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Upgrade Preparation

While seasoned Exponent CMS experts can simply dive into an 'upgrade', most users will want to make adequate preparation BEFORE beginning the upgrade procedure.

  • Ensure your custom theme is actually a 'custom' theme and not simply one of the three shipped themes (simpletheme, bootstraptheme, or bootstrap3theme) since they will be overwritten when you extract the package. Here's how to make a custom theme.
  • If you've customized any system file (views) apart from those in the /themes folder, you'll need to 'move' them into your custom theme using the same general structure (theme customization override any system files).  Here's some info on theme customization.
  • Next, you'll want to make sure your custom theme is 2.x compliant. Though we've removed direct support for obsolete commands in custom themes it is possible to force the system to use a compatibility layer by adding the following line to your config.php file within the custom theme folder,
    • define("OLD_THEME_COMPATIBLE",'1');
    • Here's how to update your custom theme to v2.x compliant. The compatibility layer will warn you of most custom theme issues which need to be updated.
  • Next, you'll want to backup or export your current database using the Exponent menu. It's always a good idea to keep a recent backup .eql file. Though we won't overwrite the /files folder, it's also a good idea to keep a backup archive of it using the Files menu.

For most production servers, we recommend you first perform a 'test installation' before upgrading the production server.

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Testing a Version Upgrade

Since an offline web site means lost revenue and productivity, along with additional work-hours to get it back up and running...we recommend performing a 'test installation' before upgrading a production server.

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