The Deploy module for Drupal 6 is designed to have three parts that work together:

  • Deployment API - This implements the concept of a deployment plan. You create a deployment plan and add objects to it which will be deployed (content types, views, etc.) When the time comes these items are pushed to a server you specify via XMLRPC with an API key. The data stored about each item is extremely minimal, relying largely on the implementers to implement object-specific knowledge.
  • Deployment Implementers - Individual modules implement the deployment API to add the data they need to a deployment plan, and expose that ability to the front end. Currently there are three deployment implementers - Content Copy, System Settings and Views.
  • Deployment Services - Services modules which contain the knowledge to receive deployed data and do what is appropriate on the destination server. There are two deployment services included in this package - Content Copy and System Settings. This package also uses the Views service which comes included with the Services module, but it requires the most recent dev snapshot of Services.

Please read the installation and usage documentation before using the Deployment module. There are a lot of moving parts and while its not "hard" to setup, there are a several steps to go through. Check out the screencast for a demo!

Comments

xenophyle’s picture

xenophyle commented

I'm not familiar with this use of "stage". Does it mean "transfer"?

dman’s picture

dman commented

Not "transfer". It refers to where content stops between transfers. In this case the noun has been verbed.
If you "stage" the deployment of a site, you move it to one location (or "stage") in the process, look at it, then move it to the next stage.
Often a test platform in the middle could be called a "staging server".
compare: Stagecoach - the word defines not the travel, but the fact that it stops on fixed points on the way.

I'm not sure which is the correct derivation, but I like to think of it also as exhibiting a production on a "stage" - like a theatre play. You can "stage" a performance (of the website, for your clients, in an enclosed place). Implied in this is that it's a temporary thing, and done so that people can look at it before it moves on.

.dan. is the New Zealand Drupal Developer working on Government Web Standards

John_Buehrer’s picture

John_Buehrer commented

These seem to have different meanings, all of which could be relevant here.