You can manually upgrade an existing installation of FileVista to the latest version without losing your settings (e.g. license) and data (e.g. users, groups, events and root folder definitions). The update wizard will automatically update your database structure for the target version. As the root folders are just pointers to the actual physical paths (e.g. C:\folder or //server/folder), FileVista will be able to access the root folders after the upgrade as long as the pointed paths are not relocated. Please follow the below upgrade instructions:
- Download and save latest version of FileVista-vX.X-WebDeploy.zip from the download page to the target web server .
- Go to App_Data subfolder under your current (installed and working) FileVista folder and open the configuration file FileVista.config with a text editor such as Notepad. Determine the type of database in use by looking at the value of the ConnectionString setting. The configured database can be either a SQL Server database or an embedded database (.mdb file for versions before 4.0 or .vdb4 file for versions after 4.0).
- Make a backup copy of the whole FileVista folder so that you can roll back if anything goes wrong. If you have root folders stored under the FileVista folder (not recommended), then you can skip them when making the backup copy because only application specific files and folders will be changed (remember that these root folders should not be deleted in step 3). If your current installation is configured to use a SQL Server database (as you found out in step 1), then also make a backup copy of the SQL Server database with the help of SQL Management Studio. This step is required so that in the event of an upgrade failure you can restore the working state of the old version of the application by simply restoring the backed up FileVista folder and the backed up SQL Server database if any.
- Delete all files and subfolders except App_Data (and except root folders if any) under the FileVista folder. If you have custom files (e.g. custom language files), you can restore them after step 6 from the backup copy you made in step 2. When restoring these custom files, please make sure they are compatible with the new version (e.g. add the new strings to the language files if required). If you have custom settings in web.config, then move these specific settings to the new version of the file after step 6.
- Open the downloaded FileVista-vX.X-WebDeploy.zip and browse the FileVista subfolder in the zip. Copy all files and subfolders except App_Data from the zip to the FileVista folder.
- After copying the new files, you should be able to run the update wizard for finishing the upgrade. Note that starting with version 4.1, minimum ASP.NET 4.0 is required so please make sure it’s installed on the web server and it’s the selected ASP.NET version for the application pool in IIS before starting the update wizard. Run update.aspx directly in your browser and follow the update wizard. The wizard may require you to remove IsConfigurationCompleted setting (whole line) from FileVista.config before allowing you to proceed. After removing this setting, refresh the page to proceed. The wizard will automatically detect your previous version and apply the necessary changes to the database structure and files to match the new version. When upgrading from an old major version to a new one (e.g. from v3.x to v4.x), you will be asked for a new license key to continue the update wizard. You will be able to click a special link on the update page to see your upgrade options (you may be eligible for a free license key). After the update wizard is completed, restart your browser and open FileVista again in your browser. Now you are ready for logging into the new version.
Article ID: 7, Created On: 11/19/2010, Modified: 11/19/2010