Some Best Practices While Upgrading Your Sitefinity CMS

Whenever we talk about upgrading our CMS website, the first thought that comes to our mind is that of a complex process that involves a lot of time and resource with of course a happy ending. But is this really true? Let’s see here.

Sitefinity is a popular CMS and progress releases latest versions of Sitefinity every year. The latest versions contain bug fixes, new features, hotfixes and also some security improvements. So, to take the advantage of the features of the new version, it is important to upgrade your site.

But there have always been some misconceptions that an upgrade is only concerned with uploading the new Sitefinity license. This is not the case. Upgrading involves updating to the latest version of Sitefinity libraries, database and configurations and all these needs expertise so that the entire process is smooth and without any hassles.

Upgrading your Sitefinity CMS to its latest version also ensures that your site offers some great features and functionalities that the CMS offers. Here in this blog, I will share with you the simple guidelines and tips that will make your Sitefinity CMS updating process easy:

Preparing for a Sitefinity Upgrade:

We all know that each website is unique and so they have customized structures to meet their basic needs. the latest versions of Sitefinity often come up with API changes for example the version 8.1 had major changes to the MVC namespace and 10.0 had major changes based on the authentication and social media buttons. In the version 11.1 there were changes made to the Workflow module and the Content Editing extensions.

Any customizations made to these will need code fixes as Sitefinity CMS development does not automatically update the custom code. So, when upgrading from one version to another, all the API changes of each version that lies in between are also applied. While upgrading your website, you should also upgrade the corresponding Microsoft .NET framework version depending on the compatibility of the version that is mentioned in the Sitefinity documentation.

Before Starting, Take a Backup of Content, Database and Website:

The next step that should be considered before upgrading to the latest version of Sitefinity is to take a backup of all your web content, database and design.  If by any chance anything goes wrong while updating the system, you can always restore back your previous status and therefore will not lose any important information of your site. Keeping a backup will save your business from the major hassle of countless hours and trying to rewrite the codes and content.

Perform the Upgrade:

Sitefinity CMS offers extensive documentation that helps in the upgradation process. The knowledge base articles address most of the common issues and the errors that users face during the process. If your site doesn’t use the Nuget packages, then the Sitefinity Project Manager Tool can be used for upgrading.  The tool offers a one click upgrade that helps to do the following things:

• Update the web references
• Get the new DLLs
• Update the configs

Test Everything before Publishing:

Before you make your site live, it is very important to check all your modules, custom codes, widgets and everything else that could possibly affect the upgrade process. A thorough testing is important to ensure that no existing functionality is broken and the key functionalities are identified and tested before the final release. It also helps to maintain a copy of the previous version and compare to identify the best performance.

 

Also Read: Top Reasons That Make Sitefinity a Favorite of Developers and Designers

 

You may also have to reset various settings when you upgrade. Some of your modules and widgets may be outdated and may not support your new version and this means that your website may not work or deliver as it did before. 

How IDS Logic can Help?

IDS Logic is an award winning Sitefinity development company and we have years of experience in handling various Sitefinity related projects.  It is our high quality service and complete support and maintenance for all our clients that we have earned a good repute in the market. We help all our clients to create scalable, robust and flexible Sitefinity websites that can help to take your business to a new level.