3.2.2. Integration

Integration is the point where the implementation is combined into a versioned solution. It is recommended to include as much as possible in the packages generated in order to allow the deployment process to be as simple as possible. The packages should include your implementation specific files, standard Sitecore and other framework files, configuration files, definition items in the Sitecore databases (see Item types) and any scripts to run during the deployment process. By covering as much as possible in this process result in a more simplified deployment process by detaching the deployment process from your development tools and repositories. Ideally only the configuration of the specific environment and roles should happen during the deployment process.

Depending on your tools stack – version control, configuration management, item serialization etc. – various tools can help you with the integration of your modules and solutions into a distributable package. The format of this package will depend on the deployment strategy and tools you choose. For example, Sitecore TDS covers the complete application lifecycle from development through to integration, and supports generation of Sitecore Update and NuGet packages that can be automatically installed with for example Octopus Deploy.

Habitat Example

The internal build process used for the Habitat example site runs continuous integration and deployment through a TeamCity build server. Please note that these tools are publicly available on GitHub.

The CI process is triggered by each change in the GitHub version control system and runs separate builds for each branch and pull request. The process executes the following tasks

  1. Restore NuGet packages and other external dependencies
  2. Build using MSBuild
  3. Run Unit and SpecFlow Tests
  4. No packages or assets are created from the CI build.

The deployment build is triggered nightly on changes to the master branch – or can be triggered manually to create official releases or special branch releases. The process runs the following tasks:

  1. Restore NuGet packages and other external dependencies
  2. Build using MSBuild
  3. Run Unit tests
  4. Setup a clean Sitecore on the build server
  5. Publish solution to the Sitecore instance using the Gulp build scripts
  6. Create Sitecore package by executing the Sitecore Package Generator
  7. Publish Package to GitHub as a release

The Sitecore package distributed via the GitHub releases page (https://github.com/Sitecore/Habitat/releases).

Internally in Sitecore, official releases of Habitat and our demo sites that are built on Habitat are distributed as Sitecore Instance Manager (SIM) packages, which include database backups and analytics data. This allows deployment to local machines to happen in a one click process through the SIM user interface.

These SIM packages are created on the build server too using PowerShell and the Sitecore Instance Manager command-line interface (https://github.com/sitecore/sitecore-instance-manager).