Managing the Move of Career Site Settings from Stage to Production

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to manage the move of career site settings from Stage to Production.

From Stage to Production

After you have received written signoff from the customer, you are ready to move the career site configuration from the stage environment to production.

Push to Prod Spreadsheet

Follow the instructions in the spreadsheet located on SAP PartnerEdge: RMK CSB Push to Prod and Launch Tasks.

Example of an RMK CSB Push to Prod and Launch Tasks Spreadsheet showing different tasks, system, task owners, notes, site redesign information, and new implementation information. Details are explained below.

The following are some general considerations when moving the career site from stage to production:

Note that generating the SSL certificate is no longer pre-work. This is now the first step after importing the stage site to production.
Sections are provided in the spreadsheet for: Move to Production, Production Site Testing, and Launch.
Columns are provided for: New Implementation and for Site Redesign (re-implementations).
Prerequisite tasks ("pre-work") are marked on the spreadsheet. Notice that you will do the "site setup" steps (including Recruiter SSO and Real Time Job Sync) in production before beginning this process. The subdomain should be checked well before the cutover date to avoid delays.
The tasks are marked by the system in which the action is performed.
Many steps can be done concurrently.
Within Career Site Builder, you will export from the stage (source) instance and import to the production (target) instance.
You will need to have at least two jobs created and posted externally on production. (Note that you will need a full job collection to properly complete this task.)
Steps that require additional explanation are included in this section.

Important: Blackout Period

SAP SuccessFactors releases code to Preview before it is released to production. Once an update has gone into Preview, feel free to test new features but do NOT push to production until after the update occurs on the production site. Career Site Builder displays a message and prevents your request. Mismatched files can cause your career site to break, preventing you from importing them into the production environment.

For SAP SuccessFactors release dates, visit the Customer Community SAP SuccessFactors Product Release and Road Map page.

Career Site Builder Import and Export Functions

The Tools→Import & Export menu allows you to copy from a Career Site Builder instance. There are a number of uses for this functionality:

Move the final career site from stage to production, or from any "source" to "target" environment.
It is leading practice to occasionally create an export while making updates in CSB. This allows you to revert to that version, if necessary.
After go live, the customer can test new configurations in stage and then move them to production.
Export the settings without the images to create a blank site template for future use.

On the Export tab, there are three export options: Site Settings, Career Site Builder Settings, and Category Pages.

On the Import tab, there are three import options: Site Settings, Career Site Builder Settings, and Category Pages.

Import and Export Options

The Import and Export options include the following:

Site Settings: Exports settings that configure the site, including settings that implement and integrate the career site with SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting.
Career Site Builder Settings: The Source options determine where the site data included in the export file comes from. As currently configured uses Career Site Builder settings as they are saved right now. From a previous configuration: Uses the Career Site Builder settings that were backed up prior to an import on the selected date, with some exceptions. See the help text in CSB for details. The Contents checkboxes allow you to configure which site settings are included in the export file, such as Fonts, Images, and Email Layouts. You will usually select all options to export.
Category pages: This option exports all of the category page information. When you import this XML export file back in through CSB, it either adds new categories or overwrites the existing category pages with the same name. Any new category pages you created after you exported the file are not overwritten. This replaces the manual process that used to be required.
For example, when you now import category pages from a preview to production environment and the categories exist in both, the Preview version now automatically overwrites the Production category pages.

Translations Import & Export

Also remember to import and export the Translations XML from CSB→Tools→Translations. This file contains any replacements that the customer made to "system text" that appears on Career Site Builder sites.

Remember to import and export the Translation XML. On the Translation page, choose the Export or Import button.

Stage Environment XML Exports

The process is to export four separate XML files from your customer’s stage instance (the source) and save the files locally. In some cases, you need to edit the XML file. Then, you import the XML files to your customer’s production instance (the target). You export XML files from Tools→Import & Exportin the source (stage) instance.

Export XML files from the Stage Environment in the following order:

Site Settings* (file name: SiteExport)
Career Site Builder Settings* Typically, you choose As currently configured, and check the boxes on the right. (file name: SiteBuilderExport)
Category Pages (file name: CategoryExport)
Translations from Tools→Translations (file name: TranslationOverrideExport)

Note

To maintain site integrity, always export Site Settings and Career Site Builder Settings together. There are some things, like Search configurations, that for legacy/historical reasons, are in Site Settings, not Career Site Builder Settings.

Source and Target Settings in Career Site Builder

The Import process will overwrite some of the settings in the Target environment.
Update the values in these fields in the SiteExport XML file with the values from the target instance before importing:＜name＞,＜portalurl＞,＜agentemailaddress＞,＜companyname＞,＜sitefolder＞,＜phrasefilterback＞.
Hint
You may want to export Site Settings from the target instance to compare these values before importing.
The error shown in the following figure was received when the import was attempted without first updating the values in the import file.

Stage Instance Links

Remember that the leading practice is to use relative links whenever possible. A slash (/) represents "home" and "/search/" indicates an all-jobs search. If the source instance contains links that are not relative links, those will need to be updated in the target instance. For example, it’s not common to include links to landing pages on the CSB site, but if this is done in the source instance you’ll need to update the links for the target instance, as there is no link type that can be used for landing pages.

To check if any links need to be replaced, search the SiteBuilderExport XML file for the source instance URL. If you find any links containing the source site URL, ideally, go back to the Career Site Builder source instance and change these to relative links. (Refer to instructions on relative links in the unit in this course that focuses on Build the Career Site.)

If you cannot replace all links with relative links in the source CSB instance, then replace any source links that will be imported into the target instance with the correct links for that environment in the SiteBuilderExport XML file. Also communicate this to the customer so they know to make the replacements when they export in the future. Alternatively, if you don't replace the links in the SiteBuilderExport XML file before importing to production, after importing you can update the link in CSB in the production environment. Again, be sure to let the customer know they will have to do this in the future when they export from stage to production.

Custom URLs are generally found in the following areas:

Headers
Footers
Logo
Any component that contains an External type link, including links to landing pages

Summary

After customer signoff, the Career Site Builder configuration should be moved from stage to production, ensuring that all required production-level setup, such as authentication and job synchronization, is completed beforehand, the subdomain is validated early, and the SSL certificate is generated once the import is finished.
Site copies between environments can be managed through CSB import and export, and it is best practice to create regular exports for rollback purposes or to generate a reusable template by exporting without images.
Before importing CSB configuration files, certain target-environment values should be updated directly in the Site Settings file, and any links referencing the source environment should be reviewed and replaced with relative or target-appropriate URLs to ensure consistency across headers, footers, logos, and external-link components.

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