Upgrade process to 2.6.0

This is a question for current developers and contributors (cstux and others). You should be aware that newest Spark version has switched to …username\Application Data\Spark folder for storing user’s settings and history (at least on Windows).

So, is there any plans or possibility to make installer (or Spark on a first launch) to search in the old place and then import old profile? If not, then upon launching Spark 2.6.0 Final we should inform users (in a blog post and release notes) that they should find a way to copy profiles to a new place before they upgrade their users (AD scripts, etc.). I have already warned the users in 2.6.0 RC1 release notes and blog post.

It is a great idea to have a first time launch to move those settings over. It makes sense from a user standpoint.

Also, I work on a college campus with a LOT of users: having to send our IT guys out to fix settings/configuration because it was not ported over will get me killed or at least in some way hurt! lol

For the most part it looks like it was just a location change for the preferences and not a format change. I bet we can just look for the settings in the old location and if they exist move them over.

I’m not familiar with the install4j installer so I have no idea if it’s capable of running external scripts; however, most modern installers are capable of running scripts or additional programs at various points during an install process.

One thing to consider, if it is done through spark, it will need to be a flag in the preferences for that specific user. If multiple people log into the same computer and use spark it will need to happen for each user unless we can elevate our privs enough to make the required changes for all users.

Yes, it’s only a location thing. And i think we can just copy, not move, the existing profile into a new place. That will let users downgrade easily. I would prefer to do this with the installer, if there is such option. But if if had to do this in Spark, then there can be a check in Spark, if it launches and can’t find a profile in the new location, it should check the old location and if there is Spark folder, then copy it to a new location. This check should only happen if Spark is starting and can’t find a profile.

which sounds easy enough to do - i’m positive the installer should be able to perform this post install action. Most all modern installers allow for running scripts upon the completion of an install.

If not though, doing it inside of spark should be really easy to do.

Agreed. I would recommend that instead of moving them though, we do a copy so that users can run both 2.5.8 and 2.6 if they just want to test the waters. We’d only do this copy if there is no folder at the new location and, of course, if there is one at the old location.

You can always create a login script that copies user’s spark folder to the new location, uninstalled the previous version of spark and then installs the new one. It can be deployed with group policy. or if you have a Kbox, then you can do the same thing but deploy after hours. This is what we’ll probably do for our 200 some employees.

I agree with having this inside Spark code, that way its convenient to user.

As for me, the best way will be to add this feature inside Spark. Every startup it checks for user settings and we easily can add functionality to check old settings location.

I have filed SPARK-1184. Marking it as a Major issue, though i’m thinking maybe this is a blocker even?

yes - this is possibly a blocker and probably should happen by the January release, preferably before in case there are any bugs!

I will start to take a look at this ASAP while I work on resolving the other issues I am working on