Retain Items and item history on feature re-deployment

Question

Using SharePoint feature/solution I have created a list instance with 4 fields and is currently in production.
I got a request to add another 3 fields to existing list instance so making it 7 fields now.
While deploying the updated package the data and its version history is vanished too.
Is there any other way to retain data/version history and also add 3 new columns to the list schema?
One way is to do it with Powershell but just wondering if there is anything provided by SharePoint deployment of features?

Answer 1

Hi,
Solution re-deployment will extract the old list instance, create a new list instance, therefore, the data with version history will lose.
A workaround is that you can export the existing list items with version history to somewhere, re-deployment, then import these items back.
Two links about accessing list items using PowerShell for your reference:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rcormier/archive/2012/11/16/how-to-copy-sharepoint-documents-between-site-collections-using-powershell.aspx
http://get-spscripts.com/2011/10/copy-sharepoint-lists-and-document.html
What I would recommend is that, if you just want to update a list instance(not list definition), add fields using PowerShell would be an easier and cleaner way. In
this way, it could be finished with just a few lines of script without extract and deploy the solution in your environment, what’s more, there is no need to worry about the data loss in the process.
About how to add fields using PowerShell:
http://adicodes.com/add-fields-to-list-with-powershell-in-sharepoint-2010/
Thanks
Patrick Liang
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