SharePoint Content Deployment API Article Series

If you are deploying SharePoint you should take some time and read the following WSS/MOSS Content Deployment article series from Stefan. He covers the WSS/MOSS Content Migration API in depth and what you need to know when moving content between your server farms.

Deep Dive into the SharePoint Content Deployment and Migration API - Part 1 > 6 (Highly recommend that you start with part 1 and read through to 6)

If you are new to content deployment here is what’s available via the API

export an entire site collection
export a specific site inside a site collection including or excluding content in subsites
export a list or document libraries or even of a folder inside a document library
export a single list items or documents from a document library
export dependent objects (like images referenced by a page) by following links
generate as a compressed export file or in uncompressed format
allow export with a define a maximum size for the generated compressed file (multiple export files will be created if required)
allow incremental export of items based on a given change token. This will export all items that have been created, changed or deleted after the timestamp in the change token.
import the exported content with or without identiy preservation (means items will keep their GUID or not)
import the exported content under the same or a differnt parent in the destination database
do link fixup during import

Some things you need to be aware when using content deployment is that your content database size will grow. There is also a bit of an impact on your performance depending on the frequency and time you do your content deployment jobs.

Also check out the GUI tool created by Chris O’Brien it has come in handy in many situations for me. SharePoint Content Deployment Wizard.