Karl Kopp

I have seen a few people ask for details on how to upgrade Umbraco 4.0.x to 4.5.x and since I was doing a site here at Next Digital, I thought I would document a quick 'how-to' on how to get this done.

1. Start by downloading the correct version of Umbraco 4.5.x (I used the .NET 3.5 version of 4.5.1). Note: If you extract the files using the Window's built in compression tool, you will need to 'UNBLOCK' the ZIP file from the zip files properties dialog before extracting, otherwise your installation may not include all the required files.
2. Backup your existing Umbraco site and database. I just did a dump of the database, and zipped up all the files in my webroot folder.
3. I then copied the App_Browsers, App_Data, bin, install, umbraco and umbraco_client folders over the existing folders (in my 4.0.x build, there was no existing App_Data folder).
4. Rename your existing web.config to web.config.old and copy over the new web.config
5. Open the new web.config and copy all the settings in <appSettings> from your old web.config file. Note: there is a new config setting for umbracoContentXMLUseLocalTemp that doesn't exist in the old config. Make sure to keep this setting. Also copy over the existing paths for the umbracoReservedUrls, umbracoReservedPaths, umbracoContentXML, umbracoStorageDirectory and umbracoPath as they now start with a tilda (~).
6. In the web.config, update the <mailSettings> settings if you use a custom SMTP server.
7. Modify the 2 membership providers (umbracoMembershipProvider and UsersMembershipProvider) in the web.config and remove the passwordFormat="Hashed" from both as the password in the existing database is not hashed.
8. From the /config directory, copy over the new config files (scripting.config, ClientDependency.config, Examine.config, ExamineSettings.config)
9. In the xsltExtensions.config file, remove the /bin/ directory from the assembly name, this is no longer required.
10. Now open the site homepage in a browser and Umbraco should take you to the installation screens. Step through the process and your Umbraco is now up to date with the 4.5.1 build!!

Update 1 (28/07/2010)

A few more updates that may be required are listed below:

1. In the umbracoSettings.config, you should add to your existing file the following keys under the content node: PreviewBadge (adds the new preview badge to pages that are previewed), UmbracoLibraryCacheDuration (will allow media and member data to be cached) and if you want to use some new packages you will need to add UseLegacyXmlSchema = false (you will need to update the XSLT if you do this). 
2. Also in umbracoSettings, you will need to add the <help> section to enable the new help.

This will update the core of your Umbraco build, but there will be a few final steps. You will need to:

• Update all your XSLT to the new format. I'll do another post with some examples later.
• Update any packages you may use to the latest version (wish there was an easy updater for Umbraco like WordPress ;).