You need to have a "Version 6.3" license at hand, before starting the upgrade process.
To be eligible for a 6.3 license you need to have a valid support subscription (Gold or Silver) with us, at least up to 15. June 2017 or later.
- If you do not yet have a v6.3 license, then please request this from license@farmerswife.com once you are ready to upgrade.
Note: the by now legacy v6.0 _was_ a facelift version!
The user interface has changed, but it's still farmerswife.
Also the installer names and paths now use "farmerswife" IF installed from scratch.
If you have not seen it before, go to our website http://www.farmerswife.com and click on the "Demo" menu button, enter your details and try it out on our "Online Demo" environment.
farmerswife Client Upgrade
The built-in auto-upgrade _is_ supported for all WIFE Clients on v5.2 Release or later!
The auto-WIFE-Client upgrade functionality is supported and works for all WIFE Clients which were once manually upgraded past 5.2 Beta 4.
For the farmerswife Client applications the "simple in-application" auto-upgrade process to work (once supported in later versions), "normal user" Operating System permissions (Read / Write) are sufficient. You log-in, you confirm that you want to upgrade, the needed files are transferred, the WIFE Client restarts, done
After the fw Server has been upgraded to v 6.3 or later, log-in with the WIFE Client, and follow the instructions of the auto-upgrade dialogues.
A manual WIFE Client upgrade is only needed for OLD installations BELOW v5.2 ...or once after upgrade to Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.x and later:
The auto-Client-upgrade functionality will NOT work for WIFE Clients below v5.2. A new SSL-based communication protocol has been implemented. Any WIFE Client has to be manually upgraded once to 5.2 Beta 4 or later. The auto-client upgrade will work again for any WIFE Client which was once manually upgraded past 5.2 Beta 4.
Any WIFE Client which was NOT manually upgraded, will state this message upon log-in: "Connection to the Server Timed Out"
IMPORTANT when upgrading the WIFE Client on Mac: If you have a mix of Admin and Standard users on a Mac, make sure to be logged-in as a Standard user. Then after mounting the .dmg file, drag-and-drop it to the Applications folder. You then need to authenticate with theAdmin users credentials! The farmerswife Client will not work for the Standard user, if installed while being logged-in as the Admin user.
Download the "Public Installers"
Go to our public installer page, browse to the "603_Release_rev16881" > "farmerswife_603_Release_rev16881" folder and download the Server Upgrade Installers for your OS and the needed Client Installers.
Upgrading step by step
- Your WIFE Server needs to be running on version 6.2 Service Pack 1 rev. 16524 to be ready for the upgrade.
Every farmerswife version contains specific upgrade code. To ensure a properly running system, you need to always upgrade the farmerswife Server application to the last Public released version!
Here the general upgrade path for all farmerswife Server's since v5.2:
5.2 SP1 to 6.0 SP5
6.0 SP5 to 6.1 SP1
6.1 SP1 to 6.2 SP1
6.2 SP1 to 6.3 SP1
Please contact support@farmerswife.com should you have any questions. Inform your colleagues about this new version BEFORE you upgrade.
Run a "Full Backup" BEFORE the upgrade. <= Use the "Full Backup Now" button located on the running WIFE Server application.
While the Full Backup is taking place, you could now take a look into the documents provided in the "Read And Use Me Upgrade Package"
you were issued together with your license of the previous Released version.
The upgrade itself might require a couple of "Forced Shutdowns" for it to finish; this depends on your usage of the system.
If needed, see more detailed information in the Installation Instructions.
Ensure you have the latest Java version (JRE on Windows/Linux, JDK on Mac OS X) installed, for the Web Client and Mobile Web Client and Play to work properly and in the most secure way. Watch out on Windows: here you can run the fw Server application in 32bit mode (farmerswife.exe) or 64bit mode (farmerswife 64bit.exe); and depending in which mode you're running the WIFE Server, you _must_ have JRE installed in the corresponding 32bit or 64bit version.
farmerswife Server upgrade on Mac
Copy the NEW farmerswife Server package to the machine hosting the WIFE Server.
Un-zip and rename it to include "NEW" in the package name.
Place it in the same location as the previous running farmerswife Server.
Quit the running WIFE Server.
Rename the previous farmerswife Server, to include "OLD" in the package name.
On both packages do <Control> + click and select "Show Package Contents" in the pop-up menu.
In the OLD package select the "system" and "files" folders and use <Control> + click and select "Copy 2 Items" in the pop-up menu.
Note: The "files" folder might not even exist within your WIFE Server's package, since it was possibly broken out to reside on some mounted storage device within your network. Ensure that this Volume is properly mounted.
Have any files been customized?
If any of the below points apply, then don't forget to manually migrate these files from the OLD WIFE Server package > "Show PackageContents" > ... to the new one.
a) Has anything been changed or customized within "html_templates"?
=> Ideally you compare first compare your customised files from within the "html_templates" with the new ones from us. There might be new functionality available; you'll need to adapt this. Then only migrate the customized files.
b) Did you "SSL-ify" your farmerswife system?
=> follow your own logged instructions in regards to which of these files "server.pem, skey.pem, keystore, jetty.xml" have to be migrated.
c) Are you using any 3rd party integration scripts?
=> browse to ... contents > lib > scripts > ... to get to the location where integration scripts are located. And then only copy the actual integration script files from the according sub-folder within the new farmerswife Server package.
Within the NEW farmerswife Server package use <Control> + click and select "Paste 2 Items".
Now copy the new 6.3 license files into the "system" of the NEW WIFE server, thus replacing the previous ones.
Double click on the NEW farmerswife Server package icon to start the actual upgrade process.
Once everything worked out fine, remove or update any Dock or Desktop links. And if needed remove the OLD Server package; because
up until now, this was a working "roll-back" backup, just in case something went wrong.
After the upgrade, start the farmerswife Server as usual. Then once you've successfully upgraded, please inform us by sending a short email to support@farmerswife.com; this is very helpful information for us to improve our service to you.
farmerswife Server upgrade on Windows and Linux
IMPORTANT: In case you have customised any files (e.g. some files within "html_templates", server.pem, skey.pem, keystore, jetty.xml 3rd integration scrips, etc.), ensure that they are set as "Read Only", so you don't overwrite them with our files included by default! During the installation process, simply then use the "Ignore" button when the Installation Wizard is not allowed to modify these "read-only" files.
Make sure you are logged into the host machine with the same admin user as on the initial installation of the fw Server application.
Copy the NEW farmerswife Server installer file to the machine hosting the WIFE Server.
=> On Windows this is a .exe file.
=> On Linux 64bit, this is also an executable file; use in a command shell: chmod +x Linux64_... to make it "installable".
Quit the running farmerswife Server.
Now copy the new 6.3 license files (license.dat and license.txt) into the "system" folder of your WIFE Server, thus replacing the previous ones.
Double click to run the installer file in the same manner as the previous installation (e.g. did you use "Run As Administrator" on Windows?).
Follow the instructions of the install wizard. IMPORTANT: While installing make sure the previous installation path is correctly set.
After the upgrade, start the farmerswife Server as usual.
Once you've successfully upgraded, please inform us by sending a short email to support@farmerswife.com; this is very helpful information for us to improve our service to you.
Use these article links to view installation instructions and download the WIFE Client installers; e.g. useful for colleagues working from home:
- Mac Client Installation
- Windows Client Installation