Upgrade 3.x community to 4.x standard

We currently have a site developed in 3.7202 community version.  It was developed by an outside vendor so we have never opened it in project manger.  We want to upgrade this site to 4.4 standard so we have have more features on the site.  My understanding is that I have to get my current site running in 3.7 standard and then upgrade to 4.4 standard.  So far I have been unable to get the site to open in 3.7 project manager.  I currently have a .NET version mismatch problem.  I cannot browse or edit anything in Project Manager. 

I receive a compile error: CS1703: An assembly with the same identity 'System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' has already been imported. Try removing one of the duplicate references.
 
I believe this is due to having the wrong version of .NET.  Do I need a different version of SiteFinity or do I need to make a change in IIS? 
Will my Community version open in the Standard version project manager without modification?

Todd, when you say "Project Manager" are you referring to the new Sitefinity Project Manager for Sitefinity 4?

This project manager does not upgrade 3.x websites, rather it is used to create and update Sitefinity 4+ websites only. Moving to Sitefinity 4+ is a migration, not an upgrade, as v4 was a complete rewrite.

Please take a look at the Sitefinity Migration Guide: http://www.sitefinity.com/resources/migration-guide.aspx

You do not necessarily need to upgrade to standard, but it IS required that you upgrade to the latest version of 3.7, which is 3.7 SP4. in addition, it must be running on asp.net 3.5 or 4.0 (asp.net 2.0 is not yet a supported migration path)

Regarding your specific error, this is usually a result of moving from asp.net 2.0 to 3.5 or greater. System.Web.Extensions is built into asp.net 3.5, so unlike asp.net 2.0 doesn't require that dll.

Check your bin folder and delete the System.Web.Extensions.dll and System.Web.Extentions.Design.dll and this should remove that error.

I hope this was helpful, please feel free to post any other issues or questions you encounter.

I was able to fix the CS1703 error.  I can now start the project manager for 3.7.  Please excuse my ignorance but how do I upgrade my current site to 3.7 SP4?  Do I need to add my current site to the project manager or what?  Are there files that need to be copied to my site?  I was given a site created in 3.7 SP1 community version by a vendor and they do not seem to be willing to help with the upgrade/migration.  I have the site hosted on an internal web server running IIS7.  How do I upgrade my current site to 3.7 SP4? 
Please do not take offense to this but the SiteFinity documentation is lacking at best and the responses on both the forums and support tickets provide links back to the documentation which is lacking.  I do not have the background information required to move forward.  Can someone please provide step-by-step instructions on how to get my site upgraded to 3.7SP4?  I can't even begin to think about the migration to 4.4 until that is complete.  The migration instructions are no good to me until my site is running 3.7SP4. 

Todd,

upgrading to the latest 3.7 site involves applying a patch that you download from your sitefinity account. for detailed instructions take a look here: http://www.sitefinity.com/devnet/upgrade-instructions.aspx

I also recommend using a tool like DiffMerge to help the upgrade process. For more information on how I used to use it, take a look at this blog: Sitefinity: Easy SP Upgrades with DiffMerge

Note that once you are on Sitefinity 4+, you won't need to do this type of upgrade, as the project manager will do all this for you!

I hope this is helpful! I apologize this information wasn't more prominent in the migration guide, I'll add it to the list of resources on that page. thank you for your feedback!

The issue all along has been that we didn't have access to the files. They were not in our account to download. I tried to explain that. We ended up calling Telerik and they put the files we needed into our account. Finally we can try to move forward with the migration to 4.4. I will say that this whole experience has been frustrating at best. Everyone has been making assumptions instead of actually providing a solution. We now have access to 3.7sp4 so I will try and get our site patched and then work on the migration.

Todd, I sincerely apologize for the trouble you've experienced in migrating your project. I promise to take all the feedback you've given to update our migration guide in case any one else is in the same boat.

I would also like to take this opportunity to remind you that the 5.0 release is scheduled for next week, and also includes of course the migration module. So you are able to go straight to that version instead when it is released.

If you have additional questions or encounter additional migration issues, feel free to reach out to me directly josh . morales @ telerik . com and I'll to my best to help you wrap this up!

Hi Josh,
Do you know for sure that we will be able to migrate 3.7SP4 projects directly to 5.0? From the first 5.0 release?
Just wanted to make sure, since Telerik in this thread says that only the last two 4.x versions would initially migrate.
Thanks.

Olav, what the thread is referring to is upgrading Sitefinity after the migration. If you upgrade to 5.0 and later want to upgrade to say 5.3, you'll first have to go to 5.1 > 5.2.

The migration from 3.7 SP4 however supports going straight to the latest version, and in fact this is the recommended path.

Hope this is helpful!

Great, thanks.
Just wanted to make sure.
Otherwise I would have tried migration to 4.4 asap, to be ready for 5.0 from day one.
I'm really looking forward to v5. Guess we will get what we once expected from v4.0. (and a whole lot more)