Orchard Core Deployments

Use deployment plans to export configuration or content as a recipe package, then import that package into another tenant. A plan is an ordered collection of deployment steps. Enable the feature that owns each selected step on the source and target tenant before creating, exporting, or importing the plan.

Create and run a deployment plan

1. Enable OrchardCore.Deployment and the features that contribute the required steps.
2. In Configuration → Deployment Plans, create a plan, add steps, and configure each step.
3. Use the plan's Export action to download a deployment package. It is a recipe which the target imports through the Recipes administration UI or setup flow.
4. Use the plan's Execute action only when a configured deployment target is available. The Recipes feature supplies the normal recipe deployment target.

Order steps deliberately. For example, enable features first, define content types before content, configure indexes before requesting a rebuild, and create workflow definitions only after their activity-providing features are enabled.

Create a plan with a recipe

The deployment recipe step is named lowercase deployment. Its Type must be the registered deployment-step factory name, normally the class name, and Step must serialize the corresponding DeploymentStep. The plan creation fails without changes if any type is unavailable because its feature is disabled.

{
  "steps": [
    {
      "name": "Feature",
      "enable": [
        "OrchardCore.Deployment",
        "OrchardCore.ContentTypes",
        "OrchardCore.Contents"
      ],
      "disable": []
    },
    {
      "name": "deployment",
      "Plans": [
        {
          "Name": "Configuration",
          "Steps": [
            {
              "Type": "ContentDefinitionDeploymentStep",
              "Step": {
                "Id": "[js: uuid()]",
                "Name": "ContentDefinition"
              }
            },
            {
              "Type": "AllContentDeploymentStep",
              "Step": {
                "Id": "[js: uuid()]",
                "Name": "AllContent"
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

The deployment recipe step creates or updates plans; it does not export their package. Export or execute the resulting plan from the Deployment Plans UI.

Built-in deployment steps in release/3.0

Only steps whose owning feature is enabled appear in the picker. The complete set registered by framework modules is below. Steps that rebuild, reset, or export to a target are operational steps rather than configuration export steps.

Area	Registered step types
Deployment	CustomFileDeploymentStep, RecipeFileDeploymentStep, DeploymentPlanDeploymentStep, JsonRecipeDeploymentStep
Content	AllContentDeploymentStep, ContentDeploymentStep, ContentItemDeploymentStep, ExportContentToDeploymentTargetDeploymentStep
Content definitions	ContentDefinitionDeploymentStep, ReplaceContentDefinitionDeploymentStep, DeleteContentDefinitionDeploymentStep
Core configuration	AllFeaturesDeploymentStep, SiteSettingsDeploymentStep, ThemesDeploymentStep, PlacementsDeploymentStep, AllLayersDeploymentStep, AllRolesDeploymentStep, AllQueriesDeploymentStep, CustomSettingsDeploymentStep
Media and templates	MediaDeploymentStep, AllMediaProfilesDeploymentStep, AllTemplatesDeploymentStep, AllAdminTemplatesDeploymentStep, AllShortcodeTemplatesDeploymentStep
Localization, users, tenants	TranslationsDeploymentStep, AllDataTranslationsDeploymentStep, AllUsersDeploymentStep, CustomUserSettingsDeploymentStep, AllFeatureProfilesDeploymentStep
Workflow, menus, maps, search settings	AllWorkflowTypeDeploymentStep, AdminMenuDeploymentStep, AllSitemapsDeploymentStep, SearchSettingsDeploymentStep
Indexing	IndexProfileDeploymentStep, RebuildIndexDeploymentStep, ResetIndexDeploymentStep
Lucene	LuceneIndexDeploymentStep, LuceneIndexRebuildDeploymentStep, LuceneIndexResetDeploymentStep
Elasticsearch	ElasticsearchIndexDeploymentStep, ElasticsearchIndexRebuildDeploymentStep, ElasticsearchIndexResetDeploymentStep
Azure AI Search	AzureAISearchIndexDeploymentStep, AzureAISearchIndexRebuildDeploymentStep, AzureAISearchIndexResetDeploymentStep
Authentication	FacebookLoginDeploymentStep, AzureADDeploymentStep, MicrosoftAccountDeploymentStep, OpenIdServerDeploymentStep, OpenIdValidationDeploymentStep

Do not guess step JSON. Create the plan in the admin UI and use its export as the authoritative payload, especially for steps with feature-specific options.

