upgrade 3.7 to 6.1
Currently we have a site in Sitefinity 3.7. We are facing few performance issues in few areas.
How much we can improve the performance by upgrading current site to latest Version?
Like we have news which have more 30 lacks, will take lot of time to load in Admin site. I heard that in 3.7 adding a custom field will add a new row in a table rather in latest it adds as a column in a table. Will this improve the performance of loading the heavy articles?
Recently we conducted a Load Test on the website and concluded that every page is giving a call to CmsEntryPoint.aspx page which is taking moretime to load. Is there anything we can do to reduce this load time? Does customizing and adding custom controls effect this performance?
How much will this be resolved by upgrading to latest version?
Can we upgrade our 3.7 site to latest version directly without any intermediate version?
What will be the MIGRATION DIFFICULTY if we have any customization in our site?
Hello,
Your thoughts make perfect sense, so thanks for sharing them with us. We strive to make the system better with time and not the opposite. That is why have introduced the new generation of Sitefinity – a completely new architecture and technology to take the place of the old 3x generation.
Few years ago, we were trying to design the next generation CMS to serve well the needs and requirements for our customers for the next decade or so. Instead of just upgrading the 3x generation of Sitefinity to the latest .NET 4.0, we have completely rewritten the system utilizing all the new technologies and best and promising programming patters like MVVM, Provider Model, Web Services, Client and Server Templates, Dynamic types, Publishing System and Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0.
So in your context, this means improved database accessing logic and better control over the presentation markup and API customizations should you need them. Initial application loading time is the main differentiator in which the old generation still leads. Since Sitefinity 6.1 is an ASP.NET application it takes around 30 seconds to load the application after an IIS restart or after Visual Studio build action. Anything else is far more superior and users/designer/developer friendly that I will need to write a novel to point out the new stuff. I will just mention things like:
· For business users – new generation UX, desktop application, mobile application, inline editing, layout builder (link here)
· For marketing people - connectors for various systems (SharePoint, Marketo, SalesForce, Google Analytics and etc.), Personalization, Email Campaigns, Forms builder, Social Media
· For developers – granular permissions model, improved security, added support for MVC, Module Builder, Sitefinity Thunder, Mobile App builder, Hybrid Cloud Support
· For designers – Responsive Design integration, templates for everything, responsive navigation
Yes, Sitefinity 3.7 used to create rows for each custom field added and thus, slower queries due to duplicate entries in the database. Current implementation will definitely improve the performance in this area especially, when it comes to putting indices on important columns. Sitefinity also use consequent GUIDs and Join statements to further improve the fetching strategies and facilitate efficient and fast query execution plans.
Talking about the upgrade procedure, yes, you can directly migrate your Sitefinity 3.7 site to latest version - 6.1. Since the two generation systems are completely different, we are providing you with migration tool to directly get all the content, users and sitemap pages to the latest version of Sitefinity. Please take a look at the following migration page to establish a realistic estimation on how time/effort consuming the migration procedure will be (link here). Please pay attention to the webinar presented there, it shows the process in action and describes the main pain points and how to avoid them.
In conclusion, there are many new things in Sitefinity, but what really matters is what you need. Please contact us to share you required specifications and we can review them in the context of Sitefinity. I think this will be the most productive way moving forward.
RE: "Please pay attention to the webinar presented there"
I don't see the webinar about upgrading, can you please provide a direct link?
Hi Elizabeth,
You can go to Webinars on demand page and click on the "Common Issues with Sitefinity Upgrades" webinar link and register to watch it. You can also check the video about the Migration Tool which I think you would find helpful.
Regards,
Sabrie Nedzhip
Telerik