Upgrade to Sitefinity CMS 15.3
Upgrade procedure
RECOMMENDATION: We recommend that you always upgrade to the latest version. The procedures included in this section describe how to upgrade to version Sitefinity 15.3.
Use the upgrade procedure that corresponds to the Sitefinity CMS version you are currently running on.
Upgrade prerequisites
Before you upgrade your Sitefinity CMS, ensure the following:
- You have backed up your project and its database.
- You are familiar with the API changes for the Sitefinity CMS release you are upgrading to. For more information, see API breaking changes in Sitefinity CMS.
- You have upgraded your Microsoft .NET framework to the respective version.
For more information, see Reference: Sitefinity CMS and .NET framework compatibility.
- Your project is not located in a folder that has any special characters in the name, such as
~\Program Files (x86).
Choose your current Sitefinity CMS version:
RECOMMENDATION: Sitefinity 15.2 is a supported release. However, we recommend always upgrading to the latest Sitefinity CMS version.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Upgrade the Renderer
If your project is using ASP.NET Core or Next.js pages, you need to upgrade the decoupled frontend Renderer as well. Perform one of the following:
Migrate the frontend technology
NOTE: If your project is using only ASP.NET Core pages or Next.js pages, you do not need to migrate the frontend technology. You can skip this section.
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
RECOMMENDATION: Sitefinity 15.1 is a supported release. However, we recommend always upgrading to the latest Sitefinity CMS version.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Upgrade the Renderer
If your project is using ASP.NET Core or Next.js pages, you need to upgrade the decoupled frontend Renderer as well. Perform one of the following:
Migrate the frontend technology
NOTE: If your project is using only ASP.NET Core pages or Next.js pages, you do not need to migrate the frontend technology. You can skip this section.
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
RECOMMENDATION: Sitefinity 15.0 is a supported release. However, we recommend always upgrading to the latest Sitefinity CMS version.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Upgrade the Renderer
If your project is using ASP.NET Core or Next.js pages, you need to upgrade the decoupled frontend Renderer as well. Perform one of the following:
Migrate the frontend technology
NOTE: If your project is using only ASP.NET Core pages or Next.js pages, you do not need to migrate the frontend technology. You can skip this section.
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
RECOMMENDATION: Sitefinity 14.4 LTS is a supported release. However, we recommend always upgrading to the latest Sitefinity CMS version.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Upgrade the Renderer
If your project is using ASP.NET Core or Next.js pages, you need to upgrade the decoupled frontend Renderer as well. Perform one of the following:
Migrate the frontend technology
NOTE: If your project is using only ASP.NET Core pages or Next.js pages, you do not need to migrate the frontend technology. You can skip this section.
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 14.3 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Upgrade the Renderer
If your project is using ASP.NET Core or Next.js pages, you need to upgrade the decoupled frontend Renderer as well. Perform one of the following:
Migrate the frontend technology
NOTE: If your project is using only ASP.NET Core pages or Next.js pages, you do not need to migrate the frontend technology. You can skip this section.
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 14.2 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Upgrade the Renderer
If your project is using ASP.NET Core or Next.js pages, you need to upgrade the decoupled frontend Renderer as well. Perform one of the following:
Migrate the frontend technology
NOTE: If your project is using only ASP.NET Core pages or Next.js pages, you do not need to migrate the frontend technology. You can skip this section.
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 14.1 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Upgrade the Renderer
If your project is using ASP.NET Core or Next.js pages, you need to upgrade the decoupled frontend Renderer as well. Perform one of the following:
Migrate the frontend technology
NOTE: If your project is using only ASP.NET Core pages or Next.js pages, you do not need to migrate the frontend technology. You can skip this section.
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 14.0 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Upgrade the Renderer
If your project is using ASP.NET Core or Next.js pages, you need to upgrade the decoupled frontend Renderer as well. Perform one of the following:
Migrate the frontend technology
NOTE: If your project is using only ASP.NET Core pages or Next.js pages, you do not need to migrate the frontend technology. You can skip this section.
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 13.3 release will be retired in April 2026. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Upgrade the Renderer
If your project is using ASP.NET Core or Next.js pages, you need to upgrade the decoupled frontend Renderer as well. Perform one of the following:
Migrate the frontend technology
NOTE: If your project is using only ASP.NET Core pages or Next.js pages, you do not need to migrate the frontend technology. You can skip this section.
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 13.2 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Upgrade the Renderer
If your project is using ASP.NET Core or Next.js pages, you need to upgrade the decoupled frontend Renderer as well. Perform one of the following:
Migrate the frontend technology
NOTE: If your project is using only ASP.NET Core pages or Next.js pages, you do not need to migrate the frontend technology. You can skip this section.
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 13.1 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Upgrade the Renderer
If your project is using ASP.NET Core or Next.js pages, you need to upgrade the decoupled frontend Renderer as well. Perform one of the following:
Migrate the frontend technology
NOTE: If your project is using only ASP.NET Core pages or Next.js pages, you do not need to migrate the frontend technology. You can skip this section.
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 13.0 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Upgrade the Renderer
If your project is using ASP.NET Core or Next.js pages, you need to upgrade the decoupled frontend Renderer as well. Perform one of the following:
Migrate the frontend technology
NOTE: If your project is using only ASP.NET Core pages or Next.js pages, you do not need to migrate the frontend technology. You can skip this section.
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 12.2 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 12.1 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 12.0 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 11.2 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 11.1 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 11.0 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 10.2 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 10.1 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 10.0 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: You must have installed Sitefinity CLI. For more information, see Sitefinity GitHub repository » Sitefinity CLI.
- Perform a health check using Sitefinity Check-up service.
For more information, see Sitefinity Check-up service.
- Run Sitefinity CLI and enter an upgrade command with the following syntax:
sf upgrade "{{path to the solution you want to upgrade}}" "{{version you are upgrading to}}"
Note that entering a specific Sitefinity CMS version is optional. In case you do not provide a version option, the latest version available will be used for the upgrade.
EXAMPLE: Run Sitefinity CLI and enter the following command:
sf upgrade "D:\TestProject\SitefinityWebApp.sln" "15.2.8499"
For more information about using Sitefinity CLI and additional command parameters, see Sitefinity CLI.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 9.2 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
If your project is running on Sitefinity CMS 9.1 or 9.2, perform the following to upgrade it:
- Backup your project and its database.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .NET Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » NuGet Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires re-installation of all packages.
- In the Package Manager Console, install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.All package using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499.
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 9.1 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
If your project is running on Sitefinity CMS 9.1 or 9.2, perform the following to upgrade it:
- Backup your project and its database.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .NET Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » NuGet Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires re-installation of all packages.
- In the Package Manager Console, install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.All package using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499.
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 9.0 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
If your project is running on Sitefinity 8.1, 8.2, or 9.0, to upgrade it, perform the following:
- Backup your project and its database.
- Uninstall
Telerik.Sitefinity.All package.
IMPORTANT: Perform this step, only if you are upgrading from a Sitefinity CMS version 9.1 or below to a Sitefinity CMS version 9.2 or above. This step is required when you change the .NET framework from 4.0.
If you have Telerik.Sitefinity.All package installed, remove the package and all its dependencies:
- Open your project in Visual Studio
- Open the context menu of your solution, click Manage NuGet Packages...
- In the list of installed packages, find
Telerik.Sitefinity.All, click Uninstall, and press ENTER to close the dialog.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because the changing the target framework requires re-installation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- In the Package Manager Console, install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499.
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 8.2 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
If your project is running on Sitefinity 8.1, 8.2, or 9.0, to upgrade it, perform the following:
- Backup your project and its database.
- Uninstall
Telerik.Sitefinity.All package.
IMPORTANT: Perform this step, only if you are upgrading from a Sitefinity CMS version 9.1 or below to a Sitefinity CMS version 9.2 or above. This step is required when you change the .NET framework from 4.0.
If you have Telerik.Sitefinity.All package installed, remove the package and all its dependencies:
- Open your project in Visual Studio
- Open the context menu of your solution, click Manage NuGet Packages...
- In the list of installed packages, find
Telerik.Sitefinity.All, click Uninstall, and press ENTER to close the dialog.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because the changing the target framework requires re-installation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- In the Package Manager Console, install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499.
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 8.1 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
If your project is running on Sitefinity 8.1, 8.2, or 9.0, to upgrade it, perform the following:
- Backup your project and its database.
- Uninstall
Telerik.Sitefinity.All package.
IMPORTANT: Perform this step, only if you are upgrading from a Sitefinity CMS version 9.1 or below to a Sitefinity CMS version 9.2 or above. This step is required when you change the .NET framework from 4.0.
If you have Telerik.Sitefinity.All package installed, remove the package and all its dependencies:
- Open your project in Visual Studio
- Open the context menu of your solution, click Manage NuGet Packages...
- In the list of installed packages, find
Telerik.Sitefinity.All, click Uninstall, and press ENTER to close the dialog.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because the changing the target framework requires re-installation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- In the Package Manager Console, install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499.
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 8.0 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
If your project is running on Sitefinity 8.0, to upgrade it, perform the following:
- Backup your project and its database.
- Uninstall
Telerik.Sitefinity.All package.
If you have Telerik.Sitefinity.All package installed, remove the package and all its dependencies:
- Open your project in Visual Studio
- Open the context menu of your solution, click Manage NuGet Packages...
- In the list of installed packages, find
Telerik.Sitefinity.All, click Uninstall, and press ENTER to close the dialog.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .NET Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because the changing the target framework requires re-installation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- From the
bin folder of the project, delete Telerik.Sitefinity.UI.MVC.dll.
- Open folder
Properties, located in your project's folder and edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Add the following assemblies:
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ControllerContainer]
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ResourcePackage]
- In the Package Manager Console install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499.
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
NOTE: MVC capabilities are supported in all supported Sitefinity releases - 13.3 LTS, 14.4 LTS, and 15.x.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Depending on the results, perform one of the following:
- Web Forms
If your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, or widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
-
MVC
RECOMMENDATION: If your project runs MVC pages, templates, or widgets, we recommend modernizing the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following:
- Hybrid – Web Forms and MVC
If your project runs both Web Forms and MVC pages, templates, or widgets, you must transition Web Forms to ASP.NET Core or Next.js. You can still run the MVC pages, templates, and widgets, however we recommend modernizing them as well.
