Site Plumbing rehaul

We are in the process of a completing a major change to the plumbing (code, framework, etc) of our websites.

What I'm concerned with is the "flipping the switch" plan for production as there will be a couple months of both sites being up at the same time.

From a content perspective does this mean content contributors will need to do duplicate work if the sites are in separate branches? Most of our pages are templated.

I appreciate your input,

Nico
TS 6.7.1 sp1 win server

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

nipper

I am doing that right now. Serious pain in the a$$ but no, they *may* not need to enter the data twice. In my implementation I am using the same workareas and have 2 different TPLs for each template. I am generating data in different folder structures to prevent data from going out early. My WF generation script and OD scripts provide extra help here.

This is a good approach if you can do it.

Andy

nico

Wondering how 2 tpls solve your problems?

moonkhanna

Wondering how 2 tpls solve your problems?

If you do not understand Andy's solution, just go ahead and update the other branch with the new content (DCR) when content in one branch changes...

The other solution as Andy mentioned, use one tpl in one workarea and with the same name but different implementation use the second tpl in the second workarea...

Use different folder structures for both the workareas and make sure content of one cannot be accessed by the other through Get Latest except for your DCRs of course.

Users can then generate from their workarea when they like.. Feel free to post any further questions//

Adam Stoller

We are in the process of a completing a major change to the plumbing (code, framework, etc) of our websites.

What I'm concerned with is the "flipping the switch" plan for production as there will be a couple months of both sites being up at the same time.

From a content perspective does this mean content contributors will need to do duplicate work if the sites are in separate branches? Most of our pages are templated.

I appreciate your input,

Nico
TS 6.7.1 sp1 win server

From a TeamSite perspective - what is changing? The PTs only? or the DCTs and PTs?

If the branches are changing then you would need to make sure you update content in the new branch when it is changed in the current branch - assuming that you're not going to have completely different content in the new branch.

If it is just the PTs - and you followed best practices of consistency in file and directory naming, you should be able to run a script to ensure that all output files are re-generated using the new PTs.

If you didn't follow those best practices, but all your generated files have proper EAs on them, then you would need to traverse the non-templatedata directory to find all generated output, retrieve the identification of the source DCR from the EAs and then [re]-generate the files using the new PT.

If you didn't follow those best practices and don't have proper EAs on your generated files - you're pretty much SOL IMO.

If you're changing the DCTs too - then the above is pretty much moot, since all the content would have to be re-entered to create the new DCRs that conform to the new DCTs -- though you might be able to programmatically perform the conversion if the changes are map-able.

Basically, without knowing the details of the changes you are planning, it is difficult to provide you with a reliable process for avoiding problems.

nico

Let me add some more detail as requested:

Current structure is 2 sites in 2 different branches, both branches have unique dct's/tpl's.

The new sites are all in one project/Directory (Microsoft TFS) some code is shared and there are some web service calls so I'm thinking in order for the sites to display/function semi correctly in Teamsite they will need to be in one branch?

This is where my confusion begins, all the content will be identical the tpls will all need to be changed to reflect the new code, master pages etc..

Thanks for your input in advance yet again.
Nico

moonkhanna

Let me add some more detail as requested:

Current structure is 2 sites in 2 different branches, both branches have unique dct's/tpl's.

The new sites are all in one project/Directory (Microsoft TFS) some code is shared and there are some web service calls so I'm thinking in order for the sites to display/function semi correctly in Teamsite they will need to be in one branch?

This is where my confusion begins, all the content will be identical the tpls will all need to be changed to reflect the new code, master pages etc..

Thanks for your input in advance yet again.
Nico

IF you are using some universal \ global content, you need on both sites, probably publish that content to both the branches.. Again, in your unique situation..

Another thing you could do is to have these master pages in a separate branch all together.. and whenever someone updates the master pages, you workflow updates both your branches..

chicka

Let me add some more detail as requested:

Current structure is 2 sites in 2 different branches, both branches have unique dct's/tpl's.

The new sites are all in one project/Directory (Microsoft TFS) some code is shared and there are some web service calls so I'm thinking in order for the sites to display/function semi correctly in Teamsite they will need to be in one branch?

This is where my confusion begins, all the content will be identical the tpls will all need to be changed to reflect the new code, master pages etc..

Thanks for your input in advance yet again.
Nico

I could see in your proj, mapping and resuability of info will be much helpful.

moonkhanna

I could see in your proj, mapping and resuability of info will be much helpful.

VK, he is working with asp.net.. Reusability of information will be much more effort than just replicating information.

nico

right, shared bin directory for both sites and using master pages. I keep asking Interwoven to offer some best practices or guidelines for those of us who have moved to .net or are in the process of, such that we can leverage Teamsite. The value proposition seems to be decreasing by the day, but I hope i'm wrong.

All venting aside again i'm going to proof of concept this out by creating a branch and throwing both sites in one branch and see what happens, wish me luck.

Nico

moonkhanna

right, shared bin directory for both sites and using master pages. I keep asking Interwoven to offer some best practices or guidelines for those of us who have moved to .net or are in the process of, such that we can leverage Teamsite. The value proposition seems to be decreasing by the day, but I hope i'm wrong.

All venting aside again i'm going to proof of concept this out by creating a branch and throwing both sites in one branch and see what happens, wish me luck.

Nico

Nico, good luck with your efforts. I would anyhow recommend you to POC throwing your Global contents into another branch and replicating it to both your other branches..

Depending on how your site is designed, things maybe of botheration though so good luck with whatever you have thought for your project