Commerce Server Staging
Commerce Server Staging (CSS), a feature of Commerce Server 2009 Enterprise Edition, reliably moves Web site assets in and across different environments, such as new Web pages or Marketing campaigns, from test environments to production environments. CSS publishes the updates that software developers, Web developers, site authors, business users, sales managers, customer service representatives, and other users involved in creating and maintaining a retail Web site make.
The following figure shows how you can use CSS to stage projects (files and data) between different servers and environments.
.gif "Staging Projects between Environments")
CSS saves you time by providing a standard method of deploying content from one directory to another. You can deploy content between directories on a single server, or from one source server to one or more destination servers. You configure staging projects one time, and then set an automated schedule for them, or run them on-demand. This simplification in the staging process eliminates the need for you to create custom deployment configurations, and think of manual methods of copying files from one location to another.
CSS also supports deployments over a wide-area network (WAN).
CSS is not a tool for testing Web site functionality or for authoring content and Web pages.
Note
CSS does not support Unicode characters for configuration values, such as paths, project names, route names, and user names and passwords. You must use ASCII characters in CSS.
Note
While Windows Server supports file paths of up to 259 characters, CSS does not stage file paths longer than 255 characters, including the file name extension.
Note
You must specify absolute paths for staging projects in CSS; CSS does not support canonical file paths.
You may experience unexpected behavior if you stage files with long file names mapped to short file names. For information about how to use 8.3 file naming conventions, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=65440. To disable 8.3 file naming creation, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=65441.