chrisg

My New Tool Project

I have a new project I am involved with internally here at K2. We have had MOSS issues for some time now, (I know, I am as shocked as you are that anyone could have those). We have had them for some time and most of them stem from the fact that we started our internal portals before RTM of MOSS. We then "upgraded" to the RTM release. So ever since there have been lingering issues. RSS problems, alert issues etc. So we installed a fresh new server on RTM and did a backup and restore of our Content DB. Apparently this did not fix stuff and we have to create a new web app on this new server and "manually" create the new site structure and lists, and libraries etc. Then move the content over without doing a full backup and restore. Because doing this will drag the issues we are experiencing with it. So how does this affect this new tool that the blog title talks about you say?

Simple, I don't want to "manually" do everything. I want to build a tool to do as much as possible. Here is what I am "envisioning"

You point this tool to the parent of a site collection. It can then query that site collection and output to an XML file all the fun details about that site collection. Ideally this would include Site Columns, all the lists, all the libraries as much as possible. Once we have this fancy XML structure in our new tool we can selectively figure out what we want to do with it. What I would like is a series of checkboxes for sites. Once a site is checked it is added to an action list. This action list waits to be pointed at a new site collection where it can go and perform the actions specified. For example I may check the boxes of site1, site2, and site3 and click go. This tool will then go to this new site collection and create those sites along with all the lists and libraries in it. It would be even cooler if it created those lists and libraries and made sure they had the same columns etc as the one it queried. This would essentially be mirroring the other site without actually copying content.

We will have to build into this tool some perquisite checking etc. so that if a site on the action list has site column in it that we create the site column first, things like that.

I think a tool like this has some pretty awesome uses and possibilities. Now I just have to figure out how and when to write it. At this point I am scouring the internet for similar tools and examples trying to cheat and do as little work as possible. If anyone knows of any good ones out there please let me know.

 

Published Friday, February 22, 2008 5:21 PM by chrisg

Comments

 

JWynn said:

Hey Chris,

Did you check out the codeplex SharePoint Content Deployment wizard:

http://www.codeplex.com/SPDeploymentWizard

I'm not sure it meets all your requirements, but it's worth a look

JW

March 30, 2008 9:28 PM
 

edgelore said:

I know this is a few months later, but maybe this will still come in handy anyway. I stumbled across it recently:

http://stsadm.blogspot.com/2007/08/stsadm-commands_09.html

specifically for what you're talking about, check out all the export / import related commands.

You might already have what you're looking for, but maybe this will help someone else who comes across your original post. Lots of excellent utilities there and all the source code for each. If you're still building something yourself, maybe there are examples that would help.

Andrew

May 9, 2008 9:46 AM
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About chrisg

I am responsible for community development for SourceCode. I have been in technology for over 14 years mainly in infrastructure and security. I absolutely love technology especially new stuff and gadgets.