Upgrading ViewsFlash from versions older than 3.5 |
Upgrading from ViewsFlash versions earlier than 3.5
The only change in configuration introduced with 3.5 is the default location of the viewsflash.properties file. Before 3.5, this file (by default) was found, and had to be changed, in the WEB-INF directory. The problem with this is that an upgrade often would overwrite this file, requiring its backup and restore during the upgrade process, which is an error-prone procedure. Beginning with 3.5, a directory /etc/cogix holds the viewsflash.properties by default. This makes upgrading ViewsFlash 3.5 with later versions much easier -- just redeploy the new ViewsFlash.war.
If you have been running ViewsFlash as a servlet rather than as a web application, we recommend installing the upgrade as a web application for current and future convenience.
The document includes instructions for following upgrade scenarios:
ViewsFlash version 3.x to version 3.5 as a web application
ViewsFlash version 2.x to 3.5 as
a servlet (not recommended)
ViewsFlash version 2.x to version 3.5 as a web application (recommended)
ViewsFlash version 3.x servlet installation to version
3.5 servlet installation (not recommended)
ViewsFlash version 3.x servlet installation to version
3.5 as a web application (recommended)
ViewsFlash version 3.x web application to version 3.5 web application
1. Copy viewsflash.properties to /etc/cogix. If you were using the servlet parameter "propertiesfile", remove it.
If you prefer to keep viewsflash.properties in some other location, then make sure that the propertiesfile parameter is preserved after upgrading. For example, if this parameter is specified in WEB-INF/web.xml, it will be lost during the upgrade, so you must save and restore web.xml. This is why the easiest way to upgrade is to let ViewsFlash find its viewsflash.properties file in /etc/cogix.
2. Make backup copies of the files in viewsflash/styles2, and the WEB-INF directory.
3. Re-deploy the ViewsFlash web application using the standard procedure for your application server.
4. Examine the new /viewsflash/styles2 directory and the files you backed up in step 2. If you have made changes to any of the original files in that directory, and the upgraded version has changed, it's best to rename your files something else and to change references to them in the places or other places where they are used.
5. Read the updated documentation and if any new ViewsFlash servlet parameters need to be added, do so now.
6. Restart the application server. Test your installation as described in the installation section and troubleshoot if necessary.
ViewsFlash version 2.x to 3.5 as a servlet (not recommended)
Please make note of the following points before upgrading:
1. Stop the application server where ViewsFlash resides.
2. Make a backup copy of all data in the ViewsFlash data directory (specified in the servlet configuration parameters). Backup the /viewsflash directory and the viewsflash.jar file (or the /com/cogix/vwf servlet directory for older releases) so you can roll back the upgrade to the previous release. Backup the web server directories where ViewsFlash writes data.
3. Unpack the files in the upgrade, as described in the Installation procedure. The files in /ViewsFlash/WEB-INF/classes/com/cogix/vwfhtml replace and add to the corresponding files in the /existing/webroot/viewsflash directory; same with the /ViewsFlash/viewsflash/docs and /ViewsFlash/viewsflash/styles2 files.
4. The /ViewsFlash/WEB-INF/lib/viewsflash.jar file must be added to the application runner's VM classpath, and so must /ViewsFlash/WEB-INF/lib - Use the complete name for these directories, such as /usr/Cogix/ViewsFlash... etc, or E:\Cogix\ViewsFlash\...
5. If you had configured ViewsFlash to store data in a database before, please read the Database Use section and add the new servlet parameters described there to your viewsflash servlet parameters. The previous method for describing database attributes via an HTML page is no longer available.
6. Replace the existing 2.9 license key in your viewsflash servlet parameters with the new version 3 license key.
7. Turn the application server back on, and continue the Installation procedure. If the Diagnose=1 command does not produce successful results, it is best to stop the web server or servlet runner which runs the ViewsFlash VM, make changes, and restart the web server.
All polls that were running before the upgrade will continue running as before.
If there's a problem, you can use the backup files from step 2 to restore things
to their prior state.