NOTE: In the special case when you have very few Web Forms elements and predominantly MVC, to minimize costs, you can migrate Web Forms to MVC and continue running in MVC only mode.
For more information, see Migrate from Web Forms to MVC.
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 7.3 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: Before you proceed with the upgrade, make sure you have complied with the prerequisites.
- You have downloaded your production website and database and have backed them up.
- You have downloaded from your Sitefinity CMS account the Project Manager of Sitefinity CMS 8.0 version and placed it in a new folder named to clearly indicate the particular Sitefinity CMS version (so you can easily distinguish it).
- Remove the Migrations module from your
~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Configuration/SystemConfig.Config file, by deleting the line <add version="6.3.5016.0" name="Migration" />.
To upgrade your 4.x and above project, perform the following:
- Update Sitefinity CMS assemblies and the references to them
- Update your assemblies, files, and folder structure.
Open the newly downloaded Sitefinity CMS Project Manager, select the project that you want to upgrade and click ActionsUpgrade button.
- The upgrade automatically updates the assemblies in your project's
bin folder.
- The upgrade automatically adds new files and folders to your project.
- The upgrade automatically merges settings from the new version’s
web.config file to your existing web.config file.
Verify that all your web.config settings are in place by comparing the web.config file from your backup.
IMPORTANT: You can use automatic web.config merge, if your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 5.4 and above.
If your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 4.0 and above, you can still use automatic web.config merge, but you must get the Sitefinity CMS Internal hotfix build 7.1.5201 or any later version.
For all other cases, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically updates the assemblies and adds new files and folders, but you must manually merge the web.config changes.
- Update the references to the assemblies
Compare the contents of the following folders:
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of your current Sitefinity CMS version.
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of the Sitefinity CMS version that you want to upgrade to.
- You need to compare differences in the
.dll files only – which .dll files are removed and which are added to the bin folder of the version that you want to upgrade to. You can use any comparison tool, such as WinMerge.
NOTE: If the DLL files do not match during the comparison, you can replace them manually from the _EmptyProject's bin folder .
- Open your project in Visual studio, remove references to the removed
.dll files and add references to the added .dll files.
If your project is part of a larger solution where you have custom projects that reference Sitefinity CMS assemblies, check the references to those assemblies in your project and make sure that they are referencing the newer assemblies.
-
NOTE: The Sitefinity CMS Project Manager does not remove any .dll files - it only adds the new ones. Thus, if you have referenced the old .dll files anywhere in your solution, the upgrade will not break your customizations. If you want to remove the .dll files, you must do this this manually after making sure the .dll files are not used anywhere in your project.
-
NOTE: If you do not use Sitefinity CMS Project Manager application to upgrade your project, you must replace the assemblies manually, you must manually merge the web.config files, and add all the new files and folders from a new Empty Project. For each version, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically creates the _EmptyProject folder once you create a new project. You can use DiffMerge or any other software that allows you to differentiate and merge the web.config changes, new files and folder structure.
- Run the upgraded project and verify it
- Build your solution and restart your Sitefinity CMS website.
IMPORTANT: You must not manually change the Sitefinity CMS version numbers stored in your configuration files. This is handled automatically by the upgrade process that starts with the first run of the website.
- Run the project and check it for errors.
Check for errors the UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files, located in the ~\App_Data\Sitefinity\Logs folder. If needed, contact the Sitefinity CMS support team with the attached UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files and specify the versions that you upgrade from and to.
NOTE: The first run of the upgraded website can be time-consuming, because Sitefinity CMS automatically performs incremental database upgrades from the database schemes used in the previous version to the one used in the new version. Information about the Sitefinity CMS version is stored both in the database and in the configuration files. At any time, the configuration files must match your database scheme.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity CMS 7.3 comes with granular permissions for dynamic content items. The upgrade of the permissions is done asynchronously - after you have upgraded and ran your website, the permissions upgrade starts. During this time, you may notice that Sitefinity CMS uses CPU resources. If the permissions upgrade is successful, you will see PASSED : Upgrading dynamic content permissions message in the UpgradeTrace.log file.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires reinstallation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- From the
bin folder of the project, delete Telerik.Sitefinity.UI.MVC.dll.
- Open folder
Properties, located in your project's folder and edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Add the following assemblies:
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ControllerContainer]
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ResourcePackage]
- In the Package Manager Console install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
- Deploy your upgraded project
Depending on the type of upgrade you want to make, perform one of the following:
- Replace your live website with the upgraded one.
If you want to replace your production website and database with the locally upgraded files, package your upgraded website and its database and deploy them on your production environment. For more information, see Deployment.
- Upload the upgraded project without the database.
Restart the website. This triggers the upgrade process of your production database.
For more information, see Upgrade projects in Continuous delivery.
If your project is deployed on Microsoft Azure, see Upgrade projects running on Microsoft Azure.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Because your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, and widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 7.2 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: Before you proceed with the upgrade, make sure you have complied with the prerequisites.
- You have downloaded your production website and database and have backed them up.
- You have downloaded from your Sitefinity CMS account the Project Manager of Sitefinity CMS 8.0 version and placed it in a new folder named to clearly indicate the particular Sitefinity CMS version (so you can easily distinguish it).
- Remove the Migrations module from your
~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Configuration/SystemConfig.Config file, by deleting the line <add version="6.3.5016.0" name="Migration" />.
To upgrade your 4.x and above project, perform the following:
- Update Sitefinity CMS assemblies and the references to them
- Update your assemblies, files, and folder structure.
Open the newly downloaded Sitefinity CMS Project Manager, select the project that you want to upgrade and click ActionsUpgrade button.
- The upgrade automatically updates the assemblies in your project's
bin folder.
- The upgrade automatically adds new files and folders to your project.
- The upgrade automatically merges settings from the new version’s
web.config file to your existing web.config file.
Verify that all your web.config settings are in place by comparing the web.config file from your backup.
IMPORTANT: You can use automatic web.config merge, if your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 5.4 and above.
If your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 4.0 and above, you can still use automatic web.config merge, but you must get the Sitefinity CMS Internal hotfix build 7.1.5201 or any later version.
For all other cases, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically updates the assemblies and adds new files and folders, but you must manually merge the web.config changes.
- Update the references to the assemblies
Compare the contents of the following folders:
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of your current Sitefinity CMS version.
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of the Sitefinity CMS version that you want to upgrade to.
- You need to compare differences in the
.dll files only – which .dll files are removed and which are added to the bin folder of the version that you want to upgrade to. You can use any comparison tool, such as WinMerge.
NOTE: If the DLL files do not match during the comparison, you can replace them manually from the _EmptyProject's bin folder .
- Open your project in Visual studio, remove references to the removed
.dll files and add references to the added .dll files.
If your project is part of a larger solution where you have custom projects that reference Sitefinity CMS assemblies, check the references to those assemblies in your project and make sure that they are referencing the newer assemblies.
-
NOTE: The Sitefinity CMS Project Manager does not remove any .dll files - it only adds the new ones. Thus, if you have referenced the old .dll files anywhere in your solution, the upgrade will not break your customizations. If you want to remove the .dll files, you must do this this manually after making sure the .dll files are not used anywhere in your project.
-
NOTE: If you do not use Sitefinity CMS Project Manager application to upgrade your project, you must replace the assemblies manually, you must manually merge the web.config files, and add all the new files and folders from a new Empty Project. For each version, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically creates the _EmptyProject folder once you create a new project. You can use DiffMerge or any other software that allows you to differentiate and merge the web.config changes, new files and folder structure.
- Run the upgraded project and verify it
- Build your solution and restart your Sitefinity CMS website.
IMPORTANT: You must not manually change the Sitefinity CMS version numbers stored in your configuration files. This is handled automatically by the upgrade process that starts with the first run of the website.
- Run the project and check it for errors.
Check for errors the UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files, located in the ~\App_Data\Sitefinity\Logs folder. If needed, contact the Sitefinity CMS support team with the attached UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files and specify the versions that you upgrade from and to.
NOTE: The first run of the upgraded website can be time-consuming, because Sitefinity CMS automatically performs incremental database upgrades from the database schemes used in the previous version to the one used in the new version. Information about the Sitefinity CMS version is stored both in the database and in the configuration files. At any time, the configuration files must match your database scheme.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity CMS 7.3 comes with granular permissions for dynamic content items. The upgrade of the permissions is done asynchronously - after you have upgraded and ran your website, the permissions upgrade starts. During this time, you may notice that Sitefinity CMS uses CPU resources. If the permissions upgrade is successful, you will see PASSED : Upgrading dynamic content permissions message in the UpgradeTrace.log file.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires reinstallation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- From the
bin folder of the project, delete Telerik.Sitefinity.UI.MVC.dll.
- Open folder
Properties, located in your project's folder and edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Add the following assemblies:
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ControllerContainer]
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ResourcePackage]
- In the Package Manager Console install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
- Deploy your upgraded project
Depending on the type of upgrade you want to make, perform one of the following:
- Replace your live website with the upgraded one.
If you want to replace your production website and database with the locally upgraded files, package your upgraded website and its database and deploy them on your production environment. For more information, see Deployment.
- Upload the upgraded project without the database.
Restart the website. This triggers the upgrade process of your production database.
For more information, see Upgrade projects in Continuous delivery.
If your project is deployed on Microsoft Azure, see Upgrade projects running on Microsoft Azure.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Because your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, and widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 7.1 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: Before you proceed with the upgrade, make sure you have complied with the prerequisites.
- You have downloaded your production website and database and have backed them up.
- You have downloaded from your Sitefinity CMS account the Project Manager of Sitefinity CMS 8.0 version and placed it in a new folder named to clearly indicate the particular Sitefinity CMS version (so you can easily distinguish it).
- Remove the Migrations module from your
~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Configuration/SystemConfig.Config file, by deleting the line <add version="6.3.5016.0" name="Migration" />.
To upgrade your 4.x and above project, perform the following:
- Update Sitefinity CMS assemblies and the references to them
- Update your assemblies, files, and folder structure.
Open the newly downloaded Sitefinity CMS Project Manager, select the project that you want to upgrade and click ActionsUpgrade button.
- The upgrade automatically updates the assemblies in your project's
bin folder.
