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Upgrade Project

An important feature in the Telerik Visual Studio Extensions is the Upgrade Project Wizard. It can facilitate the process of upgrading the Telerik® UI for ASP.NET AJAX to the latest version in your project.

To start the Upgrade Wizard go to Telerik > Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX > Upgrade Wizard in the Visual Studio menu.

On the first screen of the wizard is described what will be upgraded:

Figure 1: The first screen of the Upgrade Wizard

Upgrade Wizard-first-screen

In addition to the pure assembly reference change, the Upgrade Wizard provides several important features:

  • Check and retrieve the latest available Telerik® UI for ASP.NET AJAX release;

  • Change the version of Telerik® UI for ASP.NET AJAX the project uses;

On the next step the wizard lists all projects from the solution, which use Telerik® UI for ASP.NET AJAX. You can choose which projects will be updated (it is recommended to upgrade all projects to the chosen version) and the version which they will be upgraded to. The Compatibility button will invoke the Upgrade API Analyzer tool:

Figure 2: Choose the projects the Upgrade Wizard will work on

introduction-vsx upgradewizard chooseprojects

The listed projects target all of the supported .NET Framework versions. When you complete the wizard all selected projects will be updated.

The following page of the upgrade wizard suggests you three options for the project resources:

In case non-embedded Skins and/or Scripts folders are detected in the root of a project selected for upgrade they will be automatically updated in accordance with the selected controls version.

Figure 3: Choose which files to upgrade

introduction-vsx upgradewizard updateresources

In case you select Do not update option, nor the existing resources will be updated, neither the new ones will be added. If the Update where already in use option is checked, the existing resources will be updated but no new files will be added. And in case the last option is chosen - Update and include in all applicable projects - all existing files will be updated and if there are some new resources - they will be added.

The next screen allows you to update the Visual Studio ToolBox with the newly selected controls, so that you avoid accidental reference change during a control drag and drop. It also gives you the ability to choose whether to create a backup of the project or not:

Figure 4: The Upgrade Wizard can update the toolbox and create a backup of the project(s)

Update Toolbox

After choosing the preferred options and pressing the Finish button, the Upgrade Wizard will replace the existing assemblies in the selected project(s) with the ones from the selected distribution. The wizard will update only assemblies that are currently referenced, e.g. it won't add references to newly introduced assemblies.

The Upgrade Wizard will add a reference to Telerik.Web.UI.Skins if the following conditions are met:

  • The source project references Telerik assemblies with version lower than Q3 2011
  • The target distribution version is greater than Q3 2011
  • Telerik.Web.UI.Skins is not referenced

The reason for the described exception is the displacement of the embedded skins from Telerik.Web.UI to Telerik.Web.UI.Skins, introduced with the Q3 2011 release.

  • The Telerik® UI for ASP.NET AJAX distribution selection screen lists all the versions that can be detected automatically. These are versions, installed by using the Windows Installer MSI package (marked with [Install Folder] ) and versions, downloaded earlier by the Upgrade Wizard (marked with [Download] ). Hotfixes, downloaded manually cannot be detected.
  • The Telerik® UI for ASP.NET AJAX version signature is defined by the year, number of Q, month, day and .NET Framework version of the release. For example version 2012.1.215 means Q1 2012, which is released on February 15, 2012. In addition to this signature, you will find an indication whether the release is a trial ( Trial ) or purchased ( Dev ) version.
  • The distribution, downloaded by the Upgrade Wizard contains only the "hotfix" files, e.g. the barebone files, needed for a project to run correctly. It does not contain the documentation or the Live Examples.
  • A Visual Studio restart will be required in order to update your toolbox. If the automatic restart fails, a restart should be initiated manually in order to complete the toolbox upgrade.
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