ViewsFlash version 2.x to version 3.5 as a web application
(recommended)
Please make note of the following points before upgrading:
1. Make a backup copy of all data in the ViewsFlash data directory (specified in the servlet configuration parameters). Backup the /viewsflash directory that is in the web server's document root directory. Also backup the viewsflash.jar file so you can roll back the upgrade to the previous release. Backup the web server directories where ViewsFlash writes data. Also, record all of the servlet parameters used in the 2.x installation as these will need to go into the viewsflash.properties file.
2. Remove viewsflash.jar from any classpaths.
3. Install ViewsFlash as a Web Application as described in the Installation section of this documentation.
4. Add the existing servlet parameters to the /etc/cogix/viewsflash.properties file. Review the servlet parameters section and add any new parameters that may be required at this time. Note also that a new version 3 license key will be required as the existing version 2 key will not work.
5. Copy any templates that you have created in /existing/webroot/viewsflash/styles2 to /ViewsFlash/viewsflash/styles2 being careful to not overwrite new templates with old ones with the same name. Please refer to Upgrading Style Templates.
6. Restart the application server. Test your installation as described in the installation section and troubleshoot if necessary.
7. After a successful ?Diagnose=1, click on the Administration and Setup link and change items #2 and #3 as needed to reflect the new /ViewsFlash URI.
ViewsFlash version 3.x installation to version 3.5 as a servlet
1. Make a backup copy of all data in the ViewsFlash data directory. Backup the /viewsflash directory and the viewsflash.jar file so you can roll back the upgrade to the previous release. Backup the web server directories where ViewsFlash writes data.
2. Unpack the Viewsflash war file distribution in a convenient location
( like /tmp ) using:
jar -xvf ViewsFlash.war
3. Copy files and directories as follows:
Note: on Windows systems, use back slashes (\) instead of forward slashes (/).
/tmp/ViewsFlash/WEB-INF/lib/viewsflash.jar to /existing/Cogix/ViewsFlash/lib/viewsflash.jar
/tmp/ViewsFlash/WEB-INF/lib/* to /existing/Cogix/ViewsFlash/lib/*
/tmp/ViewsFlash/WEB-INF/classes/com/cogix/vwfhtml/* to /existing/webroot/viewsflash
(replace existing files of the same name)
/tmp/ViewsFlash/viewsflash/styles2/* to /existing/webroot/viewsflash/styles2
(replace existing files of the same name)
/tmp/ViewsFlash/viewsflash/docs/* to /existing/webroot/viewsflash/docs (replace
existing files of the same name)
where /tmp is the location in which the ViewsFlash.war file is unpacked in step 2 and/existing/Cogix/ is where you unpacked your current Viewsflash 3.x distribution and /existing/webroot is the existing document root directory of your web server. Take into account that your current 3.x installation may exist in a different directory structure than shown here.
4. Restart the application server and test with /servlet/viewsflash?Diagnose=1 then troubleshoot any reported errors.
ViewsFlash version 3.x servlet installation to version 3.5 as a web application
When upgrading to a web application installation from a servlet installation the Viewsflash URLs will change to include the name of the web application. For example: http://yourdomain.com/ViewsFlash/servlet/viewsflash becomes http://yourdomain.com/ViewsFlash/servlet/viewsflash
1. Make a backup copy of all data in the ViewsFlash data directory. Backup the /viewsflash directory and the viewsflash.jar file so you can roll back the upgrade to the previous release. Backup the web server directories where ViewsFlash writes data.
2. Remove viewsflash.jar from any classpaths.
3. Install ViewsFlash as a Web Application as described in the Installation section of this documentation.
4. Copy your existing viewsflash.properties file to /etc/cogix/viewsflash.properties
5. Copy any templates that you have created in /existing/webroot/viewsflash/styles2 to /ViewsFlash/viewsflash/styles2 being careful to not overwrite new reference templates with old ones with the same name.
Any existing templates will need to incorporate the new tag [/webappname] so that wherever there were references to "/viewsflash" now there are references to "[/webappname]/viewsflash".
6. Restart the application server. Test your installation as described in the installation section and troubleshoot if necessary.
7. After a successful ?Diagnose=1, click on the Administration and Setup link and change items #2 and #3 as needed to reflect the /ViewsFlash URI as it is installed as a web application.