Question

I’m using Teamcity to automate (single click) deploys into our QA environment. At the moment content items are being deployed, but the QA guys then have to go and manually trigger a re-publish of the site.

Is there anyway using either TDS, Sitecore Rocks or A.N.Other tool to automate the re-publish at the end of the deploy process.

I know I can configure Sitecore to automatically publish every x minutes, but I would rather leave that deactivated as QA will also be performing load tests and I don’t want the scheduler getting in the way.

Answer 1

We have done this by setting up an ASPX on our daily build and QA websites that triggers a publish. The build then has a Powershell call to trigger this. We’ve done this with CruiseControl, TeamCity, and Team Build.

TeamCity Configuration

The configuration for TeamCity uses an additional build step after you’ve deployed files and TDS:

1. Runner Type: Powershell
2. Step name: Trigger Publish to Web DB
3. Powershell run mode: x64
4. Working Directory: [no value]
5. Script: Source code

6. Script Source:

   $r = [System.Net.WebRequest]::Create(‘http://myqasite/SomePath/Publish.aspx’); $resp = $r.GetResponse();

7. Script execution mode: Put script into Powershell stdin with “-Command -” arguments

Publish.aspx

The code for our Publish page is something like this:

    string full = Request.QueryString["full"];

    // Set up the publish mode
    PublishMode publishMode = PublishMode.Smart;
    if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(full) && (full == "1" || full.Equals("true", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)) ) {
        publishMode = PublishMode.Full;
    }

    using (new Sitecore.SecurityModel.SecurityDisabler()) {
        //We need the target database
        var webDb = Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.GetDatabase("web");

        //source db
        var masterDb = Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.GetDatabase("master");

        try {
            foreach (Language language in masterDb.Languages) {
                //loops on the languages and do a full republish on the whole sitecore content tree
                var options = new PublishOptions(masterDb, webDb, publishMode, language, DateTime.Now)
                              {RootItem = masterDb.Items["/sitecore"], RepublishAll = true, Deep = true};
                        var myPublisher = new Publisher(options);
                        myPublisher.Publish();
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex) {
            Sitecore.Diagnostics.Log.Error("Could not publish the master database to the web", ex);
        }

    }