Upgrade from AbleCommerce 7.0.3 to 7.0.4

1)  Download Upgrade

To download the upgrade for AbleCommerce 7.0.4, you will need to have an active subscription.  We will notify all subscription holders when a new version is available for download.  To obtain the file, login to the ablecommerce.com website and go to the Customer Account pages.  From there, click on the Downloads tab to see available software downloads.  License keys are requested through your order.

DO NOT INSTALL THE UPGRADE IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A VALID SUBSCRIPTION.  To see if you have an active subscription, you can open the "commerbuilder.lic" file located in the \app_data\ folder.  Look for this line of code:

e.g. <subscription>2009-12-12</subscription>

Make sure the date is on, or after, the release date for this build.  If you do not see this line, then your license does not have a subscription included.  If you think that you are entitled to this upgrade, then please open a new case and include the name of your website.  If you purchased a beta version of AbleCommerce, there is a good chance that your subscription end date will be incorrect.  We will happily correct this for you.  

2)  Backup your Existing Files

• Make a backup copy of the entire AbleCommerce install folder and the database.

• Any customizations that you may have made should be located in the following folders of your <installpath>:

• • \ConLib\Custom\..

  • \App_Data\Scriptlets\Custom\..

  • \App_Themes\..(current store theme)..\*.css, *.skin

The upgrade will NOT overwrite customizations located within these specific folders.  

After the upgrade, you are responsible for merging any changes to the new "control" objects or .aspx files.

3)  Installation of New Files

1. Double-click the .exe file to extract the contents to a temporary location.

2. Stop the IIS web service* application to release a lock on the DLL files in the \bin\ folder.

3. Select all the new files, copy, and overwrite your existing files in the <installpath> program folder.

4. Restart the IIS web service application.

  * If you are unable to stop the web service, try to perform the update during a slow time.  DO NOT access your store while uploading the files via FTP.  Double-check to make sure that ALL files are updated, especially the .DLL's in the \BIN\ folder.

4) Permission for updates

During upgrades, we may need to remove files that are no longer used or perform updates that require additional permission.  This means that AbleCommerce will need to have write and delete permissions on folders that might not ordinarily require it.  If possible, you should temporarily add 'write' and 'delete' permission to the entire store website for the ASPNET user (e.g. Network Service).

If adding additional permissions is not an option, you may receive errors during the upgrade.  These errors will need simply be warnings to indicate which files and/or folders could not be removed by the program.  You can still complete the upgrade, however, you will need to complete these steps after upgrading:

1. Remove unused files and/or folders

2. Update web.config and global.asax  

5)  Upgrade your Installation

WARNING: Make sure you have a backup of your database before upgrading !!!!

1. Browse to the <installpath>/install/upgrade.aspx page to run the database script.
   
   e.g. http://localhost/ac7/install/upgrade.aspx

2. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the upgrade:

   • Type BACKUP in the space provided to confirm you understand.

   • You can optionally have AbleCommerce upgrade the web.config and global.asax files. Check the box to confirm you've made backups.

   • Initiate the upgrade.  When finished, you should receive confirmation.  
     You may also receive some information on changes made during the upgrade.

3. If you get an error during upgrade* - STOP!  Copy the error for AbleCommerce support, and revert to your backups.

6)  Replace any Customizations (if applicable)

• AbleCommerce will not replace any files located in the \Custom\ folders, however, you may need to restore customizations made to files (.css\.skin) within the \App_Themes\ folder if you are not using a custom Theme.

• • \ConLib\Custom\..

  • \App_Data\Scriptlets\Custom\..

  • \App_Themes\..(your custom store theme)..\*.css, *.skin

If you have customized the control objects located in the \ConLib\ folder, they will be overwritten by the upgrade.  Control objects that are modified should always be placed in the \ConLib\Custom\ folder and referenced by the scriptlet accordingly.  

If you need to merge any customizations, we recommend that you use a file compare and merge utility such as WinMerge.  WinMerge is Open Source file compare and merge utility which runs on all modern Windows versions.  Latest WinMerge version and other WinMerge information is available at http://winmerge.org

7)  Complete Post-Upgrade Tasks

1. Complete the steps, as needed, in the Post Upgrade Tasks section immediately following.

2. Review the Release Notes to see if there are any changes that could impact your store.

Post Upgrade Tasks

Web.config and Global.asax updates

YOU CAN SKIP THIS STEP IF YOU ALLOWED THE UPGRADE TO AUTOMATICALLY CHANGE YOUR WEB.CONFIG/GLOBAL.ASAX FILES.  

