Forum OpenACS Q&A: Upgrades and directory trees

Posted by G. Armour Van Horn on 03/09/02 10:36 PM

Since the install routine generates a whole new generic tree under /web , how on earth can you upgrade a site once created? When the beta comes out I would get a new openacs-4 tree there, right next to the current wimls tree. Only this time I can't just rename openacs-4 to wimls like I did last time. I saw some comments on this from a couple of years ago, but I assume the scripts mentioned won't understand the new system. Do I have to dump the data, move all my own files, and then restore the data? Is this as scary as I fear?

On a related subject, my first project will be using data from a foreign source. Should my scripts for wget'ing that data and importing it to my database be done inside the /web/wimls tree or somewhere else? For that matter, should the data be inserted into the wimls database or into another database?

Yeah, I know, I'm clueless here, but I do appreciate the help I get!

Van

2: Response to Upgrades and directory trees (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 03/09/02 11:32 PM

This is where good source management tools can help. In theory CVS can help you if you've set up your own CVS tree for your customizations and changes to OpenACS 4.5 files. It can do various kinds of merging of tree branches. But CVS isn't great at this which is one reason why folks are talking about investigating alternative tools for the future.

I'm not a CVS expert but if you look at Ron Henderson's piece on using CVS for web development at http::arsdigita.com/asj, he does talk a bit about how to set this up. So far I'm just concerning myself with setting up our own tree for release and development branches, a much simpler task.

If you're using OpenACS 4/PG then an important question is when did you start using it? Some of the datamodel has changed drastically in the last four months in the PG version and upgrading the datamodel won't be at all easy. That's why we recommended folks not use our alpha2 version for critical production sites.

From the beta forward (still looks like I can release tomorrow) we'll provide upgrade scripts for datamodel changes.

The Oracle side of things has been much more stable.

3: Response to Upgrades and directory trees (response to 1)

Posted by G. Armour Van Horn on 03/10/02 12:26 AM

My first successful build was from the nightly-2002-03-06 tarball, so I only have to worry about changes in the last four days rather than months.

I think I'll just be very careful about documenting my manual changes and stick with approved betas from here on out.

Van

4: Response to Upgrades and directory trees (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 03/10/02 04:13 PM

You should be in good shape, then.

5: Response to Upgrades and directory trees (response to 1)

Posted by Matthew Terenzio on 03/12/02 07:06 PM

So Don,

If I had a site created form CVS in December that has not yet hit production, would you suggest rebuilding the database and reinstalling oacs?

6: Response to Upgrades and directory trees (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 03/12/02 08:17 PM

When I release the beta tarball, yes, indeed. I think that will happen today, I'm feeling a *lot* better (for those of you who saw my note about being ill). There's not much to do, but over the last two days I just didn't have the energy to put it together.