- The upgrade automatically adds new files and folders to your project.
- The upgrade automatically merges settings from the new version’s
web.config file to your existing web.config file.
Verify that all your web.config settings are in place by comparing the web.config file from your backup.
IMPORTANT: You can use automatic web.config merge, if your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 5.4 and above.
If your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 4.0 and above, you can still use automatic web.config merge, but you must get the Sitefinity CMS Internal hotfix build 7.1.5201 or any later version.
For all other cases, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically updates the assemblies and adds new files and folders, but you must manually merge the web.config changes.
- Update the references to the assemblies
Compare the contents of the following folders:
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of your current Sitefinity CMS version.
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of the Sitefinity CMS version that you want to upgrade to.
- You need to compare differences in the
.dll files only – which .dll files are removed and which are added to the bin folder of the version that you want to upgrade to. You can use any comparison tool, such as WinMerge.
NOTE: If the DLL files do not match during the comparison, you can replace them manually from the _EmptyProject's bin folder .
- Open your project in Visual studio, remove references to the removed
.dll files and add references to the added .dll files.
If your project is part of a larger solution where you have custom projects that reference Sitefinity CMS assemblies, check the references to those assemblies in your project and make sure that they are referencing the newer assemblies.
-
NOTE: The Sitefinity CMS Project Manager does not remove any .dll files - it only adds the new ones. Thus, if you have referenced the old .dll files anywhere in your solution, the upgrade will not break your customizations. If you want to remove the .dll files, you must do this this manually after making sure the .dll files are not used anywhere in your project.
-
NOTE: If you do not use Sitefinity CMS Project Manager application to upgrade your project, you must replace the assemblies manually, you must manually merge the web.config files, and add all the new files and folders from a new Empty Project. For each version, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically creates the _EmptyProject folder once you create a new project. You can use DiffMerge or any other software that allows you to differentiate and merge the web.config changes, new files and folder structure.
- Run the upgraded project and verify it
- Build your solution and restart your Sitefinity CMS website.
IMPORTANT: You must not manually change the Sitefinity CMS version numbers stored in your configuration files. This is handled automatically by the upgrade process that starts with the first run of the website.
- Run the project and check it for errors.
Check for errors the UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files, located in the ~\App_Data\Sitefinity\Logs folder. If needed, contact the Sitefinity CMS support team with the attached UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files and specify the versions that you upgrade from and to.
NOTE: The first run of the upgraded website can be time-consuming, because Sitefinity CMS automatically performs incremental database upgrades from the database schemes used in the previous version to the one used in the new version. Information about the Sitefinity CMS version is stored both in the database and in the configuration files. At any time, the configuration files must match your database scheme.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity CMS 7.3 comes with granular permissions for dynamic content items. The upgrade of the permissions is done asynchronously - after you have upgraded and ran your website, the permissions upgrade starts. During this time, you may notice that Sitefinity CMS uses CPU resources. If the permissions upgrade is successful, you will see PASSED : Upgrading dynamic content permissions message in the UpgradeTrace.log file.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires reinstallation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- From the
bin folder of the project, delete Telerik.Sitefinity.UI.MVC.dll.
- Open folder
Properties, located in your project's folder and edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Add the following assemblies:
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ControllerContainer]
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ResourcePackage]
- In the Package Manager Console install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
- Deploy your upgraded project
Depending on the type of upgrade you want to make, perform one of the following:
- Replace your live website with the upgraded one.
If you want to replace your production website and database with the locally upgraded files, package your upgraded website and its database and deploy them on your production environment. For more information, see Deployment.
- Upload the upgraded project without the database.
Restart the website. This triggers the upgrade process of your production database.
For more information, see Upgrade projects in Continuous delivery.
If your project is deployed on Microsoft Azure, see Upgrade projects running on Microsoft Azure.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Because your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, and widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 7.0 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: Before you proceed with the upgrade, make sure you have complied with the prerequisites.
- You have downloaded your production website and database and have backed them up.
- You have downloaded from your Sitefinity CMS account the Project Manager of Sitefinity CMS 8.0 version and placed it in a new folder named to clearly indicate the particular Sitefinity CMS version (so you can easily distinguish it).
- Remove the Migrations module from your
~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Configuration/SystemConfig.Config file, by deleting the line <add version="6.3.5016.0" name="Migration" />.
To upgrade your 4.x and above project, perform the following:
- Update Sitefinity CMS assemblies and the references to them
- Update your assemblies, files, and folder structure.
Open the newly downloaded Sitefinity CMS Project Manager, select the project that you want to upgrade and click ActionsUpgrade button.
- The upgrade automatically updates the assemblies in your project's
bin folder.
- The upgrade automatically adds new files and folders to your project.
- The upgrade automatically merges settings from the new version’s
web.config file to your existing web.config file.
Verify that all your web.config settings are in place by comparing the web.config file from your backup.
IMPORTANT: You can use automatic web.config merge, if your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 5.4 and above.
If your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 4.0 and above, you can still use automatic web.config merge, but you must get the Sitefinity CMS Internal hotfix build 7.1.5201 or any later version.
For all other cases, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically updates the assemblies and adds new files and folders, but you must manually merge the web.config changes.
- Update the references to the assemblies
Compare the contents of the following folders:
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of your current Sitefinity CMS version.
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of the Sitefinity CMS version that you want to upgrade to.
- You need to compare differences in the
.dll files only – which .dll files are removed and which are added to the bin folder of the version that you want to upgrade to. You can use any comparison tool, such as WinMerge.
NOTE: If the DLL files do not match during the comparison, you can replace them manually from the _EmptyProject's bin folder .
- Open your project in Visual studio, remove references to the removed
.dll files and add references to the added .dll files.
If your project is part of a larger solution where you have custom projects that reference Sitefinity CMS assemblies, check the references to those assemblies in your project and make sure that they are referencing the newer assemblies.
-
NOTE: The Sitefinity CMS Project Manager does not remove any .dll files - it only adds the new ones. Thus, if you have referenced the old .dll files anywhere in your solution, the upgrade will not break your customizations. If you want to remove the .dll files, you must do this this manually after making sure the .dll files are not used anywhere in your project.
-
NOTE: If you do not use Sitefinity CMS Project Manager application to upgrade your project, you must replace the assemblies manually, you must manually merge the web.config files, and add all the new files and folders from a new Empty Project. For each version, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically creates the _EmptyProject folder once you create a new project. You can use DiffMerge or any other software that allows you to differentiate and merge the web.config changes, new files and folder structure.
- Run the upgraded project and verify it
- Build your solution and restart your Sitefinity CMS website.
IMPORTANT: You must not manually change the Sitefinity CMS version numbers stored in your configuration files. This is handled automatically by the upgrade process that starts with the first run of the website.
- Run the project and check it for errors.
Check for errors the UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files, located in the ~\App_Data\Sitefinity\Logs folder. If needed, contact the Sitefinity CMS support team with the attached UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files and specify the versions that you upgrade from and to.
NOTE: The first run of the upgraded website can be time-consuming, because Sitefinity CMS automatically performs incremental database upgrades from the database schemes used in the previous version to the one used in the new version. Information about the Sitefinity CMS version is stored both in the database and in the configuration files. At any time, the configuration files must match your database scheme.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity CMS 7.3 comes with granular permissions for dynamic content items. The upgrade of the permissions is done asynchronously - after you have upgraded and ran your website, the permissions upgrade starts. During this time, you may notice that Sitefinity CMS uses CPU resources. If the permissions upgrade is successful, you will see PASSED : Upgrading dynamic content permissions message in the UpgradeTrace.log file.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires reinstallation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- From the
bin folder of the project, delete Telerik.Sitefinity.UI.MVC.dll.
- Open folder
Properties, located in your project's folder and edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Add the following assemblies:
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ControllerContainer]
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ResourcePackage]
- In the Package Manager Console install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
- Deploy your upgraded project
Depending on the type of upgrade you want to make, perform one of the following:
- Replace your live website with the upgraded one.
If you want to replace your production website and database with the locally upgraded files, package your upgraded website and its database and deploy them on your production environment. For more information, see Deployment.
- Upload the upgraded project without the database.
Restart the website. This triggers the upgrade process of your production database.
For more information, see Upgrade projects in Continuous delivery.
If your project is deployed on Microsoft Azure, see Upgrade projects running on Microsoft Azure.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Because your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, and widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 6.3 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: Before you proceed with the upgrade, make sure you have complied with the prerequisites.
- You have downloaded your production website and database and have backed them up.
- You have downloaded from your Sitefinity CMS account the Project Manager of Sitefinity CMS 8.0 version and placed it in a new folder named to clearly indicate the particular Sitefinity CMS version (so you can easily distinguish it).
- Remove the Migrations module from your
~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Configuration/SystemConfig.Config file, by deleting the line <add version="6.3.5016.0" name="Migration" />.
To upgrade your 4.x and above project, perform the following:
- Update Sitefinity CMS assemblies and the references to them
- Update your assemblies, files, and folder structure.
Open the newly downloaded Sitefinity CMS Project Manager, select the project that you want to upgrade and click ActionsUpgrade button.
- The upgrade automatically updates the assemblies in your project's
bin folder.
- The upgrade automatically adds new files and folders to your project.
- The upgrade automatically merges settings from the new version’s
web.config file to your existing web.config file.
Verify that all your web.config settings are in place by comparing the web.config file from your backup.
IMPORTANT: You can use automatic web.config merge, if your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 5.4 and above.
If your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 4.0 and above, you can still use automatic web.config merge, but you must get the Sitefinity CMS Internal hotfix build 7.1.5201 or any later version.
For all other cases, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically updates the assemblies and adds new files and folders, but you must manually merge the web.config changes.
- Update the references to the assemblies
Compare the contents of the following folders:
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of your current Sitefinity CMS version.
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of the Sitefinity CMS version that you want to upgrade to.
- You need to compare differences in the
.dll files only – which .dll files are removed and which are added to the bin folder of the version that you want to upgrade to. You can use any comparison tool, such as WinMerge.
NOTE: If the DLL files do not match during the comparison, you can replace them manually from the _EmptyProject's bin folder .
- Open your project in Visual studio, remove references to the removed
.dll files and add references to the added .dll files.
