What is the current method for deployment? I.e.

* Deploying MyWebsite v1.2 -> Test Environment (core install only)
* Deploying MyWebsite v1.3 -> Test Environment (hosting MyWebsite v1.2)
* Upgrading MyWebsite v1.3 with new Silverstripe release core on Development/Test/Production
* Deploying Production data back to development

Does Silverstripe have a way to merge new data created in development (new pages etc.) with data in production (posted blog items)? Or the reverse?

Thanks in advance.

you mean content? The CMS allows you to save drafts and preview them before publishing.

For code, better to use a repo tool like subversion.

I'm planning to use SVN. What I mean is...

- I create v1 of website, say a blogging tool, and this goes to production...
- My customer starts creating blogs on production
- In development, I create v2 of website, with extended blog features (comments, etc.) and new sections like contact form, articles (with "starter" articles added) and new modules like ecommerce. I add an "announcement" blog item in development.

Now, do I simply ftp my v2 root over the top of v1 in production, run http://website.com/dev/build/?flush=1 and all is well? Like new starter articles appear and existing blog content is still there? And "announcement" blog merges with existing blogs in production?

Cheers

No. Content is held in the database.

You can use a default_records method to pre-populate date on dev/build if you need to, but content that has been added via the CMS will have to be re-added when you move your code to the production site.

Ok. Adding content at deploy time shouldn't be a huge problem, my main query is regarding merging database schemes, and it looks like dev/build does this automatically. I.e. - I don't have to write SQL scripts to update my database with a new schema every version.

It doesn't delete tables or fields so I do wonder what the long-term effects of this are.

Thanks Hamish!

It doesn't delete tables or fields

SS should rename tables which are not being used to _ obsolete_Tablename and if you want fields marked _obsolete I believe there is a dev/cleanup or another database cleanup task which can be ran.