How to move Dev Environment changes to Production environment SPD 2013?

Question

I want to move updated development environment changes to Production environment.

following contents are going to be updates on Production environment

• Web Parts
• Jquery code on list
• New Custom Column for list
• New Workflow

What is the best practices to updated development environment changes to Production environment

Answer 1

Packaging a workflow by using SharePoint Designer 2013 from Developement environment

1. Open an existing workflow, or develop a new workflow, in SharePoint Designer 2013.
2. On the Workflow Settings tab in the ribbon, click the Save as Template button in the Manage section as shown in the figure.
3. An informational dialog box appears to let you know the template has been saved to the Site Assets library.
4. Click the Site Assets library to view the workflow template as shown in the figure.
5. navigate to the Site Assets library where the template is located.
6. Select the workflow template you want to export by clicking it
7. Click the Export File button to save the template file to your local computer
8. It will save .wsp file on your system

Deploying a workflow package to SharePoint 2013 production environment

1. Open Internet Explorer and navigate to the SharePoint Server 2013 site collection where you want to deploy the workflow
2. Click Site Actions and select Site Settings.
3. In the Web Design Galleries section click Solutions.
4. Click the Upload Solution button. Upload that .wsp file
5. Activate the solution by clicking the Activate button

After a workflow solution has been activated for a site collection, it is available as a feature for all sub-sites. To activate the workflow feature for a sub-site, follow this procedure.

1. Open Site Settings on the site where you wish to activate the workflow feature.
2. In the Site Actions group, click Manage site features.
3. Click Activate next to the workflow feature as shown in the figure.

Note: Make sure that before activating feature List is present with same name

To deploy Updated Web part on production environment You can create solution which include web part.

Under web part Elements.XML file you can include ReplaceContent="True". so it will Update web part on production server

Answer 2

There was an option in SharePoint Designer, Export to Visio which exports your workflow as a .vwi file, and can be imported in to another site using the option Import from Visio. But when you try that option, you will get the below message.

This workflow cannot be imported because it was created in SharePoint Designer for a different site, or the original workflow has been moved or deleted. To move a workflow between sites, use Save as Template (.wsp file) instead of a Visio workflow drawing.

So, to achieve the same follow the steps below.

1. In the first(source) site, create the required workflow and publish it. Now select Export to Visio option which allows you to save the workflow with a .vwi extension. (Refer this workflow hereafter as source workflow).
2. Now go to the destination site where you want the workflow to be copied, and create a new workflow with the same name as the previous one & publish it.
3. Now select Export to Visio option which allows you to save the workflow with a .vwi extension. (Refer this workflow hereafter as Destination workflow).
4. Now you will be having two .vwi files (one of source workflow’s – SourceWorkflowName.vwi and other of the destination workflow’s – DestinationWorkflowName.vwi).
5. Now add .zip extension to both the files. Now your files names should be SourceWorkflowName.vwi.zip & DestinationWorkflowName.vwi.zip.
6. Now open both the zip files, copy workflow.xoml.wfconfig.xml from destination workflow to source workflow. (Its destination to source and not source to destination).
7. From now on, we will not use the file DestinationWorkflowName.vwi.zip. So ignore that file.
8. Remove the .zip extension from SourceWorkflowName.vwi.zip which gives you the SourceWorkflowName.vwi file.
9. Now, go to the destination site, open workflows and click Import from Visio and browse to the SourceWorkflowName.vwi file.
10. That’s it and your workflow is copied. You can publish the workflow and run it.

https://chanakyajayabalan.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/copyingmoving-sharepoint-2010-designer-workflows/