Upgrade Instructions v6.5

Your preparation to upgrade to version 6.5

You need to have a "Version 6.5" license at hand, before starting the upgrade process.
To be eligible for a 6.5 license you need to have a valid support subscription (Gold or Silver) with us, at least up to 9th October 2019 or later.
If you do not yet have a v6.5 license, then please request this from [email protected] once you are ready to upgrade.

IMPORTANT summary of v6.5 most important changes to consider before upgrading:

v6.5 most important changes with more details :

Print Designer Page Breaks and Rectangles have ben re-written; your templates might be affected.

We're here to help!

Please kindly contact us if you'd like us to assist you with the needed changes on the templates.

We can either

schedule a support session with the main user that knows which templates are used most, specifically quote- and invoice templates, or
you send us a copy of your database and point us to the Print Designer and template that needs fixing.

READ MORE on the changes that can affect your templates.

NEW “Built-In Printer” using “Ghostscript” and multiple fw-Server-sided-PDF-Export-related fixes were implemented, which were mostly needed when this gets triggered via the iOS fw app, the Web Client or the Mobile Web Client.

We've implemented many optimisations and performance improvements!
Overall big improvement on the "random low level fw Server app crash without usable log info”.
And the fw Server-side “Nightly Forced - Restart” is now rock-solid!
To run the Web Client and Mobile Web Client "Oracle JRE/JDK" (now licensed) is no longer needed => use “OpenJDK” (detailed info in the Release Notes)!

For farmerswife Server and Client applications on Windows:

New “Windows-x64” version with upgraded "low-level-libraries”!
Everyone running the fw Server application on Windows SHOULD be using this new fw Server installer! If you do, this will require only on Windows once the "Full-fwClient-Installer-download" and installation. Because this will then install the first native 64bit fw Client application on Windows. For macOS we're still working on the new “64bit” support to be ready for the next v6.6 in Q4 2019.
On Windows “Full-Installer-download fwClient-auto-upgrade” is needed.
For fw Server-side PDF print: NEW “Built In Printer” automatically installed; please REMOVE "PDFCreator v2.5.3"!
More info here: https://support.farmerswife.com/en/support/solutions/articles/17000092051-installing-ghostscript-pdf-printer

The farmerswife Client desktop apps will auto-upgrade ...

... if already running on version 6.4 SP2 or later:

- on Mac and Linux by using the "simple in-application" auto-upgrade mode; "normal user" Operating System permissions (Read / Write) are sufficient.

- on Windows it depends on which OS platform is used on fw Server-side:

IF the fw Server is hosted on Mac or Linux, then the "simple in-application" auto-upgrade mode applies; "normal user" Operating System permissions (Read / Write) are sufficient.

IF the fw Server is hosted on Windows, and the new "Windows-x64" installer is used, then ONLY on Windows will the "Full-Installer-Download fwClient-auto-upgrade" mode be active and OS admin user permissions Read, Write AND Execute are necessary on the initial upgrade, which will then auto-download the Full installer and then install the new 64bit farmerswife Client desktop app on Windows.

... if BELOW version 6.4 SP2 and regardless on which OS the fw Server application is running on:

... by using the "FULL" Client upgrade process; OS admin user permissions Read, Write AND Execute are necessary on the initial upgrade.

Direct download links for the farmerswife Client desktop applications:

Mac: http://www.farmerswife.com/downloadsWeb/Mac_farmerswife_6.5_Client.dmg

Windows-x64: http://www.farmerswife.com/downloadsWeb/Windows-x64_farmerswife_6.5_Client.exe

Windows-Legacy-x86: http://www.farmerswife.com/downloadsWeb/Windows-Legacy-x86_farmerswife_6.5_Client.exe

Linux: http://www.farmerswife.com/downloadsWeb/Linux-i386_farmerswife_6.5_Client.bin

Any WIFE Client which was NOT manually upgraded, will state this message upon log-in: "Connection to the Server Timed Out"

IMPORTANT when upgrading the WIFE Client on Mac: If you have a mix of Admin and Standard users on a Mac, make sure to be logged-in as a Standard user. Then after mounting the .dmg file, drag-and-drop it to the Applications folder. You then need to authenticate with theAdmin users credentials! The farmerswife Client will not work for the Standard user, if installed while being logged-in as the Admin user.

IMPORTANT when upgrading the WIFE Client on Windows for "package distribution" purposes:

farmerswife does not support .msi files. For Windows we only provide .exe files. Please see if you can use these as well. Many of our customers use mass-deployment-tools, and all of them have been able to use them.
You can use these "silent commands" when installing/upgrading the farmerswife Client application on Windows: If you use in "cmd" on Windows: "Windows_farmerswife_6.4_Client.exe /SILENT" … then this will run the farmerswife Client installer without any pop-ups, but you briefly see what happens.
It will NOT install in the default location. But it will use the previously last used installation path. Which on your side most likely is: C:\Program Files (x86)\farmerswife Client.
"/VERYSILENT" will also work.

