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www.Webiplex.com
Joined: 8/17/2006
Posts: 8
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I've read alot of posts and the installation upgrade guide and am still confused. I apologize in advance if this is redundant. I have a server where I'm hosting a bunch of sites and I have custom modules developed in .NET 1.1 and DNN 3.3. Needless to say, I'm very concerned about how to upgrade this server.
A couple basic questions, which I'll try to ask easy multiple choice questions for the DNN gurus.
1. Considering I originally installed w/ the 3.3 Install.zip (i.e. non-source), do I use the:
a) "Install.zip"
b) "Upgrade.zip"
2. I do understand that I then transfer all of the necessary config entries, such as database and keys, or
a) I do not need to do this with the "Upgrade.zip"
b) Still need to do this with "Upgrade.zip" but just transfer the entries to release.config then overwrite my web.config
c) Use "Install.zip" just make a backup of my original Web.config and transfer my entries from my backup to the current web.config.
3. Once I have unzipped the file, updated the web.config correctly, and then go to my site home page in IE, the DNN code will:
a) Upgrade the database structure
b) Check for new modules that need to be installed
c) Other: _____ (please fill in)
d) All of the above.
4. I reviewed the Install.zip of 4.4. I went to the install/module area and there appears to be some that do not exist anymore. Like the "contacts", "events", "feedback", "gallery", etc.. So:
a) These are gone forever
b) If I want the latest versions of these I need to download then add them manually
c) I MUST download and replace them because the 3.3 versions I have on my site(s) will not work.
d) I'm screwed and should not even try to upgrade.
5. My custom modules were developed in version .NET 1.1. All that is required is:
a) I rebuild them as 2.0 and just copy over the DesktopModules/... module directory.
b) I don't have to do anything because they'll work fine still w/ binary compatibility in 2.0
c) Create entirely new modules, tell customers to redo the instances on their site.
I also saw a post where somebody reported that NO DNN upgrade has ever NOT create a site destroying problem. I read the thread and it sounds like an error on his part, but posts like this are scary. It would be nice to have this all in a nice little matrix with "What you have" on the Y axis and "What you want to get to" on the X axis. If I can figure at least my scenario out, maybe that's a start.
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1. Use the Install Package, upgrade doesn't have a web.config and the config from 3.3 and 4.4 should be quite different.
2. See answer 1, and your #2C
3. D, but you also need to change your IIS application over to run on ASP.NET 2.0
4. Modules that were compiled on 1.1 should run without issue on 2.0 installs.
5. Answer should be B, but always test on a staging platform somewhere
I upgrade sites all the time, without "destroying" anything. But I ALWAYS recommend you perform the upgrade in a test environment first, and make sure everything works as you want it to.
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www.Webiplex.com
Joined: 8/17/2006
Posts: 8
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That is fantastic news and great info, thanks so much Chris.
It's great in your answer on #4 that the modules will still work. I'm still curious though, if you know...
1. Were these modules left out of the new 4.4 install simply for "load time" issues?
2. Or, are they being deprecated? It seams like some of these are pretty core.
3. Are the modules with the .resources extensions the place holders that show what you could install in the new modules page? If so, why weren't all those old ones in the same directory as .resources?
Again, it's great that the old modules will work, I'm just wondering what the intent was in no longer including them.
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www.swanzey.com
Joined: 9/10/2003
Posts: 454
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My take from here has been flawless upgrades of the similar type you're trying to do (3.2.2 to 4.3.7), so they are possible. But, a couple of things that I maybe did differently were the following.
* upgrade to the top level of the major version first, then cross-over to the next step. I.e., I upgraded v3.2.2 to v3.37, then upgraded v3.37 to v4.37.
* the latest talk is to hold off of a v4.40 upgrade and wait for v4.41, especially if using any Inventua modules (and maybe DMX, but not entirely sure about that)
* one thing that I found helpful since the above-described 2-step upgrade was going to take so long was to FIRST upload a file named App_Offline.htm to the root, and then switch the site to .net2. The beauty of that is that only .net2 recognizes App_Offline.htm, so it makes it OK to make the switch to .net2 the first step, as well as having a graceful way to perform the upgrades because of what App_Offline.htm offers.
* App_Offline.htm is only recognized by .net2 (not .net1.1). It is a traditional htm file that can contain any message you want (such as "sorry, the site will be back in a moment..."), and when you have everything ready to go, just rename it to App_Offline.htm.txt or something, and IS will behave as usual and deliver the intended web site.
Hope this helps.
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RobertR101 wrote
That is fantastic news and great info, thanks so much Chris.
It's great in your answer on #4 that the modules will still work. I'm still curious though, if you know...
1. Were these modules left out of the new 4.4 install simply for "load time" issues?
2. Or, are they being deprecated? It seams like some of these are pretty core.
3. Are the modules with the .resources extensions the place holders that show what you could install in the new modules page? If so, why weren't all those old ones in the same directory as .resources?
Again, it's great that the old modules will work, I'm just wondering what the intent was in no longer including them.
The intent to not include them by default is to minimize server load times for all the sites that don't use each of those modules. You can still install them and use them, they just don't install by default for all of the sites that never use them. Honestly, most DNN sites don't need the store module, blog module, forums module, gallery module, etc, basic DNN sites get the Text/HTML, search results, and a few other modules, and never touch the other modules. By not including them by default with the install this allows the asp.net processes to start up faster, without having to compile code that will never run on a site.
I may be wrong here, but you can probably rename the modules that are .resources to .zip, and upload them as you normally would, I'll try to verify this.
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