[xwiki-users] Is there a simpler way to upgrade between versions?

Hello, I'm a very keen and happy user of xwiki. We use it for our corporate intranet and our users love it! I generally move directly between major versions as soon as convenient. The factor that has the most bearing on when we upgrade is the ease with which we can move between new versions. I remember seeing an items relating to simpler installation. I'd like to ask when that is scheduled to be worked on, and perhaps share some of my experiences in upgrading and some suggestions. I'd like to give you an idea of what has to be done to move between versions. It's a bit long, so bear with me, but here it is: * Download the latest xwiki xar to your local machine * Download the latest xwiki war to the machine which will run xwiki. * Backup the entire xwiki installation directory (the one that contains the directories database, jetty, lucene etc), and move the old directory aside (rename to xwiki.old) * //We do this to easily be able to get the jetty, hsql, etc dirs back in place//: Restore the backed up xwiki directory, thus putting the xwiki dir back in place * Delete the directory xwiki/webapps/xwiki * In xwiki/webapps, create an xwiki directory * Unzip the xwiki war in the xwiki/webapps/xwiki directory * //Getting our corp logo back//: Copy xwiki.old/webapps/xwiki/skins/toucan/mywiki.jpg to xwiki/webapps/xwiki/skins/toucan/mywiki.jpg * //Next few steps: need to merge old config with new config//: Do a diff between xwiki.old/webapps/xwiki/WEB-INF/xwiki.cfg and xwiki/webapps/xwiki/WEB-INF/xwiki.cfg. Update xwiki/webapps/xwiki/WEB-INF/xwiki.cfg as needed. * Do a diff between xwiki.old/webapps/xwiki/WEB-INF/xwiki.properties and xwiki/webapps/xwiki/WEB-INF/xwiki.properties. Update xwiki/webapps/xwiki/WEB-INF/xwiki.properties as needed. * Do a diff between xwiki.old/webapps/xwiki/WEB-INF/hibernate.cfg.xml and xwiki/webapps/xwiki/WEB-INF/hibernate.cfg.xml. Update xwiki/webapps/xwiki/WEB-INF/hibernate.cfg.xml as needed. * //This is the part we fear the most, for we might accidentally delete some configuration that we need and we would need to start the whole process again//: Start XWiki and import the default wiki xar. Be careful of what you import - read the instructions at http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/AdminGuide/Installation#HUpgrading… . ** The normally excluded pages from import are: *** XWiki.XWikiPreferences *** XWiki.XWikiGroups *** XWiki.XWikiAdminGroup *** XWiki.WebPreferences *** XWiki.WebHome *** XWiki.XWikiUsers *** XWiki.XWikiAllGroup *** XWiki.DefaultSkin *** Main.WebHome *** Panels.QuickLinks *** Panels.Search * //We customise the PDF cover//: The PDF covers files has been manually modified. Do a diff between xwiki.old/webapps/xwiki/templates/pdfcover.vm and xwiki/webapps/xwiki/templates/pdfcover.vm. Merge the differences. * //We customise the PDF footer//: The PDF footers file has been modified by hand. Do a diff between xwiki.old/webapps/xwiki/templates/pdffooter.vm and xwiki/webapps/xwiki/templates/pdffooter.vm. Merge the differences. * //We do this to be able to specify the PDF template to use in "Export as PDF"//: The Menuitems have to be edited by hand, so that PDFs are exported using the correct stylesheet. Do a diff between xwiki.old/webapps/xwiki/templates/menuview.vm and xwiki/webapps/xwiki/templates/menuview.vm. Merge the differences (there should only be one line).As you can see, there are quite a few steps, and it normally takes 1/2hr - 1hr to complete. Note that we will move to MySQL eventually, but the performance of HSQL is OK ATM. This may not be the most optimal upgrade path, so if there are any clear improvements you can see, please let me know. The part that needs to be improved upon the most, in my opinion, is the "import default XAR" step because it is easy to overwrite an important page. I would like to put in a big vote for separating information that can be modified by the user from information that xwiki needs to be able to operate, that comes with default xwiki. Perhaps making certain pages "system" pages so that it is clear that if a page is modified it may interrupt the operation of the wiki, and may be difficult to upgrade. The next most important thing to be improved is the storage of configuration that now sits in xwiki.cfg and xwiki.properties. This is difficult to migrate between versions. If this was automatically migrated between versions like the pages are, this would be much easier to manage. At our office we have a large system written in Java and we solved a similar problem using the Java Preferences API. Being able to fully customise the PDF layout (not just the stylesheet) inside xwiki, and also specify a default PDF style sheet to use during export would be #3 on my list. I'm interested in hearing some thoughts. Regards, Nigel