Deployment Helper

The deployment helper is a small command line application which allows the user to perform serveral types of operation in CRM from the command line. This command can either be used in build scripts or used during development. The application supports CRM 2011 on-premise, IFD and Online.

  • Update a plugin assembly
  • Publish customizations
  • Export a solution (managed/unmanaged)
  • Import a solution
  • Update resources
  • Update Reports

For use from Visual Studio Microsoft also has the Developers Toolkit which provides similar features. This can be downloaded as part of the CRM SDK.

Usage:

DevDeployment.exe /server [servername] /organization [organization] /username [username] /password [password] /action [action ...]

Arguments:

/ServerName [servername]Specifies the servername where the discovery service is located. If a port other than the default (80/443) is being used include this in the server name (server:port)
/Organization [organization]Uniquename of the organization to perform the actions on
/UserName [username]

Username to use in the connection, if a domain is required specify this in the username using the format (user@domain or domain\user)

Do not specify the username to use integrated security (current windows account)

/Password [password]Password to use in the connection, only applicable if the username is also specified.
/SSLWhen present connects using ssl.
/a [action] [arguments] [action] [arguments]Specifies which actions are to be executed including their arguments. This argument can be specified multiple time or multiple actions can be specified.

Actions

assembly [filename]

Updates a plugin assembly.

Note: if no existing assembly is found with the same name an error is given. This action will only update the content, not the name, version or any plugin types.

publishPublishes all customizations
exportmanaged [solutionname] [exportpath]Exports the solution identified by solutionname as a managed solution. The solution file will be named [solutionname]_managed.zip and places in the export path (must be a folder).
exportunmanaged [solutionname] [exportpath]Exports the solution identified by solutionname as an unmanaged solution. The solution file will be named [solutionname]_managed.zip and places in the export path (must be a folder).
importsolution [filename]

Imports the solution (managed or unmanaged) in the file.

The import options are set as follows: OverwriteUnmanagedCustomizations: False, PublishWorkflows: True, ConvertToManaged: False

resources [solutionname] [path] [prefix]  [compress]

This command updates existing resources in a solution. The path specifies the folder where the files are. All filenames in the specified will be prefixed with the specified prefix before being resolved in the solution, / in the prefix will be interpreted as a folder in the local file system.

Only existing resources are updated, to create new ones you can use the web resource utility provided in the CRM 2011 SDK.

For javascript files (.js) and CSS files (.css) compression can be applied by specifying true for the last parameter, this minfies the file. Compression is handle by the YUICompressor for .NET (see http://yuicompressor.codeplex.com/)

reports [solutionname] [path]Updates all existing reports in the solution based on the available RDL files.
solutionversion [solutionname] [version]Updates the solution version attribute with the value provided 

Example:

To publish and export a solution

DevDeployment.exe /server MyServer /organization CRM /a publish /action exportmanaged MySolution "D:\Solutions Files"

To import and publish a solution

DevDeployment.exe /server MyServer /organization CRM /a importsolution MySolution.zip publish

Update resources

DevDeployment.exe /server MyServer /organization CRM /a resources "D:\My Resources" "new_/Folder1" true
If the solution contains a resource named new_/Folder1/Scripts/MyScript.js this should be located in D:\My Resources\Scripts\MyScript.js.

Download

Latest version:1.0.0.2
Required .NET Version4.0
LicenseSoftware License
DownloadTo accept the license terms and download DevDeployment.zip, 476Kb
News
Deployment Helper: Version 1.0.0.2
Sunday, March 18, 2012
A new version of the deployment help is available. This version supports CRM online and uses a different compression engine for Javascript resources