Upgrading Xperience manually

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Note: We strongly recommend using the automatic upgrade described in Upgrading to Xperience 13.

If you already have Xperience 13 and wish to apply a Refresh release, do NOT follow the upgrade process described on this page. You only need to apply the appropriate hotfix version to your project. See the Hotfix instructions to learn how to install Refreshes via the hotfix.

If necessary, you can perform the upgrade from Kentico 12 Service Pack to Xperience 13 manually.

Installing the upgrade procedure

  1. Download the Xperience 13 upgrade.
  2. Run Upgrade_12_0_13_0.exe.
  3. Install the upgrade procedure (the installer places the upgrade into the C:\Program Files\Kentico\13.0\Upgrade120_130 folder by default).

Preparing your project for the upgrade

  1. Set up a local copy of your Kentico 12 web project.
  2. Go through the required Steps before the upgrade.

Creating the project files

The recommended way to create an upgraded project is to start with a new clean installation of Xperience 13 and then transfer custom file content from your original project.

  1. Download the Xperience 13 installer.

  2. Install a new Xperience project (use the Custom installation option in the installer).

    • Do not install a database (clear the Installation with database option on the installer’s Database tab).

  3. Transfer files and customizations from your Kentico 12 administration project into the new Xperience 13 project:

    • Copy all files that were added into your Kentico 12 project (including media files, custom pages and controls, etc.).

      Tip: We recommend using a differencing or merging tool to compare the project folders.

    • If you have customized any of the default files, you need to compare the new and old file versions and manually transfer the customizations.

  4. Open the new Xperience 13 project in Visual Studio:

    • If your original solution contained custom projects, add these projects.
      • Add references from the Xperience CMSApp web project to your custom projects as required.
      • Update all Xperience library references from custom projects to use the libraries of the new project.
    • Install any custom NuGet packages that were present in your Kentico 12 web project.

  5. Open the upgrade installation directory (C:\Program Files\Kentico\13.0\Upgrade120_130 by default), and copy the CMS\CMS\CMSSiteUtils\Import\Upgrade_120_130.zip file into the CMS\CMSSiteUtils\Import folder of the new Xperience 13 project.

Upgrading the Web.config

Transfer all required configuration from your Kentico 12 project’s web.config file into the web.config of the new Xperience 13 project:

  1. Copy the connection string (the entire <connectionStrings> section) to connect the upgraded project to your database.
  2. Transfer all keys from the <appSettings> section (including the values of default keys such as CMSApplicationGuid and CMSHashStringSalt).
  3. Manually transfer any other custom configuration elements.

Upgrading the database

Important: Before you start the database upgrade, create a backup of your database.

  1. Launch Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.
  2. Connect to the database that you wish to upgrade.
  3. Open the upgrade installation directory (C:\Program Files\Kentico\13.0\Upgrade120_130 by default) and expand the SQL folder:
    • If you have a standard database, run the upgrade.sql script.
    • If your project uses a separated on-line marketing database, expand the Separation subfolder and run the scripts in the following order:
      1. separated.sql (against the separated on-line marketing database)
      2. default.sql (against your main database)

If you encounter any errors, please send them to Kentico support (include the error log in the message).

Finishing the upgrade

You also need to update the Xperience code used by your live site application. See Upgrading MVC projects in the main upgrade instructions.

Continue with the Steps after the upgrade.