If your project is part of a larger solution where you have custom projects that reference Sitefinity CMS assemblies, check the references to those assemblies in your project and make sure that they are referencing the newer assemblies.
-
NOTE: The Sitefinity CMS Project Manager does not remove any .dll files - it only adds the new ones. Thus, if you have referenced the old .dll files anywhere in your solution, the upgrade will not break your customizations. If you want to remove the .dll files, you must do this this manually after making sure the .dll files are not used anywhere in your project.
-
NOTE: If you do not use Sitefinity CMS Project Manager application to upgrade your project, you must replace the assemblies manually, you must manually merge the web.config files, and add all the new files and folders from a new Empty Project. For each version, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically creates the _EmptyProject folder once you create a new project. You can use DiffMerge or any other software that allows you to differentiate and merge the web.config changes, new files and folder structure.
- Run the upgraded project and verify it
- Build your solution and restart your Sitefinity CMS website.
IMPORTANT: You must not manually change the Sitefinity CMS version numbers stored in your configuration files. This is handled automatically by the upgrade process that starts with the first run of the website.
- Run the project and check it for errors.
Check for errors the UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files, located in the ~\App_Data\Sitefinity\Logs folder. If needed, contact the Sitefinity CMS support team with the attached UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files and specify the versions that you upgrade from and to.
NOTE: The first run of the upgraded website can be time-consuming, because Sitefinity CMS automatically performs incremental database upgrades from the database schemes used in the previous version to the one used in the new version. Information about the Sitefinity CMS version is stored both in the database and in the configuration files. At any time, the configuration files must match your database scheme.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity CMS 7.3 comes with granular permissions for dynamic content items. The upgrade of the permissions is done asynchronously - after you have upgraded and ran your website, the permissions upgrade starts. During this time, you may notice that Sitefinity CMS uses CPU resources. If the permissions upgrade is successful, you will see PASSED : Upgrading dynamic content permissions message in the UpgradeTrace.log file.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires reinstallation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- From the
bin folder of the project, delete Telerik.Sitefinity.UI.MVC.dll.
- Open folder
Properties, located in your project's folder and edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Add the following assemblies:
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ControllerContainer]
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ResourcePackage]
- In the Package Manager Console install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
- Deploy your upgraded project
Depending on the type of upgrade you want to make, perform one of the following:
- Replace your live website with the upgraded one.
If you want to replace your production website and database with the locally upgraded files, package your upgraded website and its database and deploy them on your production environment. For more information, see Deployment.
- Upload the upgraded project without the database.
Restart the website. This triggers the upgrade process of your production database.
For more information, see Upgrade projects in Continuous delivery.
If your project is deployed on Microsoft Azure, see Upgrade projects running on Microsoft Azure.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Because your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, and widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 6.2 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: Before you proceed with the upgrade, make sure you have complied with the prerequisites.
- You have downloaded your production website and database and have backed them up.
- You have downloaded from your Sitefinity CMS account the Project Manager of Sitefinity CMS 8.0 version and placed it in a new folder named to clearly indicate the particular Sitefinity CMS version (so you can easily distinguish it).
- Remove the Migrations module from your
~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Configuration/SystemConfig.Config file, by deleting the line <add version="6.3.5016.0" name="Migration" />.
To upgrade your 4.x and above project, perform the following:
- Update Sitefinity CMS assemblies and the references to them
- Update your assemblies, files, and folder structure.
Open the newly downloaded Sitefinity CMS Project Manager, select the project that you want to upgrade and click ActionsUpgrade button.
- The upgrade automatically updates the assemblies in your project's
bin folder.
- The upgrade automatically adds new files and folders to your project.
- The upgrade automatically merges settings from the new version’s
web.config file to your existing web.config file.
Verify that all your web.config settings are in place by comparing the web.config file from your backup.
IMPORTANT: You can use automatic web.config merge, if your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 5.4 and above.
If your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 4.0 and above, you can still use automatic web.config merge, but you must get the Sitefinity CMS Internal hotfix build 7.1.5201 or any later version.
For all other cases, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically updates the assemblies and adds new files and folders, but you must manually merge the web.config changes.
- Update the references to the assemblies
Compare the contents of the following folders:
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of your current Sitefinity CMS version.
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of the Sitefinity CMS version that you want to upgrade to.
- You need to compare differences in the
.dll files only – which .dll files are removed and which are added to the bin folder of the version that you want to upgrade to. You can use any comparison tool, such as WinMerge.
NOTE: If the DLL files do not match during the comparison, you can replace them manually from the _EmptyProject's bin folder .
- Open your project in Visual studio, remove references to the removed
.dll files and add references to the added .dll files.
If your project is part of a larger solution where you have custom projects that reference Sitefinity CMS assemblies, check the references to those assemblies in your project and make sure that they are referencing the newer assemblies.
-
NOTE: The Sitefinity CMS Project Manager does not remove any .dll files - it only adds the new ones. Thus, if you have referenced the old .dll files anywhere in your solution, the upgrade will not break your customizations. If you want to remove the .dll files, you must do this this manually after making sure the .dll files are not used anywhere in your project.
-
NOTE: If you do not use Sitefinity CMS Project Manager application to upgrade your project, you must replace the assemblies manually, you must manually merge the web.config files, and add all the new files and folders from a new Empty Project. For each version, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically creates the _EmptyProject folder once you create a new project. You can use DiffMerge or any other software that allows you to differentiate and merge the web.config changes, new files and folder structure.
- Run the upgraded project and verify it
- Build your solution and restart your Sitefinity CMS website.
IMPORTANT: You must not manually change the Sitefinity CMS version numbers stored in your configuration files. This is handled automatically by the upgrade process that starts with the first run of the website.
- Run the project and check it for errors.
Check for errors the UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files, located in the ~\App_Data\Sitefinity\Logs folder. If needed, contact the Sitefinity CMS support team with the attached UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files and specify the versions that you upgrade from and to.
NOTE: The first run of the upgraded website can be time-consuming, because Sitefinity CMS automatically performs incremental database upgrades from the database schemes used in the previous version to the one used in the new version. Information about the Sitefinity CMS version is stored both in the database and in the configuration files. At any time, the configuration files must match your database scheme.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity CMS 7.3 comes with granular permissions for dynamic content items. The upgrade of the permissions is done asynchronously - after you have upgraded and ran your website, the permissions upgrade starts. During this time, you may notice that Sitefinity CMS uses CPU resources. If the permissions upgrade is successful, you will see PASSED : Upgrading dynamic content permissions message in the UpgradeTrace.log file.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires reinstallation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- From the
bin folder of the project, delete Telerik.Sitefinity.UI.MVC.dll.
- Open folder
Properties, located in your project's folder and edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Add the following assemblies:
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ControllerContainer]
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ResourcePackage]
- In the Package Manager Console install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
- Deploy your upgraded project
Depending on the type of upgrade you want to make, perform one of the following:
- Replace your live website with the upgraded one.
If you want to replace your production website and database with the locally upgraded files, package your upgraded website and its database and deploy them on your production environment. For more information, see Deployment.
- Upload the upgraded project without the database.
Restart the website. This triggers the upgrade process of your production database.
For more information, see Upgrade projects in Continuous delivery.
If your project is deployed on Microsoft Azure, see Upgrade projects running on Microsoft Azure.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Because your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, and widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 6.1 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: Before you proceed with the upgrade, make sure you have complied with the prerequisites.
- You have downloaded your production website and database and have backed them up.
- You have downloaded from your Sitefinity CMS account the Project Manager of Sitefinity CMS 8.0 version and placed it in a new folder named to clearly indicate the particular Sitefinity CMS version (so you can easily distinguish it).
- Remove the Migrations module from your
~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Configuration/SystemConfig.Config file, by deleting the line <add version="6.3.5016.0" name="Migration" />.
To upgrade your 4.x and above project, perform the following:
- Update Sitefinity CMS assemblies and the references to them
- Update your assemblies, files, and folder structure.
Open the newly downloaded Sitefinity CMS Project Manager, select the project that you want to upgrade and click ActionsUpgrade button.
- The upgrade automatically updates the assemblies in your project's
bin folder.
- The upgrade automatically adds new files and folders to your project.
- The upgrade automatically merges settings from the new version’s
web.config file to your existing web.config file.
Verify that all your web.config settings are in place by comparing the web.config file from your backup.
IMPORTANT: You can use automatic web.config merge, if your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 5.4 and above.
If your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 4.0 and above, you can still use automatic web.config merge, but you must get the Sitefinity CMS Internal hotfix build 7.1.5201 or any later version.
For all other cases, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically updates the assemblies and adds new files and folders, but you must manually merge the web.config changes.
- Update the references to the assemblies
Compare the contents of the following folders:
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of your current Sitefinity CMS version.
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of the Sitefinity CMS version that you want to upgrade to.
- You need to compare differences in the
.dll files only – which .dll files are removed and which are added to the bin folder of the version that you want to upgrade to. You can use any comparison tool, such as WinMerge.
NOTE: If the DLL files do not match during the comparison, you can replace them manually from the _EmptyProject's bin folder .
- Open your project in Visual studio, remove references to the removed
.dll files and add references to the added .dll files.
If your project is part of a larger solution where you have custom projects that reference Sitefinity CMS assemblies, check the references to those assemblies in your project and make sure that they are referencing the newer assemblies.
-
NOTE: The Sitefinity CMS Project Manager does not remove any .dll files - it only adds the new ones. Thus, if you have referenced the old .dll files anywhere in your solution, the upgrade will not break your customizations. If you want to remove the .dll files, you must do this this manually after making sure the .dll files are not used anywhere in your project.
-
NOTE: If you do not use Sitefinity CMS Project Manager application to upgrade your project, you must replace the assemblies manually, you must manually merge the web.config files, and add all the new files and folders from a new Empty Project. For each version, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically creates the _EmptyProject folder once you create a new project. You can use DiffMerge or any other software that allows you to differentiate and merge the web.config changes, new files and folder structure.
- Run the upgraded project and verify it
- Build your solution and restart your Sitefinity CMS website.
IMPORTANT: You must not manually change the Sitefinity CMS version numbers stored in your configuration files. This is handled automatically by the upgrade process that starts with the first run of the website.
- Run the project and check it for errors.
