dotCMS - Open Source Content Management System, Ondemand CMS, and Professional Support

Updating the dotCMS

Updating your dotCMS is typically a fairly easy process. Obviously if you have altered dotCMS code the process can be a little harder but assuming you have your changes in version control or all recorded the process should still remain very manageable.  The document assumes you are either checked out from dotCMS svn repositories or that you are running dotCMS from the released zip downloads provided on dotcms.org.

Brief History of dotCMS Upgrading

dotCMS is continually seeking to provide easier and better ways to upgrade and maintian dotCMS systems. Prior to 1.6 dotCMS wasn't released as often as it currently and patches were more difficult to apply.  With 1.6 dotCMS started releasing minor versions providing small improvements and bug fixes as necessary.  These minor versions still required an upgrade to them to apply though. While the upgrade wasn't complex it was still an upgrade. 

Current dotCMS Patch Thinking

dotCMS 1.6.5 has tried to address this issue by providing patches.  Most software patches itself for example in Windows you have everyone's friend known as Windows Update.  Even your browsers patch themselves you may be running Firefox 3 but it is usually a build or patch beyond the original release of the version. This is the direction dotCMS has taken. If you download the ziped release of dotCMS 1.6.5 to patch it only requires downloading the zipped patch usually 7-15 megs and doing a copy/paste on top of your current dotCMS.  Once you restart the system will patch itself applying all necessary upgrades.

Once dotCMS releases its next version it will of course require an upgrade but will still take advantage of some of the automatic patching techniques.  For example you use to have to run SQL files on your own to upgrade for your specific database. Now dotCMS updates your database programatically as it needs to.

Typical Upgrade Steps

1. Backup your dotCMS directory and database. Make sure you get good backups :)
2. From your current dotCMS copy the dotCMS/assets directory to the new dotCMS /dotCMS/
   Note: If you have changed where your assets live use your altered assets directory.
3. If you have changed velocity files or jsps on the filesystem you will also need to move them.  If you don't know what these are then you probably haven't. 
   Note: If you have changed any language properties copy the file under /common/ext-ejb/content/*
4. From your current dotCMS copy the directory /dotCMS/reports to the new dotCMS /dotCMS/  
5. Verify your database config and connectors in the server.xml
6. If you are on a UNIX box, change the /bin scripts permissions, add execution permission to *.sh in the bin dir.
   cd /wwwroot/test.dotcms.org/bin
   chmod 755 *.sh
7. Start your dotCMS using bin/startup.bat or bin/startup.sh depending on whether on UNIX or Windows.
8. Log into the dotCMS as an admin and goto CMS Maintenance usually under CMS Admin tab and do the following.
   Execute Fix Asset Inconsistencies
   Delete static files
   Flush Cache
   Reindex all structures