Upgrade From RC3 - What is different

I built the Catawba River Docs site a while back when the latest version was, I believe, RC3. We are now looking to upgrade the site to version 1.0 of Omeka and I wanted to gauge how much of the theme customization I've done will be able to be ported over to the new version.

I understand you can't tell me exactly but maybe just let me know if there are major differences from RC3 to 1.0, enough that would cause it to be more of an undertaking then just updating the files.

Just trying to estimate a time frame for the project.

Can't wait to see what's new!

thanks!
Ben

Hey look, a familiar face! Great to see you back on the forums. With RC3 coming out over a year ago, I'm a little rusty on the changes but I'll do my best to address the steps you'll face. If you had to make any serious hacks at that time, let me know and there may be equivalents now, or even functions that help.

Static Pages: In version RC3 (for those who weren't w/ us a year ago, we had a set of release clients before ever putting out 0.9) you could create new pages on your site by including separate files in your theme. If you created a dave.php file in your theme, it would automatically create a new URL and static page (youromekasite.com/dave/).. that 'feature?' is gone. We've replaced it w/ the SimplePages plugin that allows you to create and static pages and their routes via Omeka's back-end. It should be easy to edit and maintain these pages.

Contribution Plugin: I'm pretty sure the updated version will work the same as your version -- you'll obviously need to style the CSS similar to your site.

Otherwise, I think you'll be fine. I'd approach updating the theme by just running with it, and referencing our up-to-date themes for how functions on the homepage (such as recently added items), as well as the items show and browse pages work. You should be able to copy the basic logic from the updated themes to suit your needs.

Good luck, and let us know if you run into any problems.

Dave,

Thanks for the update. This gives me a little confidence going in.

I'll let you know how the experience goes.

Ben

If we upgrade are we going to see any major speed increases with the front and backend of the site?

It's hard to remember RC3 at this point since we've had so many releases since then.. it should be slightly faster.

One thing I forgot to suggest was that you migrate version by version of Omeka, rather than trying to migrate from RC3 to 1.0. You should first upgrade to 0.9, then 0.10, and finally 1.0. At each step, double check that everything is working fine, and your database should be in OK shape. As always, back everything up before starting.