Check for errors the UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files, located in the ~\App_Data\Sitefinity\Logs folder. If needed, contact the Sitefinity CMS support team with the attached UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files and specify the versions that you upgrade from and to.
NOTE: The first run of the upgraded website can be time-consuming, because Sitefinity CMS automatically performs incremental database upgrades from the database schemes used in the previous version to the one used in the new version. Information about the Sitefinity CMS version is stored both in the database and in the configuration files. At any time, the configuration files must match your database scheme.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity CMS 7.3 comes with granular permissions for dynamic content items. The upgrade of the permissions is done asynchronously - after you have upgraded and ran your website, the permissions upgrade starts. During this time, you may notice that Sitefinity CMS uses CPU resources. If the permissions upgrade is successful, you will see PASSED : Upgrading dynamic content permissions message in the UpgradeTrace.log file.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires reinstallation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- From the
bin folder of the project, delete Telerik.Sitefinity.UI.MVC.dll.
- Open folder
Properties, located in your project's folder and edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Add the following assemblies:
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ControllerContainer]
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ResourcePackage]
- In the Package Manager Console install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
- Deploy your upgraded project
Depending on the type of upgrade you want to make, perform one of the following:
- Replace your live website with the upgraded one.
If you want to replace your production website and database with the locally upgraded files, package your upgraded website and its database and deploy them on your production environment. For more information, see Deployment.
- Upload the upgraded project without the database.
Restart the website. This triggers the upgrade process of your production database.
For more information, see Upgrade projects in Continuous delivery.
If your project is deployed on Microsoft Azure, see Upgrade projects running on Microsoft Azure.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Because your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, and widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 6.0 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: Before you proceed with the upgrade, make sure you have complied with the prerequisites.
- You have downloaded your production website and database and have backed them up.
- You have downloaded from your Sitefinity CMS account the Project Manager of Sitefinity CMS 8.0 version and placed it in a new folder named to clearly indicate the particular Sitefinity CMS version (so you can easily distinguish it).
- Remove the Migrations module from your
~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Configuration/SystemConfig.Config file, by deleting the line <add version="6.3.5016.0" name="Migration" />.
To upgrade your 4.x and above project, perform the following:
- Update Sitefinity CMS assemblies and the references to them
- Update your assemblies, files, and folder structure.
Open the newly downloaded Sitefinity CMS Project Manager, select the project that you want to upgrade and click ActionsUpgrade button.
- The upgrade automatically updates the assemblies in your project's
bin folder.
- The upgrade automatically adds new files and folders to your project.
- The upgrade automatically merges settings from the new version’s
web.config file to your existing web.config file.
Verify that all your web.config settings are in place by comparing the web.config file from your backup.
IMPORTANT: You can use automatic web.config merge, if your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 5.4 and above.
If your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 4.0 and above, you can still use automatic web.config merge, but you must get the Sitefinity CMS Internal hotfix build 7.1.5201 or any later version.
For all other cases, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically updates the assemblies and adds new files and folders, but you must manually merge the web.config changes.
- Update the references to the assemblies
Compare the contents of the following folders:
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of your current Sitefinity CMS version.
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of the Sitefinity CMS version that you want to upgrade to.
- You need to compare differences in the
.dll files only – which .dll files are removed and which are added to the bin folder of the version that you want to upgrade to. You can use any comparison tool, such as WinMerge.
NOTE: If the DLL files do not match during the comparison, you can replace them manually from the _EmptyProject's bin folder .
- Open your project in Visual studio, remove references to the removed
.dll files and add references to the added .dll files.
If your project is part of a larger solution where you have custom projects that reference Sitefinity CMS assemblies, check the references to those assemblies in your project and make sure that they are referencing the newer assemblies.
-
NOTE: The Sitefinity CMS Project Manager does not remove any .dll files - it only adds the new ones. Thus, if you have referenced the old .dll files anywhere in your solution, the upgrade will not break your customizations. If you want to remove the .dll files, you must do this this manually after making sure the .dll files are not used anywhere in your project.
-
NOTE: If you do not use Sitefinity CMS Project Manager application to upgrade your project, you must replace the assemblies manually, you must manually merge the web.config files, and add all the new files and folders from a new Empty Project. For each version, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically creates the _EmptyProject folder once you create a new project. You can use DiffMerge or any other software that allows you to differentiate and merge the web.config changes, new files and folder structure.
- Run the upgraded project and verify it
- Build your solution and restart your Sitefinity CMS website.
IMPORTANT: You must not manually change the Sitefinity CMS version numbers stored in your configuration files. This is handled automatically by the upgrade process that starts with the first run of the website.
- Run the project and check it for errors.
Check for errors the UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files, located in the ~\App_Data\Sitefinity\Logs folder. If needed, contact the Sitefinity CMS support team with the attached UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files and specify the versions that you upgrade from and to.
NOTE: The first run of the upgraded website can be time-consuming, because Sitefinity CMS automatically performs incremental database upgrades from the database schemes used in the previous version to the one used in the new version. Information about the Sitefinity CMS version is stored both in the database and in the configuration files. At any time, the configuration files must match your database scheme.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity CMS 7.3 comes with granular permissions for dynamic content items. The upgrade of the permissions is done asynchronously - after you have upgraded and ran your website, the permissions upgrade starts. During this time, you may notice that Sitefinity CMS uses CPU resources. If the permissions upgrade is successful, you will see PASSED : Upgrading dynamic content permissions message in the UpgradeTrace.log file.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires reinstallation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- From the
bin folder of the project, delete Telerik.Sitefinity.UI.MVC.dll.
- Open folder
Properties, located in your project's folder and edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Add the following assemblies:
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ControllerContainer]
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ResourcePackage]
- In the Package Manager Console install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
- Deploy your upgraded project
Depending on the type of upgrade you want to make, perform one of the following:
- Replace your live website with the upgraded one.
If you want to replace your production website and database with the locally upgraded files, package your upgraded website and its database and deploy them on your production environment. For more information, see Deployment.
- Upload the upgraded project without the database.
Restart the website. This triggers the upgrade process of your production database.
For more information, see Upgrade projects in Continuous delivery.
If your project is deployed on Microsoft Azure, see Upgrade projects running on Microsoft Azure.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Because your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, and widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 5.4 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: Before you proceed with the upgrade, make sure you have complied with the prerequisites.
- You have downloaded your production website and database and have backed them up.
- You have downloaded from your Sitefinity CMS account the Project Manager of Sitefinity CMS 8.0 version and placed it in a new folder named to clearly indicate the particular Sitefinity CMS version (so you can easily distinguish it).
- Remove the Migrations module from your
~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Configuration/SystemConfig.Config file, by deleting the line <add version="6.3.5016.0" name="Migration" />.
To upgrade your 4.x and above project, perform the following:
- Update Sitefinity CMS assemblies and the references to them
- Update your assemblies, files, and folder structure.
Open the newly downloaded Sitefinity CMS Project Manager, select the project that you want to upgrade and click ActionsUpgrade button.
- The upgrade automatically updates the assemblies in your project's
bin folder.
- The upgrade automatically adds new files and folders to your project.
- The upgrade automatically merges settings from the new version’s
web.config file to your existing web.config file.
Verify that all your web.config settings are in place by comparing the web.config file from your backup.
IMPORTANT: You can use automatic web.config merge, if your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 5.4 and above.
If your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 4.0 and above, you can still use automatic web.config merge, but you must get the Sitefinity CMS Internal hotfix build 7.1.5201 or any later version.
For all other cases, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically updates the assemblies and adds new files and folders, but you must manually merge the web.config changes.
- Update the references to the assemblies
Compare the contents of the following folders:
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of your current Sitefinity CMS version.
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of the Sitefinity CMS version that you want to upgrade to.
- You need to compare differences in the
.dll files only – which .dll files are removed and which are added to the bin folder of the version that you want to upgrade to. You can use any comparison tool, such as WinMerge.
NOTE: If the DLL files do not match during the comparison, you can replace them manually from the _EmptyProject's bin folder .
- Open your project in Visual studio, remove references to the removed
.dll files and add references to the added .dll files.
If your project is part of a larger solution where you have custom projects that reference Sitefinity CMS assemblies, check the references to those assemblies in your project and make sure that they are referencing the newer assemblies.
-
NOTE: The Sitefinity CMS Project Manager does not remove any .dll files - it only adds the new ones. Thus, if you have referenced the old .dll files anywhere in your solution, the upgrade will not break your customizations. If you want to remove the .dll files, you must do this this manually after making sure the .dll files are not used anywhere in your project.
-
NOTE: If you do not use Sitefinity CMS Project Manager application to upgrade your project, you must replace the assemblies manually, you must manually merge the web.config files, and add all the new files and folders from a new Empty Project. For each version, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically creates the _EmptyProject folder once you create a new project. You can use DiffMerge or any other software that allows you to differentiate and merge the web.config changes, new files and folder structure.
- Run the upgraded project and verify it
- Build your solution and restart your Sitefinity CMS website.
IMPORTANT: You must not manually change the Sitefinity CMS version numbers stored in your configuration files. This is handled automatically by the upgrade process that starts with the first run of the website.
- Run the project and check it for errors.
Check for errors the UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files, located in the ~\App_Data\Sitefinity\Logs folder. If needed, contact the Sitefinity CMS support team with the attached UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files and specify the versions that you upgrade from and to.
NOTE: The first run of the upgraded website can be time-consuming, because Sitefinity CMS automatically performs incremental database upgrades from the database schemes used in the previous version to the one used in the new version. Information about the Sitefinity CMS version is stored both in the database and in the configuration files. At any time, the configuration files must match your database scheme.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity CMS 7.3 comes with granular permissions for dynamic content items. The upgrade of the permissions is done asynchronously - after you have upgraded and ran your website, the permissions upgrade starts. During this time, you may notice that Sitefinity CMS uses CPU resources. If the permissions upgrade is successful, you will see PASSED : Upgrading dynamic content permissions message in the UpgradeTrace.log file.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires reinstallation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- From the
bin folder of the project, delete Telerik.Sitefinity.UI.MVC.dll.
- Open folder
Properties, located in your project's folder and edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Add the following assemblies:
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ControllerContainer]
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ResourcePackage]
- In the Package Manager Console install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
- Deploy your upgraded project
Depending on the type of upgrade you want to make, perform one of the following:
- Replace your live website with the upgraded one.
