Exporting and importing sites

Development model: MVC Portal Engine
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You can export and import website content and settings from one Kentico instance to another. You can use the import and export features to manually move websites or selected objects between development, testing and production (live) servers.

Moving objects between servers

Exporting MVC sites

You cannot use the export and import features to fully transfer sites created using the MVC development model.

The export does not include the files of the MVC project that handles the presentation of the the live site. You can use the export to transfer the content and objects stored for the site in the Kentico database, but you need to deploy the related MVC project manually (using FTP, the Visual Studio Publish function, or another deployment option).

See also: Deploying MVC sites

Exporting between different Kentico versions

When transferring data via import packages, we strongly recommend using exactly the same version for all of your instances. Importing of packages between different versions is possible with the following limitations:

  • You can import packages exported from older versions of Kentico, but the support only extends back to the previous major version. For example, only packages from Kentico 11 and 12 can be imported to Kentico 12.
  • You CANNOT import packages from newer versions to older versions (including minor hotfix versions).

Learn more

General

Export folder structure – learn how the folder structure of the Kentico web project is affected during export and import.

Export/import package directory browsing – protect your exported packages against file enumeration attacks.

Excluding files and folders from export – you can leave out specific files and folders from the export.

Export

Exporting sites – export entire websites, including their settings and related objects.

Exporting objects – export only selected objects (web parts, page types, page templates, etc.).

Exporting single objects – you can export certain objects individually to create backups (for example CSS stylesheets, Email templates or Page layouts).

Import

Importing a site or objects – import exported website packages or object packages.

Importing to web application projects – you need to take additional steps when importing into Kentico instances installed in the web application format.

Export and ID values

The system cannot ensure that pages and objects have the same ID values after being exported from one environment to another. However, the export process preserves GUID values. Use GUID fields if you need to identify pages or objects that have been transferred across multiple environments.