this is not possible.

A fix to get this working is currently being investigated.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Sham — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:33:01 GMT

I have a master list and an archive list; is there a way of moving an item from the master list to the archive list and maintain the same item ID in the archive list. I need to keep the same item ID as this is the primary key for task items related to the master item.

re: Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 2

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:32:55 GMT

Hi Sham,

no that is not possible. I would recommend to use a custom field to store the information that should be persisted.

Cheers,

Stefan