Remote deployment

Enable OrchardCore.Deployment.Remote on the source and target along with OrchardCore.Deployment. In Configuration → Remote Instances, register the remote endpoint; in Remote Clients, configure the client credentials/permissions used to call it. The remote UI supports exporting a local plan to a remote instance and importing a remote plan/package locally. Treat the endpoint and its credentials as production secrets, use HTTPS, and ensure the target has every feature required by the imported steps.

{
  "steps": [
    {
      "name": "Feature",
      "enable": [
        "OrchardCore.Deployment",
        "OrchardCore.Deployment.Remote",
        "OrchardCore.Recipes"
      ],
      "disable": []
    }
  ]
}

Write a custom deployment step

Implement all three pieces in the module that owns the data.

1. Derive a serializable model from DeploymentStep, set a stable Name, and add only settings that the editor needs.
2. Implement IDeploymentSource, preferably by deriving from DeploymentSourceBase<TStep>, and append valid recipe JSON to DeploymentPlanResult.Steps or files through result.FileBuilder.
3. Add a DisplayDriver<DeploymentStep, TStep> and the corresponding summary, thumbnail, and edit Razor shapes when the step is configurable.
4. Register the source, step factory, JSON derived type, and driver with the exact AddDeployment<TSource, TStep, TDisplayDriver>() overload.
5. If implementing a destination for executing packages rather than a source step, implement IDeploymentTargetHandler and register it separately with AddDeploymentTargetHandler<TImplementation>().

Every object added to DeploymentPlanResult.Steps is a recipe step consumed on import. Emit an existing recipe step or ship and enable a matching custom IRecipeStepHandler on the target tenant. The example emits MySettings, so its companion recipe handler must be available there.

using System.Text.Json.Nodes;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Localization;
using OrchardCore.Deployment;

namespace MyModule.Deployment;

public sealed class MySettingsDeploymentStep : DeploymentStep
{
    public MySettingsDeploymentStep()
    {
        Name = nameof(MySettingsDeploymentStep);
    }

    public MySettingsDeploymentStep(IStringLocalizer<MySettingsDeploymentStep> localizer)
        : this()
    {
        Category = localizer["Settings"];
    }
}

public sealed class MySettingsDeploymentSource
    : DeploymentSourceBase<MySettingsDeploymentStep>
{
    protected override Task ProcessAsync(
        MySettingsDeploymentStep step,
        DeploymentPlanResult result)
    {
        result.Steps.Add(new JsonObject
        {
            ["name"] = "MySettings",
            ["Enabled"] = true,
        });

        return Task.CompletedTask;
    }
}

using OrchardCore.Deployment;
using OrchardCore.DisplayManagement.Handlers;
using OrchardCore.DisplayManagement.Views;

namespace MyModule.Deployment;

public sealed class MySettingsDeploymentStepDriver
    : DisplayDriver<DeploymentStep, MySettingsDeploymentStep>
{
    public override Task<IDisplayResult> DisplayAsync(
        MySettingsDeploymentStep step,
        BuildDisplayContext context)
        => CombineAsync(
            View("MySettingsDeploymentStep_Fields_Summary", step)
                .Location("Summary", "Content"),
            View("MySettingsDeploymentStep_Fields_Thumbnail", step)
                .Location("Thumbnail", "Content"));
}

Add Views/Items/MySettingsDeploymentStep.Fields.Summary.cshtml and Views/Items/MySettingsDeploymentStep.Fields.Thumbnail.cshtml. Add an edit view and override Edit/UpdateAsync when the step has editable properties.

using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
using OrchardCore.Deployment;
using OrchardCore.Modules;

namespace MyModule;

public sealed class Startup : StartupBase
{
    public override void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
    {
        services.AddDeployment<
            MySettingsDeploymentSource,
            MySettingsDeploymentStep,
            MySettingsDeploymentStepDriver>();
    }
}

AddDeployment<TSource, TStep, TDisplayDriver>() registers the source transiently, a deployment-step factory, derived JSON metadata, and the display driver. Use AddDeploymentWithoutSource<TStep, TDisplayDriver>() only for a step that has no source, such as RecipeFileDeploymentStep.

Deployment target handlers

An IDeploymentTargetHandler consumes a generated DeploymentPlanResult for a specific target. It is not a replacement for IDeploymentSource. Register it independently:

services.AddDeploymentTargetHandler<MyDeploymentTargetHandler>();

The framework Recipes module demonstrates this split by registering RecipeDeploymentTargetHandler, while the Deployment module registers plan sources and steps.