Does the package.xml file in Habitat project help to deploy to server and how?

Question

I'm able to update the package.xml using below script in command-line:

gulp -b "D:\projects\Habitat" --color --gulpfile "D:\projects\Habitat\Gulpfile-ci.js" CI-Do-magic

package.xml is located here on Github - https://github.com/Sitecore/Habitat/blob/master/package.xml

Please help in understanding the purpose of package.xml and how it is used for deployment (if it is meant for it)?

Answer 1

I believe the use of this package is internal to Sitecore employees who maintain and publish the demo on GitHub: https://github.com/Sitecore/Habitat/releases

They update the file, upload it to Sitecore, manually create a Sitecore package with it and upload that package to GitHub. Maybe they to the above automatically using custom CI tasks.

I have done some work with the scripts used to generate this package some months ago. I found out the users/roles are not included in the file anymore. That's a problem of recent official Habitat packages from some time.

Answer 2

After reading @jflheureux's answer and little bit digging around Habitat release package.

First Aha!, it is a Sitecore package definition file which contains everything - content items, security items, files. Second Aha!, we can Generate Package using Sitecore Rocks by using package.xml which is a similar process as Package Designer in Sitecore Desktop.

To test this:

I just had to rename package.xml to HabitatBuild.package and open this file using Visual Studio with Sitecore Rocks preinstalled.

Manual steps to make this working:

1. Rename package.xml to HabitatBuild.package
2. Open Visual Studio
3. Make sure you have Sitecore Rocks extension installed in Visual Studio
4. Make sure you have Sitecore website connection added in Sitecore Explorer
5. Open HabitatBuild.package in Visual Studio
6. Select the Sitecore website for connection in pop-up dialog
7. Click on Build button

Still, I need to find out how to automate this process.

Thanks again @jflheureux for helping indirectly :)

Update

We can use the Package Designer directly with package.xml, just drop the file in Data/packages folder of Sitecore instance and Open the package.xml from Package Designer and generate the package.