Please refer to these links and try it out on your end what works best for you:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/71203/is-it-feasible-sensible-to-wrap-an-innosetup-installer-inside-an-msi-for-easier?rq=1
http://www.jrsoftware.org/ishelp/index.php?topic=setupcmdline

Download the "Public Installers"

Go to our public installer page, browse to the "6.5 Release" folder and download the farmerswife Server Installers for your Operating System and the needed farmerswife Client Installers.

Upgrading step by step

Your WIFE Server needs to be running on version 6.4 SP2 to be ready for the upgrade.
Every farmerswife version contains specific upgrade code. To ensure a properly running system, you need to always upgrade the farmerswife Server application to the last Public released version!
Here the general upgrade path for all farmerswife Server's since v5.2:

From 6.1 SP1 to 6.2 SP1
From 6.2 SP1 to 6.3 SP1
From 6.3 SP1 to 6.4 SP2
From 6.4 SP2 to 6.5 Release

Please contact [email protected] should you have any questions.
Inform your colleagues about this new version BEFORE you upgrade.
Run a "Full Backup" BEFORE the upgrade. <= Use the "Full Backup Now" button located on the running WIFE Server application.
While the Full Backup is taking place, you could now take a look into the documents provided in the "Read And Use Me Upgrade Package"
you were issued together with your license of the previous Released version.
The upgrade itself might require a couple of "Forced Shutdowns" for it to finish; this depends on your usage of the system.
If needed, see more detailed information in the Installation Instructions.
Ensure you have the latest Java version (JRE on Windows/Linux, JDK on Mac OS X) installed, for the Web Client and Mobile Web Client and Play to work properly and in the most secure way. Watch out on Windows: here you can run the fw Server application in 32bit mode (farmerswife.exe) or 64bit mode (farmerswife 64bit.exe); and depending in which mode you're running the WIFE Server, you _must_ have JRE installed in the corresponding 32bit or 64bit version.

farmerswife Server upgrade on Mac

Copy the NEW farmerswife Server package to the machine hosting the WIFE Server.
Un-zip and rename it to include "NEW" in the package name.
Place it in the same location as the previous running farmerswife Server.
Quit the running WIFE Server.
Rename the previous farmerswife Server, to include "OLD" in the package name.
On both packages do <Control> + click and select "Show Package Contents" in the pop-up menu.
In the OLD package select the "system" and "files" folders and use <Control> + click and select "Copy 2 Items" in the pop-up menu.

Note: The "files" folder might not even exist within your WIFE Server's package, since it was possibly broken out to reside on some mounted storage device within your network. Ensure that this Volume is properly mounted.

Have any files been customized?

If any of the below points apply, then don't forget to manually migrate these files from the OLD WIFE Server package > "Show PackageContents" > ... to the new one.

a) Has anything been changed or customized within "html_templates"?

=> Ideally you compare first compare your customised files from within the "html_templates" with the new ones from us. There might be new functionality available; you'll need to adapt this. Then only migrate the customized files.

b) Did you "SSL-ify" your farmerswife system?

=> follow your own logged instructions in regards to which of these files "server.pem, skey.pem, keystore, jetty.xml" have to be migrated.

c) Are you using any 3rd party integration scripts?

=> browse to ... contents > lib > scripts > ... to get to the location where integration scripts are located. And then only copy the actual integration script files from the according sub-folder within the new farmerswife Server package.

Within the NEW farmerswife Server package use <Control> + click and select "Paste 2 Items".
Now copy the new 6.5 license files into the "system" of the NEW WIFE server, thus replacing the previous ones.
Double click on the NEW farmerswife Server package icon to start the actual upgrade process.
Once everything worked out fine, remove or update any Dock or Desktop links. And if needed remove the OLD Server package; because
up until now, this was a working "roll-back" backup, just in case something went wrong.
After the upgrade, start the farmerswife Server as usual. Then once you've successfully upgraded, please inform us by sending a short email to [email protected]; this is very helpful information for us to improve our service to you.

farmerswife Server upgrade on Windows and Linux

IMPORTANT: In case you have customised any files (e.g. some files within "html_templates", server.pem, skey.pem, keystore, jetty.xml 3rd integration scrips, etc.), ensure that they are set as "Read Only", so you don't overwrite them with our files included by default! During the installation process, simply then use the "Ignore" button when the Installation Wizard is not allowed to modify these "read-only" files.

Make sure you are logged into the host machine with the same admin user as on the initial installation of the fw Server application.
Copy the NEW farmerswife Server installer file to the machine hosting the WIFE Server.
=> On Windows-x64 this is a .exe file.
=> On Linux 64bit, this is also an executable file; use in a command shell: chmod +x Linux64_... to make it "installable".
Quit the running farmerswife Server.
Now copy the new 6.5 license files (license.dat and license.txt) into the "system" folder of your WIFE Server, thus replacing the previous ones.
Double click to run the installer file in the same manner as the previous installation (e.g. did you use "Run As Administrator" on Windows?).
Follow the instructions of the install wizard. IMPORTANT: While installing make sure the previous installation path is correctly set.
After the upgrade, start the farmerswife Server as usual.

Once you've successfully upgraded, please inform us by sending a short email to [email protected]; this is very helpful information for us to improve our service to you.

Use these article links to view installation instructions and download the WIFE Client installers; e.g. useful for colleagues working from home:

- Mac Client Installation
- Windows Client Installation