You are viewing documentation for a feature in early preview. The feature is not available for all Laserfiche Cloud accounts and functionality is subject to change.

Deployment Manager

The Deployment Manager lets you quickly implement and share collections of business processes, workflows, rules, and other related resources, These resources, which often work together as a single solution, are bundled into a deployment package which is easily exported and then imported into other Laserfiche Cloud accounts. Deployment packages let you:

  • Share deployment packages with other accounts
  • Move deployment packages between test and production accounts

Creating a Deployment Package

Creating a deployment package bundles a set of resources (business processes, workflows, rules, etc.) in an easy-to-share package.

  1. From the Deployment Package Library, click New.
  2. Provide a name and description for your template, and click Create.
  3. The template's basic structure is provided for you. As you insert resources, the variables, linked resources, and resources sections will be automatically populated.
  4. Use the Insert Resources button to select the resources you want to include in your package. E.g., if your package includes a business process, select Business Process and then choose the process that's part of your package from the dialog and click Insert.
    • Some resources are associated with a specific project or repository. After selecting the resource type, use the Project or Repository drop-down menu to view associated resources.
  5. When you select a resource, the associated JSON for that resource will be automatically added your package.
    • Some resources create placeholders that you will need to configure further after deploying the package. For example, if you select to insert a resource, and you point to Data Management and select Insert File, when the package is deployed, a placeholder will be created in Data Management in Process Automation from which you can easily upload a file. See the Additional Steps after Deployment section below.
    • Optional: After inserting resources, you can manually edit them in the JSON file. See How to Manually Edit a Deployment Template
  6. After adding the resources you want to include in your template, locate the "linkedResources" section of the JSON file. This section lists any resources that are referenced by the other resources you inserted to remind you to include them in the package as well. Ensure you've inserted all the resources listed here.

    7. Note: If you don't add the linked resources listed here, the person deploying the package will be prompted to select existing resources in their environment to link the resources in the package to.

    Ex: You insert a business process that invokes a workflow as part of the process. The name of the workflow will be automatically added to the "linkedResources" section of the JSON file. Select the Insert Resources button and browse to the workflow to include it the template. When the template is deployed both the business process and the workflow will be imported and the business process can seamlessly start the workflow.

  7. When you add resources from the linkedResources section, they will be automatically deleted from this section. In turn, if the resources you add from this section required additional linked resources to run, those resources will be listed in this section. Continue adding the resources listed in this section until this section is either empty or only contains resources you don't want to include in the package.
  8. After you've finished adding resources, use the Validate button to check the package for errors.
  9. Use the Format button to clean up your .json file, removing extra spaces and line breaks.
  10. Click Save to save your changes. Click the Export button to save your .json file to your computer. You can then import this solution into another Laserfiche Cloud account.
  11. Your package will be available in the Deployment Package Library.

Sharing a Package

Test the deployment of complex packages in the source account before sharing with the target account by going to the Deploy a Package page and selecting the package you created. See the Deploying a Package section for more information.

Export the package from the source environment and deploy it in the target environment.

  1. From the Deployment Package Library, select the package you want to share.
  2. Click Export.
  3. Optional: You can select multiple packages to export together. When you click the Export link you can choose to export each package separate or to export them together as a single ZIP file.

Deploying a Package

Deploying a package imports all components specified in the template into your Laserfiche Cloud account and links components together as a cohesive solution.

  1. From the Deploy a Package section, select where the package is located
    • Upload a package: If you have a package JSON file ready to deploy, select this option and then browse to or drag the package into the Package section.
    • Online deployment packages: Select a package made available through the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace. (This feature is not currently available in the Preview.)
  2. The import process will create a resource group. A resource group is the collection of resources associated with a specific template. It provides an easy way to reference, navigate to, and see the deployment history of the resources associated with a template. The created resource group will automatically be populated with all the resources detailed in the template. Provide a description for the resource group if desired.
  3. Click Next.
  4. On the Configuration step, you can configure items such as repositories, work schedules, condition starting events, projects, and more that will be used with the deployed package.
  5. Click Next.
  6. Review the resources included in the solution template. Resolve any name conflicts with resources that already exist in the destination Laserfiche Cloud environment by using the drop-down menu in the Action column. You can rename the resource or choose to use the existing resource and not import the resource from the deployment package.
    • Click Previous to make changes to what's being deployed.
  7. Click Deploy.

Reviewing Deployments

  1. After deploying a package, the Recent Deployments page will open, and information about how the deployment is running will be shown in the General tab. You can also navigate directly to the Recent Deployments tab from the left menu.
    • Under Resource Group, click the link to go the resource group's page where you can see a list of the resources that have been deployed in the group. Click a resource to open it and see how it was imported into your Laserfiche account. You can also see a history of all deployments for that resource group, their statuses, who they were deployed by, and when they were deployed.

      Note: You can delete all the resources in a resource group by selecting a resource group from the Resource Group page and selecting the resource group.

    • Under Status, you can see the deployment's status. Failed deployments will display error messages here.
    • Under Steps, is a list of all the steps in the deployment, their status, and when the step was last updated.
  2. In the Configurations tab, you can see the prefix that was appended to each resource as it was deployed.
  3. In the Resources tab is the list of resources included in the deployment, their type, and any project they're associated with. Click a resource to open it in a new tab.

Additional Steps after Deployment

  1. From Recent Deployments, select the template you deployed and click the Resources tab. If you have any of the following types of resources listed there, click the resource to open it and make these final edits.
    • Publish and enable any business processes, workflows, and capture profiles created by the packages.
    • In Data Management, files created by the package are placeholders only without actual file data. Upload the file you want to use.
    • Verify authentication information for application connections, data sources, and web service connections.
    • For custom reports, modify Value, Group, Filters, Sort, and Drilldowns.
    • For Developer Console applications, provide authentication information for the Application, like Access Keys and Client Credentials in Developer Console designer page.
    • Stamps and images used in Forms will not be deployed and need to be re-created after deployment.
  2. Check all resource references (e.g. templates, fields, records management policies) when names have been changed, For example, Workflow tokens may not have the correct name if you renamed fields in the deployment package. Validate the workflow to find broken tokens and other places you need to update manually.
  3. If you are redeploying a package that contains resources with the same name as existing resources, ensure the redeployment won't cause any running workflow or business process instances to fail.

Known Issues

  • When editing a deployed package, it may be cumbersome to remove previously imported resources. It's often easier to recreate the package.
  • Editing a workflow's name can make it too long and it will fail to import. Limit workflow names to 100 characters.
  • Not all self-hosted token tag types are supported for input and output parameters in Laserfiche Cloud. The supported types are: String, Integer, Long, Numeric, DateTime, Boolean, and GUID. All other token tag types for input and and output parameters, including compound types, will be converted to the type "String" during deployment.