This web site is now upgraded to Sitefinity 3.5 SP 1. Compared to the issues I had upgrading to 3.2, this was a relatively easy upgrade process. I did hit a few minor snags along the way though:
- Single Assembly for new ASP.NET AJAX Controls
Sitefinity now includes the latest version of the ASP.NET AJAX RadControls. Previously, each of these controls had its own assembly (DLL). With the latest release, all of these assemblies have been combined into a single assembly (Telerik.Web.UI). This is a great move and makes managing the files easier. But some of my custom controls were referencing these old separate assemblies. These references needed to be updated. - Migrate Customizations to Sitefinity ControlTemplates
Any custom modifications made to the Sitefinity ControlTemplates needed to be manually merged with the latest release. This process is not as easy as I would like it to be, but it's manageable. Just keep track of the Sitefinity ControlTemplates you're changing. - URLs for "Images & Documents" Resources Changed
The URLs for my "Images & Documents" resources changed with this upgrade. For example, previously my URLs looked like this:
- Minor Sitefinity API Changes
There were a couple of minor Sitefinity API changes that caused errors. The following lines of code previously worked with 3.2, but needed to be updated for the 3.5 release:
- Telerik.DataAccess.CacheDependencyHandler.Current.Notify(typeof(Telerik.Cms.ICmsPage));
- CmsRootSiteMapNode rootnode = (CmsRootSiteMapNode)ourMapProvider.RootNode;
Not a perfect upgrade process, but it's getting a lot better. We're beginning see the Sitefinity API & framework stabilize.
I have updated the Goondocks Sitefinity Controls to work with Sitefinity 3.5 SP1. These controls, sadly, had fallen into disrepair. They are now current and should work fine in your Sitefinity web site.
With Sitefinity 3.6 we're looking at better upgrade & deployment options. The upgrade process should continue to get easier.