Do we need to move code base to maven archetype 23?

[arvindk091986]

Hello All,

I am working on a short-term project that was developed on Archetype 10/13 on AEM6.2, because the maven version mentioned in the main POM is an old versioned one. The Classic UI components are supposed to be upgraded to Touch UI, so that it supports for AEM 6.5 too going forward. In the process of upgrade, I have updated the POM file with the required versions of the respective dependencies and that had been successful upon code build. But when I tried upgrading classic ui components and writing few backend services/servlets, I started getting the error "Unable to load compiled class " which I believe is related to the SCR Annotations(even after the dependency version was upgraded I see this error). Due to this, I was wondering if upgrading the project to AEM 6.5 Archetype 23 help? I wanted to see if I can move the codebase to Archetype 23 or is there anything that I might be missing for fixing the error - "Unable to load compiled class".

Appreciate your help. 

[Nikhil-Kumar]

@arvindk091986 

I upgraded from 6.4.3 to 6.5.5., I only updated POM.xml and other dependencies.
But as your archetype and AEM version is quite older, I would suggest you to use latest archetype as per my past experience of migration.

Thanks,
Nikhil

[Shashi_Mulugu]

@arvindk091986 To understand your question correctly, Are you planning to uplift project code base from Old archetype to ARchetype23 and deploy to AEM 6.2? or you want to uplift codebase and migrate to AEM 6.5? As per the documentation minimum, AEM version has to be AEM 6.3.3. to use Archetype 23.

[Theo_Pendle · Accepted solution]

Hi @arvindk091986,

Migrating from AEM 6.2 in Classic UI to AEM 6.5 in Touch UI is going to be a BIG project. I'm speaking from experience as a project I'm working on from AEM 6.3 in Touch UI to AEM 6.5 in Touch UI is going to take roughly 300 man days.

You would have to share the whole stacktrace with us so we could help you identify the source of the error but if you've already narrowed it down to annotation then you probably have an incompatibility between WCM Use API and Apache Felix annotations vs Sling Models and OSGI annotations.

If I were you I would:

1. Notify the people in charge that migrating from 6.2 to 6.5 is not a walk in the park
2. Start a fresh project from Archetype 23
3. Start porting your code from your old project to the new project, one class at a time and testing to see if
   1. It works on the server
   2. Your unit tests still run (they probably will not).

Good luck! If you're planning a full migration from 6.2 to 6.5, don't hesitate to reach out to me on LinkedIn for advice: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theo-pendle-1630a52a (I won't even charge you )