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Deploy to major orgs

Deploy to major orgs

Minor and major branches

Minor branches are the individual git branches of the User Stories. They do not have an associated CI/CD org.

Major branches are the git branches that have an associated CI/CD org: each new commit in a major branch automatically triggers a deployment to that org.

Release flow from minor branches to major branches and their orgs

Examples:

  • Minor to major: when a Pull Request (Merge Request on GitLab) from feature/crm-123 to integration (A) is validated and merged, a new state (commit) is detected in branch integration, so the CI server automatically deploys to the Integration org (B)
  • Major to major: when a Pull Request from integration to uat (C) is validated and merged, a new state (commit) is detected in branch uat, so the CI server automatically deploys to the UAT org (D)
  • Major to major: when a Pull Request from uat to preprod (E) is validated and merged, a new state (commit) is detected in branch preprod, so the CI server automatically deploys to the Preprod org (F)
  • Major to major: when a Pull Request from preprod to main (G) is validated and merged, a new state (commit) is detected in branch main, so the CI server automatically deploys to the Production org (H)

Pull Requests between major branches

A Pull Request between two major branches promotes everything that has been merged into the source branch since its last promotion: all the User Stories, their tickets and their deployment actions.

In the DevOps Pipeline panel of the VS Code SFDX Hardis extension, click a major branch to see what it contains: the merged Pull Requests, the related tickets and the deployment actions, with Preview Release Notes and Generate Release Notes buttons.

Pull Requests merged in a major branch, seen from the DevOps Pipeline

  • Create a new Pull Request from the source major branch to the target major branch
    • Set a meaningful title, like MAJOR: uat to preprod or MAJOR: preprod to production
    • Make sure that Delete source branch after merge and Squash commits are UNCHECKED
  • Submit the Pull Request
  • The control jobs start automatically. They should pass, as the Pull Requests from the minor branches already passed them
    • If a job fails, you usually need to perform manual actions in the target org, like activating a feature, or renaming elements when metadata API names have been renamed (a bad practice, but it happens)
  • Check the deployment actions carried by the promotion: automated actions run by themselves at deployment time, and the manual steps still to perform are listed as checkboxes in the Pull Request comments
  • Once all jobs succeed, merge the Pull Request
    • The merge automatically triggers the deployment to the associated Salesforce org
  • If your project publishes Release Notes, generate them from the major branch window of the DevOps Pipeline

For urgent fixes that cannot wait for the next promotion, see Hotfixes and retrofit.