The upgrade can automatically handle required changes to your web.config and global.asax files.  If you did not want AbleCommerce to handle these automatic updates, then you will need to manually update these two files yourself.  Please Update web.config and global.asax files before continuing.

Apply Latest Updates

After installation, make sure to check for free Service Release upgrades, or Hot Patches as posted in the Announcements section on the home page of this website. 

Release Notes

The following list includes changes in this release that could impact your store.  Please take a moment to read through each item and determine if any action needs to be taken.

• PRODUCT FEEDS CHANGED
  
  The location of generated product feeds (Google Base, Shopping.Com, and Yahoo! Shopping) has changed.  Up through version 7.0.3, the feed files were generated in the admin/marketing/feeds/data folder.  Upon upgrade to version 7.0.4, feed files are always generated in App_Data/Feeds.
  
  Additionally, the UPC value will be included in the product feeds when the SKU value for the product is a 12 digit number.
   

• SHIPPING ESTIMATOR DEFAULTS CHANGED (ConLib/BasketShippingEstimate control)
  
  - The html output by the control has been altered slightly to improve the final render size.  This may affect custom CSS.
  
  - The control now shows residential rates by default.  To make the control generate commercial rates, set the new property AssumeCommercialRates="true" in the scriptlet editor.  This value only takes effect when the user is anonymous.
  
  - Some fields are now set for conditional display:
  
  - The postal code field only displays for countries that require it.  This can be adjusted through the merchant interface from the Configure -> Store menu.
  - The state / province field only appears if provinces are defined for a country.  Otherwise it is assumed the value is not required and is not necessary for a ship rate quote.
   

• DIGITAL GOODS USING MANUAL SERIAL KEY MANAGEMENT

If you have digital goods (electronic downloads) in your store AND you are also using MANUAL serial key management, you will need to enable the Serial Key Management feature from the configuration page for each digital good.
 

• DEFAULT ABLECOMMERCE THEME UPDATED

The default AbleCommerce store theme has been given a new fresh look.  If you are using the default "AbleCommerce" theme, and want to continue using the old style theme, you will need to manually update your store theme after upgrading.  Login to the Merchant Dashboard and go to Website > Themes and Display pages.  Change the Store Theme selection to AbleCommerce Classic.
 

• NEW CANONICAL LINK META TAG
  
  Catalog pages in 7.0.4 now render with a canonical link tag.  This may be important if you have optimized SEO.  In older versions of AbleCommerce sometimes a product link will be generated inconsistently - sometimes including a category indicator and sometimes not.  For example:

http://mysite/my-product-P123.aspx

http://mysite/my-product-P123C456.aspx

These links are the same page.  Although the default controls in AbleCommerce have been updated to standardize links without the C## indicator, we cannot update customized and legacy code.  So the canonical link was implemented to avoid registration of duplicate content with search engines.  This should improve SEO rankings if your site contains mixed versions of the URL.

This change applies to category, product, and webpage items when viewed from your store.  If the canonical link behavior is not desired, you can disable it by modifying the file App_Code/PageHelper.cs.

To Disable the New Canonical Link Tag (Optional - NOT recommended unless you have a specific reason to disable this feature.)

FIND:

    public static void BindMetaTags(Page page, ICatalogable catalogObject)

    {

        if (catalogObject != null)

        {

            StringBuilder htmlHead = new StringBuilder();

            htmlHead.Append(catalogObject.HtmlHead);

            if (!catalogObject.HtmlHead.Contains("<link rel=\"canonical\""))

            {

                string canonicalFormat = "<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"{0}\"/>";

                string objectUrl = page.ResolveUrl(catalogObject.NavigateUrl);htmlHead.Append(string.Format(canonicalFormat,HttpUtility.UrlEncode(objectUrl)));

            }

            page.Header.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl(htmlHead.ToString()));

        }

    }

REPLACE WITH:

    public static void BindMetaTags(Page page, ICatalogable catalogObject)

    {

        if (catalogObject != null)

        {

            page.Header.Controls.Add(newLiteralControl(catalogObject.HtmlHead));

        }

    }