If you want to replace your production website and database with the locally upgraded files, package your upgraded website and its database and deploy them on your production environment. For more information, see Deployment.
- Upload the upgraded project without the database.
Restart the website. This triggers the upgrade process of your production database.
For more information, see Upgrade projects in Continuous delivery.
If your project is deployed on Microsoft Azure, see Upgrade projects running on Microsoft Azure.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Because your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, and widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 5.3 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: Before you proceed with the upgrade, make sure you have complied with the prerequisites.
- You have downloaded your production website and database and have backed them up.
- You have downloaded from your Sitefinity CMS account the Project Manager of Sitefinity CMS 8.0 version and placed it in a new folder named to clearly indicate the particular Sitefinity CMS version (so you can easily distinguish it).
- Remove the Migrations module from your
~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Configuration/SystemConfig.Config file, by deleting the line <add version="6.3.5016.0" name="Migration" />.
To upgrade your 4.x and above project, perform the following:
- Update Sitefinity CMS assemblies and the references to them
- Update your assemblies, files, and folder structure.
Open the newly downloaded Sitefinity CMS Project Manager, select the project that you want to upgrade and click ActionsUpgrade button.
- The upgrade automatically updates the assemblies in your project's
bin folder.
- The upgrade automatically adds new files and folders to your project.
- The upgrade automatically merges settings from the new version’s
web.config file to your existing web.config file.
Verify that all your web.config settings are in place by comparing the web.config file from your backup.
IMPORTANT: You can use automatic web.config merge, if your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 5.4 and above.
If your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 4.0 and above, you can still use automatic web.config merge, but you must get the Sitefinity CMS Internal hotfix build 7.1.5201 or any later version.
For all other cases, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically updates the assemblies and adds new files and folders, but you must manually merge the web.config changes.
- Update the references to the assemblies
Compare the contents of the following folders:
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of your current Sitefinity CMS version.
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of the Sitefinity CMS version that you want to upgrade to.
- You need to compare differences in the
.dll files only – which .dll files are removed and which are added to the bin folder of the version that you want to upgrade to. You can use any comparison tool, such as WinMerge.
NOTE: If the DLL files do not match during the comparison, you can replace them manually from the _EmptyProject's bin folder .
- Open your project in Visual studio, remove references to the removed
.dll files and add references to the added .dll files.
If your project is part of a larger solution where you have custom projects that reference Sitefinity CMS assemblies, check the references to those assemblies in your project and make sure that they are referencing the newer assemblies.
-
NOTE: The Sitefinity CMS Project Manager does not remove any .dll files - it only adds the new ones. Thus, if you have referenced the old .dll files anywhere in your solution, the upgrade will not break your customizations. If you want to remove the .dll files, you must do this this manually after making sure the .dll files are not used anywhere in your project.
-
NOTE: If you do not use Sitefinity CMS Project Manager application to upgrade your project, you must replace the assemblies manually, you must manually merge the web.config files, and add all the new files and folders from a new Empty Project. For each version, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically creates the _EmptyProject folder once you create a new project. You can use DiffMerge or any other software that allows you to differentiate and merge the web.config changes, new files and folder structure.
- Run the upgraded project and verify it
- Build your solution and restart your Sitefinity CMS website.
IMPORTANT: You must not manually change the Sitefinity CMS version numbers stored in your configuration files. This is handled automatically by the upgrade process that starts with the first run of the website.
- Run the project and check it for errors.
Check for errors the UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files, located in the ~\App_Data\Sitefinity\Logs folder. If needed, contact the Sitefinity CMS support team with the attached UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files and specify the versions that you upgrade from and to.
NOTE: The first run of the upgraded website can be time-consuming, because Sitefinity CMS automatically performs incremental database upgrades from the database schemes used in the previous version to the one used in the new version. Information about the Sitefinity CMS version is stored both in the database and in the configuration files. At any time, the configuration files must match your database scheme.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity CMS 7.3 comes with granular permissions for dynamic content items. The upgrade of the permissions is done asynchronously - after you have upgraded and ran your website, the permissions upgrade starts. During this time, you may notice that Sitefinity CMS uses CPU resources. If the permissions upgrade is successful, you will see PASSED : Upgrading dynamic content permissions message in the UpgradeTrace.log file.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires reinstallation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- From the
bin folder of the project, delete Telerik.Sitefinity.UI.MVC.dll.
- Open folder
Properties, located in your project's folder and edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Add the following assemblies:
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ControllerContainer]
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ResourcePackage]
- In the Package Manager Console install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
- Deploy your upgraded project
Depending on the type of upgrade you want to make, perform one of the following:
- Replace your live website with the upgraded one.
If you want to replace your production website and database with the locally upgraded files, package your upgraded website and its database and deploy them on your production environment. For more information, see Deployment.
- Upload the upgraded project without the database.
Restart the website. This triggers the upgrade process of your production database.
For more information, see Upgrade projects in Continuous delivery.
If your project is deployed on Microsoft Azure, see Upgrade projects running on Microsoft Azure.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Because your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, and widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 5.2 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: Before you proceed with the upgrade, make sure you have complied with the prerequisites.
- You have downloaded your production website and database and have backed them up.
- You have downloaded from your Sitefinity CMS account the Project Manager of Sitefinity CMS 8.0 version and placed it in a new folder named to clearly indicate the particular Sitefinity CMS version (so you can easily distinguish it).
- Remove the Migrations module from your
~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Configuration/SystemConfig.Config file, by deleting the line <add version="6.3.5016.0" name="Migration" />.
To upgrade your 4.x and above project, perform the following:
- Update Sitefinity CMS assemblies and the references to them
- Update your assemblies, files, and folder structure.
Open the newly downloaded Sitefinity CMS Project Manager, select the project that you want to upgrade and click ActionsUpgrade button.
- The upgrade automatically updates the assemblies in your project's
bin folder.
- The upgrade automatically adds new files and folders to your project.
- The upgrade automatically merges settings from the new version’s
web.config file to your existing web.config file.
Verify that all your web.config settings are in place by comparing the web.config file from your backup.
IMPORTANT: You can use automatic web.config merge, if your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 5.4 and above.
If your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 4.0 and above, you can still use automatic web.config merge, but you must get the Sitefinity CMS Internal hotfix build 7.1.5201 or any later version.
For all other cases, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically updates the assemblies and adds new files and folders, but you must manually merge the web.config changes.
- Update the references to the assemblies
Compare the contents of the following folders:
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of your current Sitefinity CMS version.
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of the Sitefinity CMS version that you want to upgrade to.
- You need to compare differences in the
.dll files only – which .dll files are removed and which are added to the bin folder of the version that you want to upgrade to. You can use any comparison tool, such as WinMerge.
NOTE: If the DLL files do not match during the comparison, you can replace them manually from the _EmptyProject's bin folder .
- Open your project in Visual studio, remove references to the removed
.dll files and add references to the added .dll files.
If your project is part of a larger solution where you have custom projects that reference Sitefinity CMS assemblies, check the references to those assemblies in your project and make sure that they are referencing the newer assemblies.
-
NOTE: The Sitefinity CMS Project Manager does not remove any .dll files - it only adds the new ones. Thus, if you have referenced the old .dll files anywhere in your solution, the upgrade will not break your customizations. If you want to remove the .dll files, you must do this this manually after making sure the .dll files are not used anywhere in your project.
-
NOTE: If you do not use Sitefinity CMS Project Manager application to upgrade your project, you must replace the assemblies manually, you must manually merge the web.config files, and add all the new files and folders from a new Empty Project. For each version, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically creates the _EmptyProject folder once you create a new project. You can use DiffMerge or any other software that allows you to differentiate and merge the web.config changes, new files and folder structure.
- Run the upgraded project and verify it
- Build your solution and restart your Sitefinity CMS website.
IMPORTANT: You must not manually change the Sitefinity CMS version numbers stored in your configuration files. This is handled automatically by the upgrade process that starts with the first run of the website.
- Run the project and check it for errors.
Check for errors the UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files, located in the ~\App_Data\Sitefinity\Logs folder. If needed, contact the Sitefinity CMS support team with the attached UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files and specify the versions that you upgrade from and to.
NOTE: The first run of the upgraded website can be time-consuming, because Sitefinity CMS automatically performs incremental database upgrades from the database schemes used in the previous version to the one used in the new version. Information about the Sitefinity CMS version is stored both in the database and in the configuration files. At any time, the configuration files must match your database scheme.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity CMS 7.3 comes with granular permissions for dynamic content items. The upgrade of the permissions is done asynchronously - after you have upgraded and ran your website, the permissions upgrade starts. During this time, you may notice that Sitefinity CMS uses CPU resources. If the permissions upgrade is successful, you will see PASSED : Upgrading dynamic content permissions message in the UpgradeTrace.log file.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires reinstallation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- From the
bin folder of the project, delete Telerik.Sitefinity.UI.MVC.dll.
- Open folder
Properties, located in your project's folder and edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Add the following assemblies:
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ControllerContainer]
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ResourcePackage]
- In the Package Manager Console install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
- Deploy your upgraded project
Depending on the type of upgrade you want to make, perform one of the following:
- Replace your live website with the upgraded one.
If you want to replace your production website and database with the locally upgraded files, package your upgraded website and its database and deploy them on your production environment. For more information, see Deployment.
- Upload the upgraded project without the database.
Restart the website. This triggers the upgrade process of your production database.
For more information, see Upgrade projects in Continuous delivery.
If your project is deployed on Microsoft Azure, see Upgrade projects running on Microsoft Azure.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Because your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, and widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 5.1 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: Before you proceed with the upgrade, make sure you have complied with the prerequisites.
- You have downloaded your production website and database and have backed them up.
- You have downloaded from your Sitefinity CMS account the Project Manager of Sitefinity CMS 8.0 version and placed it in a new folder named to clearly indicate the particular Sitefinity CMS version (so you can easily distinguish it).
- Remove the Migrations module from your
~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Configuration/SystemConfig.Config file, by deleting the line <add version="6.3.5016.0" name="Migration" />.
To upgrade your 4.x and above project, perform the following:
- Update Sitefinity CMS assemblies and the references to them
- Update your assemblies, files, and folder structure.
