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Upgrading to Episerver 7.5 CMS

This document describes the upgrading procedure for updating an existing solution with EPiServer CMS to version 7.5. The procedure covers the upgrading from EPiServer CMS version 7/7.1, including existing add-ons and other EPiServer products installed on the website. The upgrading is done from the EPiServer Deployment Center, the Add-on Store inside EPiServer, and the NuGet feed if you are using this for your solution.

Possible upgrading scenarios:

  • From EPiServer 6 R2 CMS > upgrade to EPiServer 7 CMS > upgrade to EPiServer 7.5 CMS
  • From EPiServer 7 CMS > upgrade to 7.5 CMS
  • From EPiServer 7.1 CMS > upgrade to 7.5 CMS 

Note: The procedure below describes the sequence in which the upgrading is done. If you do not have a product or add-on (CMO, Mail, Relate etc) mentioned below installed on your site, skip that step and continue to the next step in the procedure. Refer to Upgrading to EPiServer 7.5 Commerce for information on how to upgrade EPiServer websites with Commerce installed.

General upgrading procedure

  1. Before starting the upgrade to EPiServer 7.5, ensure that the add-ons are upgraded to the latest version, as listed in the Add-ons Store.
  2. Download and extract the EPiServer 7.5 installation package, and run the Setup.exe file.
  3. Open the EPiServer Deployment Center and go to the All Actions tab.
  4. To upgrade CMS, expand the options for EPiServer CMS version 7.5 (latest). Select Upgrade site with SQL database, click Run and let the upgrade finalize.
  5. If you have the following add-ons installed:
    • Live Monitor: expand the options for EPiServer CMS version 7.5 (latest), select Modules > Install Live Monitor, click Run and let the upgrade finalize.
    • CMO: expand the options for EPiServer CMS version 7.5 (latest), select Upgrade to EPiServer CMO 7.5, click Run and let the upgrade finalize.
    • Mail: expand the options for EPiServer Mail version 7.5 (latest), select Upgrade to EPiServer Mail 7.5, click Run and let the upgrade finalize.
    • Community/Relate: expand the options for EPiServer Community version 7.5 (latest), select Upgrade to EPiServer Community 7.5, click Run and let the upgrade finalize.
  6. If you have been using NuGet for updates in your project, you also need to update your NuGet dependencies. For Commerce, it is now possible to install a NuGet package from here as well, to manage future updates.
  7. If you have not been using NuGet, and your project is based on the Alloy templates, install the NuGet packages as follows:
    1. Make sure you have a saved Visual Studio solution file (this is required to make the NuGet tools available).
    2. Make sure you have the EPiServer NuGet Feed set up (see Installing Episerver Updates).
    3. In Solution Explorer > References context menu, select Manage NuGet Packages.
    4. In the list of available packages, locate the package to install (for instance EPiServer.CMS.Core).
    5. Click Install and accept the license terms.
    6. Rebuild the project.
  8. Compile your project and correct any compilation errors listed. Refer to the details in the compilation message and the breaking changes sections in the SDKs for EPiServer Framework and CMS.
  9. When all installed products have been upgraded, select Upgrade/Disable Add-ons after Product Upgrade under EPiServer CMS version 7.5. This will disable any "regular" add-ons such as EPiServer Languages or Google Analytics for EPiServer, and upgrade the system-addons shipped with the upgraded products.
  10. Go to the Add-ons section on your EPiServer website, and click Enable for the installed add-ons that were disabled in the previous step. This will upgrade add-ons to the latest version, or enable add-ons that are already compatible. Refer to Add-ons command line support in the Add-ons section of the Framework SDK if you experience problems with this step.
  11. If your site contains VPP-based files, apply the VPP migration tool to migrate files to use the new asset API in EPiServer 7.5. Refer to Migrating VPP-based files to the new media system in the Upgrading section of the EPiServer CMS SDK.

Notifications

  • If you want to manually upgrade the database, you need to run the following two SQL scripts:
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\EPiServer\Framework\7.5.394.2\Upgrade\Database\sql
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\EPiServer\CMS\7.5.394.2\Upgrade\Database\sql
  • If you have disabled the EPiServer change log feature, you will need to go to the CMS admin view and disable this again after the upgrade, since this will automatically set the change log state to default "enabled".
  • If you are using EPiServer Web Services on your site: In EPiServer Deployment Center, expand the Modules options under EPiServer CMS version 7.5 (latest), and select Install EPiServer Web Services. Click Run and let the upgrade finalize in order to add EPiServer Web Services on the upgraded site.

After upgrading

EPiServer scheduler service

In EPiServer 7.5 CMS, the EPiServer scheduler service has been removed. Instead, the EPiServer scheduler service has been made available as a separate download, to be used if you are running EPiServer 7 CMS on the same server as EPiServer 7.5. The download is needed to make the scheduled jobs execute. The EPiServer 7 scheduler service (Legacy) can be downloaded from Episerver World.

Rendering of required client resources

Site templates must be updated to render required client resources for default areas Header and Footer. This is recommended to enable EPiServer CMO, Live Monitor and other modules and add-ons that require script and style injections on pages.
Usually it is enough to add special placeholders for the client resource injections to the sites master page. One placeholder should be placed inside the <head> tag and another one before the closing </body> tag.

Use the following WebControls on ASP.NET Web Forms pages:

<%@ Master Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeBehind="Site.master.cs" Inherits="EPiServer.Templates.Alloy.Views.MasterPages.Site" %>
<html>
<head runat="server">
...
<strong><EPiServer:RequiredClientResources RenderingArea="Header" ID="RequiredResourcesHeader" runat="server" /></strong>
</head>
<body>
...

<strong><EPiServer:RequiredClientResources RenderingArea="Footer" ID="RequiredResourcesFooter" runat="server" /></strong>
</body>
</html>

Use the following HTML helpers on ASP.NET MVC pages:

<%@ Master Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewMasterPage" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="EPiServer.Framework.Web" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="EPiServer.Framework.Web.Mvc.Html" %>
<html>
<head runat="server">
...
<strong><%= Html.RequiredClientResources(RenderingTags.Header) %></strong>
</head>
<body>
...

<strong><%= Html.RequiredClientResources(RenderingTags.Footer)%></strong>
</body>
</html>

See also