I am interested to know if the community generally feels there is value in DNN delivering a formal upgrade utility. My interest from this comes from the following thread:

http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Resources/F...

(My plea for an upgrade utility is lost in that thread so I wanted to elevate it here to see if I am a lone voice).

It has been a real pain to upgrade to DNN 6.0 yet the prevailing wisdom from the DNN side seems to be "it's really easy - just copy the files" - followed by a bunch of "oh, but don't forget this. And this. And that...".

As the associated thread has indicated, it is FAR from easy, apart maybe from in "the lab" (as opposed to real world). My own upgrade took a good deal of effort and concluded in a 1 1/4 hour support discussion with a support professional (I have a Professional subscription) which uncovered all sorts of fun things, none of which were unusual or specific to my environment (the "wackiest" would be the use of Ifinity URL Master but even that is pretty common).

I am of the very strong opinion that DNN should deliver a formal upgrade utility with each release that:

• Verifies the appropriate version is installed for an upgrade
• Verifies the integrity of the existing installation
• Checks for installation of custom modules and, at least, provides a warning (for example, IFinity has a version that supports DNN 6.0 - all I needed was a friendly reminder to check and the penny would have dropped). Even better would be some sort of knowledge of upgrade implications for common modules.
• Downloads the appropriate files (version and Community/Professional)
• Offers to stop the web service while the upgrade takes place
• Upgrades in a transactional fashion (any problems mean the upgrade is completely rolled back)
• Checks the integrity of the upgraded site

I suspect there is much more an upgrade utility can do. But each step above that is not automated is an opportunity for error, human or otherwise. I know!

Frankly, it was surprising and disappointing to me that a product that has been around in various forms for a decade or so doesn't have a mature upgrade utility. It is still more surprising that, despite experiences like my own (I am SURE I am not alone) and multiple issues folks have with upgrades as indicated by forums, the implication remains "it's easy".

So - lone voice?

Mark

Thank you, Cathal. That's great to know (the fact that it's on the roadmap - not so much that it's getting punted :)). I understand that these are tough choices but it could be argued that the lack of an effective upgrade mechanism is a blocker to folks experiencing the joy of all those more important features :)

BTW, it would be cool if folks could understand that delivering the "it's easy" message to a very frustrated customer is, er, frustrating. And the fact that an upgrade story is on the roadmap, I think, speaks to that. If it truly, truly was as easy as just copying files (as has been suggested by three folks on that other thread) then a) there would be no call for an upgrade utility and b) it presumably wouldn't be on the roadmap.

Thanks again and I hope the feedback is useful.

Mark