Open the newly downloaded Sitefinity CMS Project Manager, select the project that you want to upgrade and click ActionsUpgrade button.
- The upgrade automatically updates the assemblies in your project's
bin folder.
- The upgrade automatically adds new files and folders to your project.
- The upgrade automatically merges settings from the new version’s
web.config file to your existing web.config file.
Verify that all your web.config settings are in place by comparing the web.config file from your backup.
IMPORTANT: You can use automatic web.config merge, if your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 5.4 and above.
If your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 4.0 and above, you can still use automatic web.config merge, but you must get the Sitefinity CMS Internal hotfix build 7.1.5201 or any later version.
For all other cases, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically updates the assemblies and adds new files and folders, but you must manually merge the web.config changes.
- Update the references to the assemblies
Compare the contents of the following folders:
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of your current Sitefinity CMS version.
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of the Sitefinity CMS version that you want to upgrade to.
- You need to compare differences in the
.dll files only – which .dll files are removed and which are added to the bin folder of the version that you want to upgrade to. You can use any comparison tool, such as WinMerge.
NOTE: If the DLL files do not match during the comparison, you can replace them manually from the _EmptyProject's bin folder .
- Open your project in Visual studio, remove references to the removed
.dll files and add references to the added .dll files.
If your project is part of a larger solution where you have custom projects that reference Sitefinity CMS assemblies, check the references to those assemblies in your project and make sure that they are referencing the newer assemblies.
-
NOTE: The Sitefinity CMS Project Manager does not remove any .dll files - it only adds the new ones. Thus, if you have referenced the old .dll files anywhere in your solution, the upgrade will not break your customizations. If you want to remove the .dll files, you must do this this manually after making sure the .dll files are not used anywhere in your project.
-
NOTE: If you do not use Sitefinity CMS Project Manager application to upgrade your project, you must replace the assemblies manually, you must manually merge the web.config files, and add all the new files and folders from a new Empty Project. For each version, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically creates the _EmptyProject folder once you create a new project. You can use DiffMerge or any other software that allows you to differentiate and merge the web.config changes, new files and folder structure.
- Run the upgraded project and verify it
- Build your solution and restart your Sitefinity CMS website.
IMPORTANT: You must not manually change the Sitefinity CMS version numbers stored in your configuration files. This is handled automatically by the upgrade process that starts with the first run of the website.
- Run the project and check it for errors.
Check for errors the UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files, located in the ~\App_Data\Sitefinity\Logs folder. If needed, contact the Sitefinity CMS support team with the attached UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files and specify the versions that you upgrade from and to.
NOTE: The first run of the upgraded website can be time-consuming, because Sitefinity CMS automatically performs incremental database upgrades from the database schemes used in the previous version to the one used in the new version. Information about the Sitefinity CMS version is stored both in the database and in the configuration files. At any time, the configuration files must match your database scheme.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity CMS 7.3 comes with granular permissions for dynamic content items. The upgrade of the permissions is done asynchronously - after you have upgraded and ran your website, the permissions upgrade starts. During this time, you may notice that Sitefinity CMS uses CPU resources. If the permissions upgrade is successful, you will see PASSED : Upgrading dynamic content permissions message in the UpgradeTrace.log file.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires reinstallation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- From the
bin folder of the project, delete Telerik.Sitefinity.UI.MVC.dll.
- Open folder
Properties, located in your project's folder and edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Add the following assemblies:
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ControllerContainer]
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ResourcePackage]
- In the Package Manager Console install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
- Deploy your upgraded project
Depending on the type of upgrade you want to make, perform one of the following:
- Replace your live website with the upgraded one.
If you want to replace your production website and database with the locally upgraded files, package your upgraded website and its database and deploy them on your production environment. For more information, see Deployment.
- Upload the upgraded project without the database.
Restart the website. This triggers the upgrade process of your production database.
For more information, see Upgrade projects in Continuous delivery.
If your project is deployed on Microsoft Azure, see Upgrade projects running on Microsoft Azure.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Because your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, and widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 5.0 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: Before you proceed with the upgrade, make sure you have complied with the prerequisites.
- You have downloaded your production website and database and have backed them up.
- You have downloaded from your Sitefinity CMS account the Project Manager of Sitefinity CMS 8.0 version and placed it in a new folder named to clearly indicate the particular Sitefinity CMS version (so you can easily distinguish it).
- Remove the Migrations module from your
~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Configuration/SystemConfig.Config file, by deleting the line <add version="6.3.5016.0" name="Migration" />.
To upgrade your 4.x and above project, perform the following:
- Update Sitefinity CMS assemblies and the references to them
- Update your assemblies, files, and folder structure.
Open the newly downloaded Sitefinity CMS Project Manager, select the project that you want to upgrade and click ActionsUpgrade button.
- The upgrade automatically updates the assemblies in your project's
bin folder.
- The upgrade automatically adds new files and folders to your project.
- The upgrade automatically merges settings from the new version’s
web.config file to your existing web.config file.
Verify that all your web.config settings are in place by comparing the web.config file from your backup.
IMPORTANT: You can use automatic web.config merge, if your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 5.4 and above.
If your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 4.0 and above, you can still use automatic web.config merge, but you must get the Sitefinity CMS Internal hotfix build 7.1.5201 or any later version.
For all other cases, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically updates the assemblies and adds new files and folders, but you must manually merge the web.config changes.
- Update the references to the assemblies
Compare the contents of the following folders:
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of your current Sitefinity CMS version.
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of the Sitefinity CMS version that you want to upgrade to.
- You need to compare differences in the
.dll files only – which .dll files are removed and which are added to the bin folder of the version that you want to upgrade to. You can use any comparison tool, such as WinMerge.
NOTE: If the DLL files do not match during the comparison, you can replace them manually from the _EmptyProject's bin folder .
- Open your project in Visual studio, remove references to the removed
.dll files and add references to the added .dll files.
If your project is part of a larger solution where you have custom projects that reference Sitefinity CMS assemblies, check the references to those assemblies in your project and make sure that they are referencing the newer assemblies.
-
NOTE: The Sitefinity CMS Project Manager does not remove any .dll files - it only adds the new ones. Thus, if you have referenced the old .dll files anywhere in your solution, the upgrade will not break your customizations. If you want to remove the .dll files, you must do this this manually after making sure the .dll files are not used anywhere in your project.
-
NOTE: If you do not use Sitefinity CMS Project Manager application to upgrade your project, you must replace the assemblies manually, you must manually merge the web.config files, and add all the new files and folders from a new Empty Project. For each version, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically creates the _EmptyProject folder once you create a new project. You can use DiffMerge or any other software that allows you to differentiate and merge the web.config changes, new files and folder structure.
- Run the upgraded project and verify it
- Build your solution and restart your Sitefinity CMS website.
IMPORTANT: You must not manually change the Sitefinity CMS version numbers stored in your configuration files. This is handled automatically by the upgrade process that starts with the first run of the website.
- Run the project and check it for errors.
Check for errors the UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files, located in the ~\App_Data\Sitefinity\Logs folder. If needed, contact the Sitefinity CMS support team with the attached UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files and specify the versions that you upgrade from and to.
NOTE: The first run of the upgraded website can be time-consuming, because Sitefinity CMS automatically performs incremental database upgrades from the database schemes used in the previous version to the one used in the new version. Information about the Sitefinity CMS version is stored both in the database and in the configuration files. At any time, the configuration files must match your database scheme.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity CMS 7.3 comes with granular permissions for dynamic content items. The upgrade of the permissions is done asynchronously - after you have upgraded and ran your website, the permissions upgrade starts. During this time, you may notice that Sitefinity CMS uses CPU resources. If the permissions upgrade is successful, you will see PASSED : Upgrading dynamic content permissions message in the UpgradeTrace.log file.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires reinstallation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- From the
bin folder of the project, delete Telerik.Sitefinity.UI.MVC.dll.
- Open folder
Properties, located in your project's folder and edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Add the following assemblies:
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ControllerContainer]
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ResourcePackage]
- In the Package Manager Console install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
- Deploy your upgraded project
Depending on the type of upgrade you want to make, perform one of the following:
- Replace your live website with the upgraded one.
If you want to replace your production website and database with the locally upgraded files, package your upgraded website and its database and deploy them on your production environment. For more information, see Deployment.
- Upload the upgraded project without the database.
Restart the website. This triggers the upgrade process of your production database.
For more information, see Upgrade projects in Continuous delivery.
If your project is deployed on Microsoft Azure, see Upgrade projects running on Microsoft Azure.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Because your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, and widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 4.2 SP1 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: Before you proceed with the upgrade, make sure you have complied with the prerequisites.
- You have downloaded your production website and database and have backed them up.
- You have downloaded from your Sitefinity CMS account the Project Manager of Sitefinity CMS 8.0 version and placed it in a new folder named to clearly indicate the particular Sitefinity CMS version (so you can easily distinguish it).
- Remove the Migrations module from your
~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Configuration/SystemConfig.Config file, by deleting the line <add version="6.3.5016.0" name="Migration" />.
To upgrade your 4.x and above project, perform the following:
- Update Sitefinity CMS assemblies and the references to them
- Update your assemblies, files, and folder structure.
Open the newly downloaded Sitefinity CMS Project Manager, select the project that you want to upgrade and click ActionsUpgrade button.
- The upgrade automatically updates the assemblies in your project's
bin folder.
- The upgrade automatically adds new files and folders to your project.
- The upgrade automatically merges settings from the new version’s
web.config file to your existing web.config file.
Verify that all your web.config settings are in place by comparing the web.config file from your backup.
IMPORTANT: You can use automatic web.config merge, if your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 5.4 and above.
If your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 4.0 and above, you can still use automatic web.config merge, but you must get the Sitefinity CMS Internal hotfix build 7.1.5201 or any later version.
For all other cases, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically updates the assemblies and adds new files and folders, but you must manually merge the web.config changes.
- Update the references to the assemblies
Compare the contents of the following folders:
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of your current Sitefinity CMS version.
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of the Sitefinity CMS version that you want to upgrade to.
- You need to compare differences in the
.dll files only – which .dll files are removed and which are added to the bin folder of the version that you want to upgrade to. You can use any comparison tool, such as WinMerge.
NOTE: If the DLL files do not match during the comparison, you can replace them manually from the _EmptyProject's bin folder .
