Copying Custom Content Types and associated site columns to another site

Question

I built out several content types and the associated custom cite columns on a development site.  I need to move them to our pre-prod site for testing.  I thougth I would be able to use SharePoint Designer and just drag and drop or use the export/import features. 

This does not seem to be the case.  Anyone have any ideas on how my end goal couldbe reached outside of creating a feature?

Answer 1

1) Backup/restore the whole site (if you do not do custom dev (features, SharePoint solution)) why bother recreating manually everything between environments.

2) Backup/Restore the site collection with the content types on the new farm. Create a content type hub to publish the content types to the sites you wish on the new farm.

3) I really recommend using a feature. You can simply save the site as template, then open the generated .wsp with Visual Studio and remove all the elements and leave only the feature with the needed content types and site columns.  

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Florin DUCA - MCSE 2003 +Sec,MCTS conf/dev WSS3/MOSS, MCITP/MCPD SP 2010, MCPD ASP.Net 3.5, MCTS ISA 2006 - Logica Business Consulting, France