The future upgrade process

[alexh]

Hello,

So I have been adding several new implementations to my existing formtools installation.

I am wondering what the upgrade process is going to involve when the time comes to upgrade to the release version of 2.1

Will this be seamless via an upgrade function, and I assume the remaining modules will all be compatible right?

I have adapted the current theme to display my organization's logo at the top as well and am hoping that will stay put ;-)

So excited to upgrade soon!

[Ben]

Hi Alex,

Good question. Initially I'd hoped it would be completely seamless, but it turns out that that wasn't possible. I really did try to keep everything as close to the old version as possible without sacrificing any functionality.

This page outlines the changes:
http://docs.formtools.org/upgrading/?page=2_1_0

I'd say the most intrusive change was the impact on the Export Manager. Unfortunately, due to the (totally different) way the field types are now handled, all the old export manager templates will no longer work, so you need to use the "reset to defaults" functionality to start anew.
http://modules.formtools.org/export_mana...2upgrading

All the best -

Ben

[Ben]

Hey Alex,

Ooh.. one other thing:

I have adapted the current theme to display my organization's logo at the top as well and am hoping that will stay put ;-)

Unfortunately not. The templates are TOTALLY different in 2.1 - it has way, way more functionality than 2.0.x and all the pages have been re-written. So I'm afraid that if you want to keep your templates, you'd need to re-merge in your old changes.

You may well want to hang onto 2.0.6 and just use 2.1 for new installations.

Sorry...

- Ben "Bringer of Bad News" Keen

[alexh]

Ugh... thanks Bad News Ben ;-)

Reading the changes, I think I'll probably be able to work with it. I really want to add some functionality to my existing applications (such as google maps, etc), so I really want to upgrade and not just use it for future installations.

So worse comes to worse I'll have to modify the export manager stuff to display it like I want, modify the theme again.. no biggie right?

One question though, so I understand it right.. the date field still stores the date data in mysql the same way right? I am pulling the dates from the database on a webpage and re-writing the format the way I want it to display. I'm guessing that will still work right?

Thanks Ben!

[Ben]

Hey Alex,

Nah! Upgrading your theme shouldn't be too much work - but it all depends on how much modification you did in the first place. Personally, I found updating the Deep Blue & Classic Grey themes surprisingly little work - and they're pretty custom, compared to the default theme.

One quick tip. When it comes to updating your theme, don't try tweaking what you already had - the new templates are too different. Instead, make a new copy of the /default theme, delete the /admin and /client folders and modify that. When you delete those two folders, Form Tools will automatically all of the missing files from the default theme - and you shouldn't really ever need to override individual files: the important styles and templates are outside of those files. This has the added benefit of making your theme more likely to be consistent with upgrades to the default templates.

One question though, so I understand it right.. the date field still stores the date data in mysql the same way right? I am pulling the dates from the database on a webpage and re-writing the format the way I want it to display. I'm guessing that will still work right?

Yes... but to be totally clear: the Core date fields (Submission Date & Last Modified Date) are unchanged (not any custom date form field that you may have defined).

Let me know if you have any questions!

- Ben

[alexh]

Cool, I will go about it that way. I didn't do a whole lot to it.. I just customized header logo and bar on the default theme.. putting our organization's logo on it and changing the color of the bar. Nothing complicated :-)

I'm looking forward to playing with the new date field stuff.

-Alex

Hey Alex,

Nah! Upgrading your theme shouldn't be too much work - but it all depends on how much modification you did in the first place. Personally, I found updating the Deep Blue & Classic Grey themes surprisingly little work - and they're pretty custom, compared to the default theme.

One quick tip. When it comes to updating your theme, don't try tweaking what you already had - the new templates are too different. Instead, make a new copy of the /default theme, delete the /admin and /client folders and modify that. When you delete those two folders, Form Tools will automatically all of the missing files from the default theme - and you shouldn't really ever need to override individual files: the important styles and templates are outside of those files. This has the added benefit of making your theme more likely to be consistent with upgrades to the default templates.

One question though, so I understand it right.. the date field still stores the date data in mysql the same way right? I am pulling the dates from the database on a webpage and re-writing the format the way I want it to display. I'm guessing that will still work right?

Yes... but to be totally clear: the Core date fields (Submission Date & Last Modified Date) are unchanged (not any custom date form field that you may have defined).

Let me know if you have any questions!

- Ben