- Open your project in Visual studio, remove references to the removed
.dll files and add references to the added .dll files.
If your project is part of a larger solution where you have custom projects that reference Sitefinity CMS assemblies, check the references to those assemblies in your project and make sure that they are referencing the newer assemblies.
-
NOTE: The Sitefinity CMS Project Manager does not remove any .dll files - it only adds the new ones. Thus, if you have referenced the old .dll files anywhere in your solution, the upgrade will not break your customizations. If you want to remove the .dll files, you must do this this manually after making sure the .dll files are not used anywhere in your project.
-
NOTE: If you do not use Sitefinity CMS Project Manager application to upgrade your project, you must replace the assemblies manually, you must manually merge the web.config files, and add all the new files and folders from a new Empty Project. For each version, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically creates the _EmptyProject folder once you create a new project. You can use DiffMerge or any other software that allows you to differentiate and merge the web.config changes, new files and folder structure.
- Run the upgraded project and verify it
- Build your solution and restart your Sitefinity CMS website.
IMPORTANT: You must not manually change the Sitefinity CMS version numbers stored in your configuration files. This is handled automatically by the upgrade process that starts with the first run of the website.
- Run the project and check it for errors.
Check for errors the UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files, located in the ~\App_Data\Sitefinity\Logs folder. If needed, contact the Sitefinity CMS support team with the attached UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files and specify the versions that you upgrade from and to.
NOTE: The first run of the upgraded website can be time-consuming, because Sitefinity CMS automatically performs incremental database upgrades from the database schemes used in the previous version to the one used in the new version. Information about the Sitefinity CMS version is stored both in the database and in the configuration files. At any time, the configuration files must match your database scheme.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity CMS 7.3 comes with granular permissions for dynamic content items. The upgrade of the permissions is done asynchronously - after you have upgraded and ran your website, the permissions upgrade starts. During this time, you may notice that Sitefinity CMS uses CPU resources. If the permissions upgrade is successful, you will see PASSED : Upgrading dynamic content permissions message in the UpgradeTrace.log file.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires reinstallation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- From the
bin folder of the project, delete Telerik.Sitefinity.UI.MVC.dll.
- Open folder
Properties, located in your project's folder and edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Add the following assemblies:
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ControllerContainer]
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ResourcePackage]
- In the Package Manager Console install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
- Deploy your upgraded project
Depending on the type of upgrade you want to make, perform one of the following:
- Replace your live website with the upgraded one.
If you want to replace your production website and database with the locally upgraded files, package your upgraded website and its database and deploy them on your production environment. For more information, see Deployment.
- Upload the upgraded project without the database.
Restart the website. This triggers the upgrade process of your production database.
For more information, see Upgrade projects in Continuous delivery.
If your project is deployed on Microsoft Azure, see Upgrade projects running on Microsoft Azure.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Because your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, and widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity 4.2 is a retired release. You must upgrade to 14.4 LTS or newer version. We recommend always choosing the latest available version.
For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Life Cycle Policy Guide.
Upgrade Sitefinity CMS
PREREQUISITES: Before you proceed with the upgrade, make sure you have complied with the prerequisites.
- You have downloaded your production website and database and have backed them up.
- You have downloaded from your Sitefinity CMS account the Project Manager of Sitefinity CMS 8.0 version and placed it in a new folder named to clearly indicate the particular Sitefinity CMS version (so you can easily distinguish it).
- Remove the Migrations module from your
~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Configuration/SystemConfig.Config file, by deleting the line <add version="6.3.5016.0" name="Migration" />.
To upgrade your 4.x and above project, perform the following:
- Update Sitefinity CMS assemblies and the references to them
- Update your assemblies, files, and folder structure.
Open the newly downloaded Sitefinity CMS Project Manager, select the project that you want to upgrade and click ActionsUpgrade button.
- The upgrade automatically updates the assemblies in your project's
bin folder.
- The upgrade automatically adds new files and folders to your project.
- The upgrade automatically merges settings from the new version’s
web.config file to your existing web.config file.
Verify that all your web.config settings are in place by comparing the web.config file from your backup.
IMPORTANT: You can use automatic web.config merge, if your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 5.4 and above.
If your current project is Sitefinity CMS version 4.0 and above, you can still use automatic web.config merge, but you must get the Sitefinity CMS Internal hotfix build 7.1.5201 or any later version.
For all other cases, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically updates the assemblies and adds new files and folders, but you must manually merge the web.config changes.
- Update the references to the assemblies
Compare the contents of the following folders:
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of your current Sitefinity CMS version.
- The
bin folder of the _EmptyProject of the Sitefinity CMS version that you want to upgrade to.
- You need to compare differences in the
.dll files only – which .dll files are removed and which are added to the bin folder of the version that you want to upgrade to. You can use any comparison tool, such as WinMerge.
NOTE: If the DLL files do not match during the comparison, you can replace them manually from the _EmptyProject's bin folder .
- Open your project in Visual studio, remove references to the removed
.dll files and add references to the added .dll files.
If your project is part of a larger solution where you have custom projects that reference Sitefinity CMS assemblies, check the references to those assemblies in your project and make sure that they are referencing the newer assemblies.
-
NOTE: The Sitefinity CMS Project Manager does not remove any .dll files - it only adds the new ones. Thus, if you have referenced the old .dll files anywhere in your solution, the upgrade will not break your customizations. If you want to remove the .dll files, you must do this this manually after making sure the .dll files are not used anywhere in your project.
-
NOTE: If you do not use Sitefinity CMS Project Manager application to upgrade your project, you must replace the assemblies manually, you must manually merge the web.config files, and add all the new files and folders from a new Empty Project. For each version, Sitefinity CMS Project Manager automatically creates the _EmptyProject folder once you create a new project. You can use DiffMerge or any other software that allows you to differentiate and merge the web.config changes, new files and folder structure.
- Run the upgraded project and verify it
- Build your solution and restart your Sitefinity CMS website.
IMPORTANT: You must not manually change the Sitefinity CMS version numbers stored in your configuration files. This is handled automatically by the upgrade process that starts with the first run of the website.
- Run the project and check it for errors.
Check for errors the UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files, located in the ~\App_Data\Sitefinity\Logs folder. If needed, contact the Sitefinity CMS support team with the attached UpgradeTrace.log and Error.log files and specify the versions that you upgrade from and to.
NOTE: The first run of the upgraded website can be time-consuming, because Sitefinity CMS automatically performs incremental database upgrades from the database schemes used in the previous version to the one used in the new version. Information about the Sitefinity CMS version is stored both in the database and in the configuration files. At any time, the configuration files must match your database scheme.
IMPORTANT: Sitefinity CMS 7.3 comes with granular permissions for dynamic content items. The upgrade of the permissions is done asynchronously - after you have upgraded and ran your website, the permissions upgrade starts. During this time, you may notice that Sitefinity CMS uses CPU resources. If the permissions upgrade is successful, you will see PASSED : Upgrading dynamic content permissions message in the UpgradeTrace.log file.
- Set the target framework version of your project to .Net Framework 4.8.
Perform the following:
- Open your project in Visual Studio.
- In the context menu of SitefinityWebApp, click Properties.
- On Application tab, in Target framework dropdown box, select .NET Framework 4.8.
- Save the changes to your project
- Reinstall all packages:
- In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » Library Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
- Execute the following command: Update-Package -Reinstall
NOTE: You do this, because changing the target framework requires reinstallation of all packages. After you have removed all Sitefinity CMS related packages in Step 2, you perform this step to re-install all other packages that you may have installed on your system.
- From the
bin folder of the project, delete Telerik.Sitefinity.UI.MVC.dll.
- Open folder
Properties, located in your project's folder and edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
Add the following assemblies:
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ControllerContainer]
- [assembly: Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Infrastructure.Controllers.Attributes.ResourcePackage]
- In the Package Manager Console install the latest
Telerik.Sitefinity.Allpackage using the following command:
Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
NOTE: With this command you install the latest patch build, if you want to install a specific version you must use the command above followed by -Version and the version number.
For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 15.2.8499
NOTE: The BCL dependency used by Sitefinity CMS to integrate Azure search in previous versions is also removed. As a result, you can safely remove the Tools folder under the root of your SitefinityWebApp project.
- In the Package Manager Console, uninstall the following packages and delete the respective assemblies from the project's
bin folder:
Telerik.Sitefinity.ThunderTelerik.Sitefinity.DropboxLibrariesTelerik.Sitefinity.MobileAppBuilderTelerik.Sitefinity.DAMTelerik.Sitefinity.EverliveConnectorTelerik.Sitefinity.OpenAccess
- Build your solution.
- Deploy your upgraded project
Depending on the type of upgrade you want to make, perform one of the following:
- Replace your live website with the upgraded one.
If you want to replace your production website and database with the locally upgraded files, package your upgraded website and its database and deploy them on your production environment. For more information, see Deployment.
- Upload the upgraded project without the database.
Restart the website. This triggers the upgrade process of your production database.
For more information, see Upgrade projects in Continuous delivery.
If your project is deployed on Microsoft Azure, see Upgrade projects running on Microsoft Azure.
Migrate the frontend technology
IMPORTANT: Support for Web Forms capabilities in Sitefinity CMS frontend was discontinued in version 14.1. Progress strongly advises against using Web Forms for production deployments in any version beyond 13.3 LTS, which is the last officially supported version for Web Forms.
Web Forms capabilities are no longer eligible for support, feature development, or bug fixes - including security updates. Any newly introduced or discovered issues, including critical bugs without workarounds, will not be addressed.
The recommended alternative options are ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
To help you evaluate the current state of your project, use the Sitefinity Migration Analyzer. For more information, see Sitefinity Migration Analyzer.
Because your project runs Web Forms pages, templates, and widgets, you must modernize the frontend technology that your website uses.
You can choose between ASP.NET Core or Next.js. For more information, see Advantages of modern frontend technologies.
After choosing a technology, perform one of the following
Migrate to Sitefinity Cloud
Cloud migration involves transitioning from self-hosted environments to fully managed cloud services provided by Progress Sitefinity.
Consider the option to migrate to Sitefinity Cloud to streamline future upgrades, reduce infrastructure overhead, and enhance overall system reliability.
For more information, see Cloud migration.