Content Deployment does not fix links (at import) when the source has been deployed with features

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I ran into this last week when making a spot check on the "content deployment destination", the links and images that were supplied by authors in the Publishing Html fields were still pointing at the "source".  It turns out that Content Deployment doesn't work correctly when using features.

 

Here's a quick rundown of the issue:  The "source" or authoring farm is a single-server SharePoint farm where we have deployed site columns, content types, page layouts, master pages, along with images & stylesheets.  The destination is a multiple server farm that simply receives the unactivated feature on a blank site and we use content deployment to bring the content along with activating the feature.

 

So far, the issue is only on links in RichHtmlField columns for both links and images.  Unfortunately, there is no fix for this yet from Microsoft and it's not planned (yet, we are pushing!).  The only OOB workaround is to create your links, in your authoring environment, to point directly for your destination.  Obviously, that's less than ideal.  I'll work on an HttpModule to do a RegEx to replace "source" to "destination" and the issue will disappear in a not-so-elegant-but-works-great way :)  I'll post it when I'll have the time.

 

Maxime