Deep dive into feature versioning and upgrade support in SharePoint 2010Jeremy Thake

Jeremy Thake

• Enterprise Architect since April ’11 at AvePoint

• SharePoint MVP since July ’10• Co-Founder of NothingButSharePoint.com• Speaker at MS TechEd 2009/10, SPC 11

Gplus.to/jthake@jthake

1. Background

on deploying versioned artefacts

2. New

upgrading artefacts principals

3. Declarative approach to upgrading artefacts

4. Imperative

approach to upgrading artefacts

5. Lessons

learnt from approaches

1. Background

on deploying versioned artefacts

2. New

upgrading artefacts principals

3. Declarative approach to upgrading artefacts

4. Imperative

approach to upgrading artefacts

5. Lessons

learnt from approaches

<ListInstance>

<ContentType>

<WebPart>

<WorkflowInstance>

<Field>

Some easier than others

• Definition vs. Instance– Site Column <Field>

• SPSite, SPWeb– Content Type <ContentType>

• SPSite, SPWeb, SPList– Web Part <WebPart>

• WP Gallery, Instances on pages– List Template

• SPSite, SPWeb, Instances at SPWeb

Some easier than others

• Module (Page Layout, Master Page, Style sheets)– As long as not ‘customised’– Renaming files

“OLD SKOOL”

• Imperative in-place upgrade– Deactivate/Activate -> “if column missing add it”

• Deactivate/Retract/Remove/Add/Deploy/Activate– Won’t work if in USE!

• Field• Content Types – blocks delete• Web Parts out of gallery and Web Part Instances• List Templates – removes but breaks List instances• Workflow – removes assembly, breaks Workflow

instances

• New Feature - Stapling• PowerShell

V1.0.0.0V12.0.0.0

1. Background

on deploying versioned artefacts

2. New

upgrading artefacts principals

3. Declarative approach to upgrading artefacts

4. Imperative

approach to upgrading artefacts

5. Lessons

learnt from approaches

One farm many feature versions active

SPDevWikiV1.0.0.0

SPDevWikiV2.0.0.0

SPDevWikiV3.0.0.0

SPDevWikiV1.0.0.0

SPDevWikiV2.0.0.0

SPDevWikiV3.0.0.0

SITE A SITE B SITE C

SPDevWikiV3.0.0.0

SPDevWikiV3.0.0.0

1. Background

on deploying versioned artefacts

2. New

upgrading artefacts principals

3. Declarative approach to upgrading artefacts

4. Imperative

approach to upgrading artefacts

5. Lessons

learnt from approaches

Upgrading features declaratively

• Version attribute not just for show ;-)– Not set by default in XML so uses 0.0.0.0– ActivationDependencies can specify version

• UpgradeActions element– VersionRange with Begin & End versions– MinimumVersion– ApplyElementManifest– AddContentTypeField– MapFile

Upgrading Features DeclarativelyDEMO

Upgrading Feature InstancesDEMO

1. Background

on deploying versioned artefacts

2. New

upgrading artefacts principals

3. Declarative approach to upgrading artefacts

4. Imperative

approach to upgrading artefacts

5. Lessons

learnt from approaches

Upgrade actions Imperative

• Provide assembly & class in UpgradeActions• CustomUpgradeActionss element provides

Name and Parameters• Fires FeatureUpgrading event receiver

Upgrading Features ImperativelyDEMO

1. Background

on deploying versioned artefacts

2. New

upgrading artefacts principals

3. Declarative approach to upgrading artefacts

4. Imperative

approach to upgrading artefacts

5. Lessons

learnt from approaches

TIPS

• Don’t forget to change definition as well do upgrade

• ALWAYS quit PowerShell when rebuilding WSP– Or use different names for WSP

• If CustomUpgradeAction fails, doesn’t upgrade feature– Will leave things “half baked” – defensive

coding• Adjust ULS logs to see messages

– ‘Feature Infrastructure’, ‘Fields’, ‘General’

What to watch - Definitions

Copy definition, create new one, hide old version

• List Templates• Workflow• Site Definitions

– or Feature stapling

What to watch - instances

• Web Parts– Imperatively modify properties– Assembly upgrade

• List Instances– Incrementally upgrade

• Workflows– Assembly upgrade on existing activities– Changing what activities exist on current

instances• “You’re on your own soldier”

SANDBOXED SOLUTIONS

• Slightly different!• Upgrade button for Sandboxed Solutions• On upgrading a Solution

– All Features are upgraded automatically!

Solution version

• Defined by having new wsp name – e.g. SPDevWiki_v1.0.0.0.wsp and

SPDevWiki_v2.0.0.0.wsp• Sandboxed Solutions

– Deploying different versions to different Site Collections in Farm

• Supported in Farm Solutions– Easy way to identify what version in different

Farms • no other way of identifying solutions• only keeps most recent

Assembly versions

• New Assembly Version– Workflow instances + Web Part instances– Will remove old version from GAC breaking

old Web Parts– Use Binding Redirect if not worried about old

assembly version – if so why do it in the first place?

• Assembly Versioning broken in Sandboxed Solutions

Feature upgrade object model

• QueryFeatures method (4 overloads)– Guid featureId– Guid featureId, bool needsUpgrade– Guid featureId, Version featureVersion– SPFeatureScope scope, bool needsUpgrade

• Available from SPWebService(Farm), SPWebApplication, SPContentDatabase & SPSite

Versioning strategies

• Main Goal– Identify which versions are across farm– Assembly version and Feature versions will diverge

• Release notes needed!

• Stick with one approach– Major.Minor.Build.Revision– Change severity (breaking/major/minor)– Shipping/non-shipping (product orientated)– Incorporate sprint/iteration– Incorporate changeset number– Other crazy approaches!

How can I prepare 2007 code?

• Start versioning your features – default 0.0.0.0

• <SharePoint:UIVersionedContent UIVersion=“4”>

• Deprecated API’s• Binding redirects• VSeWSS -> VS2010 supported• WSPBuilder/STSDev/STSADM/custom ->

manual

1. Background

on deploying versioned artefacts

2. New

upgrading artefacts principals

3. Declarative approach to upgrading artefacts

4. Imperative

approach to upgrading artefacts

5. Lessons

learnt from approaches

Sharepoint HEROES

• Mike Morton (Microsoft)• Chris O’Brien (SharePoint MVP)• Josh Carlisle (SharePoint Brain Freeze)

UI Feature upgrade

• http://spfeatureupgrade.codeplex.com/

Visual Studio 2010 add-in

• TechNet walkthrough for building VSIX add-in– http://

msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee256698.aspx

• Tommy Segoro (WA, AUS)– Completed code sample– http://vs2010spupgrade.codeplex.com/

REFERENCES

• Recorded webinar and scripts from session• wss.made4the.net• My Delicious Links• SharePoint.Microsoft.com• SharePoint 2010 Developer Resources

• Upgrading Custom Solutions• SharePoint Patterns & Practices Group (SPG)• SharePointDevWiki.com

• Getting Started in SharePoint 2010 development• Building a SharePoint 2010 Dev Machine– SPDevWiki Web Cast• Running SharePoint 2010 Dev Env

Q & A