Running the Deployment Wizard

You can use the Deployment Wizard to accomplish the following tasks:

Deploy a project directly to one or to multiple host servers.
Create a deployment script. The advantages of scripts are that you can schedule them and have perform additional tasks, such as file compression or custom logging.

Deploying directly

When you deploy a project directly, you are copying the files to the host server(s) at the time of deployment.

Your Deployment Servers are selected automatically in the server list. Any remote servers that have been mapped to in the Files panel are also included in this list. You can deploy your project to any of these servers, however, only information for the Deployment Servers is included in the apf file for the project.

To deploy a project to localhost:

Open the project that you want to deploy in the Projects panel.
Select Projects > Deployment Wizard.
In the first pane of the Deployment Wizard, click Direct Deployment, then click Next.
In the second pane, select Local/Network Deployment and set file handling options.
Click Next, then click Finish.

The Results window Deployment tab opens and shows the progress of the file transfer.

To deploy a project directly to one or more remote servers:

Follow steps 1-3 in the preceding procedure.
In the second pane, click Remote RDS/FTP Deployment, then click Next.
Highlight entries in the Select Remote Deployment Server list if you need to deploy to defined servers other than those already associated with the project, then click Next.
Click Finish.

Using deployment scripts

You can create a deployment script that you can run at any time. The most powerful benefit of scripts is that, once they have been generated, they can be modified with custom code and saved.

Deployment scripts are based on the Allaire Visual Tools Object Model (VTOM) and can be generated in either JScript or VBScript. For more information, see Scripting the Visual Tools Object Model in the online Help References.

You can generate three types of deployment scripts:

The Project Element Iterator Script generates a script that performs a file-by-file upload with a set of nested loops, or iterations. The script iterates through each server, then each folder, then each file. You can insert code between the loops to add custom functionality during uploading.
The File-by-File Deployment Script creates a script that uploads each of the project files individually. During a file-by-file upload, the project is opened, each file is uploaded individually, then the project is closed.
The Project-wide Upload Script generates a script that is identical in functionality to deploying the project directly. During a project-wide upload, the project is opened, uploaded, then closed.

To create a deployment script:

Open the project for which you want to generate a script.
Click the Deploy Project button or select Project > Deployment Wizard.
The Deployment Wizard window appears.
Click Generate Deployment Script, then click Next.
Enter a name for the script in the Deployment Task Name box.
Select either VBScript or JScript from the Script Language Options.
A pathname based on the project name is automatically entered for the script in the Save Script to File box. You can change it by entering a new pathname or clicking the Browse button to use the Save As dialog box.
If you want to see the script in the Editor window, select the Open script in editor after generation option.
Click Next.
Select the type of script you want to generate, then click Next.
Select destination, file, and logging options, then click Next
Click Finish to generate the script.
The script file is saved in the application root folder on the JRun server.

Managing deployment scripts

Expand the Deployment Scripts node and right-click a script to edit it, run it, see its properties, or remove it.

Saving deployment results

You can review the results of the last deployment by selecting View > Results > Deployment. Right-click in the Deployment pane to select display options.

Each succeeding deployment overwrites the Results window contents, but the information (including a date/time stamp for each deployed file) is appended to the deployment.log file in the root directory. This file can grow considerably over time, so you should reduce its size as needed.

Using HomeSite
Chapter 8 Deploying Projects