Deploying a content type and site columns with a WSP in MOSS

Question

I'm looking for a clean, and repeatable, solution to deploying custom site columns and content types to MOSS using a WSP. I've currently split up my product into two Visual Studio solutions. The first contains the code itself where the second will contain the XML files required to describe the site columns and content types.

Answer 1

We use Vsewss for this, there is also a tool WSP Builder. Both of these tools will help you build the xml and wsp files.

We then create setup projects that build an MSI to deploy these files and run the activation.

Answer 2

You might consider merging the code and the other files into one VS solution. This is often easier to manage and will allow you to leverage either VseWss, WSP Builder, PowerShell or .bat files to aid with building and deploying the .WSP file.