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Deployment and wpresources?

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Terry
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Terry asked on 07 Mar 2008, 12:54 PM
At the moment I am wanting to configure the spell checker to use en-GB.

By default your solution doesn't include this. To include this I would need to place this in wpresources/.......

How in your opinion should one go about deploying things like the en-GB to wpresources. The same question can also be asked for custom ToolsFile and ConfigFile.

While on a development box it is easy to drop files in the required wpresources directory, on on a farm this is not ideal, far from ideal in fact!

At the same time. Re-solutioning the solution you provide to add files isn't an easy task and paves the way for tough upgrades in the future.

I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this.

Kind regards
Terry


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Lini
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answered on 10 Mar 2008, 03:30 PM
Hello Terry,

You are right - adding/modifying files in an MOSS farm manually means that you need to modify each server in the farm individually.
You can either use batch deployment or you can create a new editor solution package and include all the additional resources by default.

The batch deployment option is easier to implement - simply create a new batch script and use xcopy to add the new files to all front end web servers.

The new solution package is a bit harder to implement but is easier to deploy afterwards. Here is what you need to do:

1) rename the .wsp solution file to .cab
2) open the file with any archiving software (e.g. WinRAR) and extract its contents to a convenient location
3) customize the files for the solution (add languages, change config files, etc.)
4) To build the wsp file again, you need to run the makecab utility from Microsoft. Here is the full command line:
 C:\windows\system32\makecab.exe /F RadEditorMOSS.ddf

The RadEditorMOSS.ddf file (Diamond Definition File) is also automatically generated by our build scripts. It is used by the makecab utility to select the files, which will be included in the solution. The ddf file is automatically generated on each RadEditor for MOSS build. If you open a formal support ticket, we can send you a copy of the ddf file for the latest build. Note that if you add new files to the solution package, you will also need to add them in the ddf file.

Best wishes,
Lini
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Christoffer
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answered on 15 Oct 2008, 03:11 PM
Hi Terry and Lini,

We are facing exactly the same issue. We have the config-files in our source control and would like a safe and controlled way of deploying it to an entire farm at once.

Would it be possible to create our own solution package that only deploys the config files to /wpresources and overwrites for example the ToolsFile.xml that the RADEditor solution created? 

Telerik - when your solution adds the config files to /wpresources/xxxxxx, is that done declaratively through a feature or are you running any code to achieve this?

If it can't be done through a solution, is it possible to create a batch file that runs on the application server and copies the file over to the local file system of all other web front ends?

It would be really helpful to hear your thoughts and recommendations on this one.

Thanks,
Christoffer
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Lini
Telerik team
answered on 16 Oct 2008, 12:53 PM
Hi Christoffer,

There are numerous guides on the Internet, which show how to create a solution for SharePoint 2007 - here is a blog post by Andrew Connell, which might help you - http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/articles/UsingVisualStudioAndMsBuildToCreateWssSolutions.aspx

The files in the RadEditor's resource folder (\wpresources\RadEditorSharePoint\xxxxx\Resources\) are defined in the solution manifest file (Manifest.xml in the solution package). The files are added the <ClassResources> section for the RadEditorSharePoint assembly.

If you want to add files in the editor's Resources folder, you will need to either modify the original solution package and add them in the manifest or you will need to create a new package. The trick with a new package is that it should have the RadEditorSharePoint assembly in its manifest, because you need the files to go in the same folder and overwrite the old configuration.

Kind regards,
Lini
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Christoffer
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answered on 17 Oct 2008, 08:20 AM
Hi and thanks for the information!

We successfully managed to add the RadEditorSharepoint.DLL to our own solution and override some of the default configuration files. It felt better to do this than modifying the WSP file you ship, since the procedure would need to  be done again after every future upgrade of the product.

However, doing this turned out to be a bit intrusive on the rest of the solution, because since both the RadEditorMOSS.wsp solution and our own solution has the DLL, the RadEditorSharePoint.dll will be removed from the GAC when retracting our solution and thereby "breaking" all RADEditor functionality on the entire farm by doing that.

This can be an issue if we have two solution packages that rely on having the RadEditor available. If one of the solution packages includes the RadEditor DLL, you can't uninstall that without breaking the other solution as well.

Any thoughts on this?  This is perhaps the best option available?

Thanks,
Chris
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Lini
Telerik team
answered on 17 Oct 2008, 11:27 AM
Hello Chris,

You will need to update your WSP with every RadEditor for MOSS update anyway, because the version of the RadEditorSharePoint assembly will change. The version is used in the folder name in wpresources where the solution files are deployed, so your solution should use the same version of the assembly as the original RadEditor for MOSS solution.

As for the limitation when you remove one of the solutions with RadEditorSharePoint.dll in the GAC, we have not tested this scenario yet and so I am not sure what will happen to the assembly. Perhaps the SharePoint administration service will keep track of deployed solutions and keep the assembly in the GAC if it is still needed? If not, then the only workaround is to retract and deploy the other solutions with RadEditorSharePoint.dll if you remove one.

Currently, I can't think of any other way to deploy custom configuration files to all WFEs in your farm except a solution package. The only possibilities remain to either repackage the original RadEditor solution or use your own solution, which uses RadEditorSharePoint.dll from the original package.

Regards,
Lini
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