Tech Stuff: Upgrading to Liferay 6.1, and a Volunteer? - Discussion
Dear DhO Tech People and other Concerned Citizens,
To get reasonable workflow oversight of the Wiki requires an upgrade to Liferay 6.1. We currently run on 5.2.2. This may cause some disruption, and could also cost something. I think it is worth doing, and am willing to pay for it within reason, as projected cost is about $150-$1500+ as the tech kids at Omegabit bill at $150/hour. There is always the possibility that things will crash or burn, but I think the risk is worth it.
I got this email from Chris Stavros, who hosts the DhO at Omegabit:
[indent]"Hi Daniel,
Thank you for your messages and my apologies for the slow reply.
The short answer to your question is that we can help with a 6.1 upgrade; I cannot reliably predict if it will be smooth or complicated, but my bet is there are some kinks to work out. Here's some things to be advised of:
-We'll need to stage the upgrade, and you'll want to apply a thorough testing on your end. The Communities model in 6.1 has changed <substantially>. Once validated and any change processes documented, we can work with you on a production cutover.
-If you have any DNS dependencies in your portal design, you may need to spoof these on your local workstation using your hosts file for local testing.
-Any custom plugins including themes will need to be rebuilt using the 6.1 SDK, and reinstalled prior to testing.
-We'll stage and upgraded environment for testing, and support a simple re-synch with production data after you have validated the upgrade, for 1hr ($150). However, upgrades may take tens-of-hours to work out issues that appear during the upgrade process. We would not proceed without your approval to spend the time, and it will not be evident if this is necessary until we try.
We can attempt this upgrade late this week, but I would not set an expectation with your users as to the availability of new features until you've had a chance to test this more thoroughly. Keep in mind 6.1 is still a first-release; we do anticipate another follow-on release to come in the next few months.
Alternately, we can supply to you a copy of your portal (upgraded or not), for experimentation with this process on your end.
Please let me know if you care to proceed with this initial 1hr investment and I'll see that it is scheduled.
Have a great day - thanks for your patience with my reply
Sincerely,
Chris"[/indent]
I will keep you updated on how this goes, when it will occur, any potential disruptions, and the like, such as potential disruption to Messages (which was written for 5.2.2), etc. There is a possibility that the Messages Portlet, which was custom written for the DhO, may need some revision and re-coding, and what that may cost I don't know.
The Theme of the DhO will need to be redone for 6.1: anyone interested in Volunteering for this? I don't know how to code that.
Anyway, thanks for reading and to anyone who can help with this,
Daniel
Founder and Funder of the DhO
To get reasonable workflow oversight of the Wiki requires an upgrade to Liferay 6.1. We currently run on 5.2.2. This may cause some disruption, and could also cost something. I think it is worth doing, and am willing to pay for it within reason, as projected cost is about $150-$1500+ as the tech kids at Omegabit bill at $150/hour. There is always the possibility that things will crash or burn, but I think the risk is worth it.
I got this email from Chris Stavros, who hosts the DhO at Omegabit:
[indent]"Hi Daniel,
Thank you for your messages and my apologies for the slow reply.
The short answer to your question is that we can help with a 6.1 upgrade; I cannot reliably predict if it will be smooth or complicated, but my bet is there are some kinks to work out. Here's some things to be advised of:
-We'll need to stage the upgrade, and you'll want to apply a thorough testing on your end. The Communities model in 6.1 has changed <substantially>. Once validated and any change processes documented, we can work with you on a production cutover.
-If you have any DNS dependencies in your portal design, you may need to spoof these on your local workstation using your hosts file for local testing.
-Any custom plugins including themes will need to be rebuilt using the 6.1 SDK, and reinstalled prior to testing.
-We'll stage and upgraded environment for testing, and support a simple re-synch with production data after you have validated the upgrade, for 1hr ($150). However, upgrades may take tens-of-hours to work out issues that appear during the upgrade process. We would not proceed without your approval to spend the time, and it will not be evident if this is necessary until we try.
We can attempt this upgrade late this week, but I would not set an expectation with your users as to the availability of new features until you've had a chance to test this more thoroughly. Keep in mind 6.1 is still a first-release; we do anticipate another follow-on release to come in the next few months.
Alternately, we can supply to you a copy of your portal (upgraded or not), for experimentation with this process on your end.
Please let me know if you care to proceed with this initial 1hr investment and I'll see that it is scheduled.
Have a great day - thanks for your patience with my reply
Sincerely,
Chris"[/indent]
I will keep you updated on how this goes, when it will occur, any potential disruptions, and the like, such as potential disruption to Messages (which was written for 5.2.2), etc. There is a possibility that the Messages Portlet, which was custom written for the DhO, may need some revision and re-coding, and what that may cost I don't know.
The Theme of the DhO will need to be redone for 6.1: anyone interested in Volunteering for this? I don't know how to code that.
Anyway, thanks for reading and to anyone who can help with this,
Daniel
Founder and Funder of the DhO
