This page outlines the various methods to deploy a package from one environment to another, and which method is best for each type of environment.
When you deploy a package, changes are taken from the source environment and moved to the target environment. Some common deployment paths include:
Source Environment | Target Environment |
---|---|
Development | Test |
Development 1 | Development 2 |
Break Fix / Hotfix | Development |
Test | Production |
The optimal approach depends on the security considerations of your source and target environments, as well as the type of changes you have - whether it’s one or more applications, patches, environment specific data, Admin Console settings, or a mix. There are three methods for deploying a package in Appian:
We recommend that production deployments be performed during off-peak hours, especially when there are many changes.
If you are moving complete applications from a staging environment to a production environment, take standard precautions to ensure continuity:
Compare and deploy is the easiest and recommended method of deployment. If your DevOps infrastructure is set up, these connected environments can be enabled to interact and directly deploy changes from one to another without manually downloading and uploading .zip files.
Use compare and deploy if you are pushing an application or patch between lower environments, such as development to test. Import customization files and database scripts can also be included.
The compare and deploy feature guides you through a few straightforward steps:
After changes have been made, comparing objects between environments will help clarify which objects should be added to your package, making it easier to peer review and deploy.
Note: Sensitive database changes should be directly executed on your database. Deployed database scripts and any subsequent database errors will be attached to the deployment News posts on the source and target environments.
The package must be inspected against the target environment before deploying. Entire applications and patches can both be inspected, although this does not include uploaded database scripts.
Two types of results may need your attention:
Once you resolve the issues, click Inspect Again to confirm that there are no missing precedents, warnings, or errors before clicking Next.
Confirm the high-level details, and add a name and description for the deployment. These allow you to track what’s included in a deployment, and will be reflected in the News posts on the source and target environments.
Click Deploy to immediately push the changes to the target environment. On the other hand, you can click Export to just download the package as a zip file; this will not affect the target environment. Only application administrators can deploy, while viewers and editors can export objects to which they have permissions. Refer to the security section for more details.
A confirmation dialog will appear once the changes are sent to the target:
On the source environment, a News event is posted on behalf of the user who sent the deployment. This post is visible only to this user and system administrators. Attached are the package zip file, database scripts, export log and a deployment log. Refer to Resolving Issues for more information on logging.
On the target environment, a system News event is posted. This post is visible only to system administrators, with similar information attached.
Appian provides the Automated Deployment Manager which allows you to customize and even further automate your deployment process with Appian, by integrating with your team’s version control system and continuous integration tools.
For more information, see the DevOps Quick Start Guide.
Packages can be manually exported from the source environment and then imported into the target. Appian recommends using this method of deployment if you are deploying an application or patch to a higher environment that requires further review, such as Test to Production.
Import customization files can be included in your packages for manual export and import, but other dependencies will have to be handled separately. Administration Console settings, database scripts, and plug-ins must be exported and imported separately.
Both export and import create an event in the News Feed. For import, the event has the import log attached. For export, the event will have both the export log and the exported package attached. By default, the user performing the export or import is the only viewer of the post, but they can add other users to it.
To deploy objects, import customization files, and database scripts directly to another environment, use compare and deploy.
Once you've checked your application for missing precedents, you are ready to export your package. To export a package:
Applications that contain many objects may take a long time to export. You can navigate away or log out while the export is in progress, and the event will appear in the News Feed when the export is completed.
Exported packages will be automatically deleted after 30 days and will no longer be available for download as attachments. You can change the number of days before export package cleanup in the Admin Console Settings.
Since you can't undo an import, you should always inspect a package before completing the import to check for warnings, conflicts, or missing precedents. Inspecting objects identifies general issues, such as missing dependencies, data stores that don't match the schema on the target environment, and package corruption or invalid XML. Inspect does not catch all possible errors, such as incorrect permissions or insufficiently unique names.
Importing a patch at the application level will not add objects to a specific application. You must re-import the patch inside the correct application.
Importing an application into another application will add objects to that specific application. You can remove them by selecting the imported objects and clicking REMOVE FROM APP in the toolbar.
To inspect and import a package:
To export multiple patches from the applications list view:
The IMPORT option in the applications view handles both applications and patches for multiple applications. When you import a package that contains multiple patches, the corresponding objects are added to the appropriate applications, depending on where the patches were created.
It's a best practice to include data types created from web service definition languages (WSDLs) in your application or patch package before exporting it. If those data types are not included in your package AND they don't already exist on the target environment, they'll be listed as problems in the inspection results. Data types that are normally created by the Call Web Service Smart Service or webservicequery() function during import cannot be created by the package inspection process.
Developers with viewer access to an application and objects are able to compare and inspect these objects across environments, and manually export them. Application administrators and system administrators on the source environment are the only roles able to directly deploy to the target using compare and deploy.
Before using compare and deploy, a system administrator account must be specified when setting up deployment configuration in the admin console.
When manually importing a package, you must ensure that you can administer the application and the objects that it contains:
The Last Modified By field displays the user who most recently modified the object and the time at which it happened. If the object supports versioning, the Last Modified By information of previous versions are not affected.
Best Practice: Regardless of deployment method, we recommend using a group for each application called
When objects are deployed to another Appian environment, the deployed objects contain a reference to the users and groups listed in their rolemaps. For example, an exported Knowledge Center contains the list of users and groups with rights to the Knowledge Center.
Rolemap deployment rules:
If an object already exists on the target environment (an object exists there with the same UUID), then:
Because objects in a deployment aren't updated simultaneously, users may see some inconsistencies in their application behavior as objects are updated. For example, during a lengthy deployment, a constant may be updated but the process model that references the constant has not been updated yet.
Issues may be encountered for various reasons. For example, an error may occur when you are not an administrator of the object, or if you attempt to deploy a group with the same name as another group.
Best Practice: Inspect the package before deployment in order to identify issues ahead of time.
The deployment, including the export and import processes, does not stop when errors are encountered on specific objects.
However, a problem during the import of an object may cause the import of related objects to also fail. For example, a failure to create a group type during an import would cause the import of any groups of that type to also fail (Appian does not attempt to import these groups in this case).
If a group fails to be created during import, and the group exists in rolemaps for other objects - or is a member of another group - the other objects (or groups) will fail to import due to the missing precedent.
The deployment will completely stop when a database script cannot be executed. In this case, Appian will roll back all possible changes that have been executed so far - this will vary depending on your specific database server. Executing subsequent database scripts and deploying objects will not be attempted.
In each case an error occurs, Appian gathers and displays information on any problems after all objects in the package have been processed. Generally, you can do one of the following:
When using compare and deploy, a deployment log is generated. The log details the stages of your deployment - such as the sending and receiving of the deployment request, executing database scripts, and importing the objects - and whether they succeeded. Errors that occur during database script execution or object import are included here. For more information on object import errors, see below.
When manually importing, an import log is generated. Objects with import issues are placed in one of two sections at the top of the import log:
The following example illustrates the log entries that may be generated when an object reference is not included in the package, and is not present in the target environment.
In this instance, an imported process model listed an individual user for the assignment of an activity. We recommend using groups for assignments instead. Otherwise, ensure that the target environment has a user with the same username, prior to importing the application.
Additional sections in the import log include: