Upgrade path from Form Server 6.0

[Former Community Member]

Greetings,



I'm looking for information about upgrading our current versions of Form Server (6.0), Form Designer (6.0) & Workflow Server (6.2) to the current versions.



I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask this and would appreciate being directed to the correct forum.



This upgrade is still in the early planning stages. Im just gathering as much information as possible before we attempt this challenge.



*Id like to know if I can upgrade from 6.x directly to a current version or do I need to do it incrementally.



*Id also like to know of any pitfalls to avoid or hurdles to be aware of.



*Finally, Id like to know if I everything thats been created in these earlier releases is completely compatible with the current version.



If theres a document or faq that would answer these questions, thatd be great.



Ive spent the better part of a day search Adobes web site, as well as the web in general, for information of this type.



Thank you in advance for any and all information.

[Former Community Member]

Hi Tom,



I am one of the Product Managers on LiveCycle. Upgrade is one of my areas.



While the LiveCycle 7 upgrade to LiveCycle ES is relatively smooth, the upgrade from LiveCycle 6 to LiveCycle ES will require significantly more effort -- especially since you are using Workflow 6.2.



In LiveCycle 7, the Workflow engine was replaced with a Java based engine in order to give our customers more flexibility over platform choice. That engine came through Adobe through an acquisition. It was impossible to maintain compatibility from Workflow 6.2 to LiveCycle 7 (and hence to LiveCycle ES). You will have to rewrite your workflows in LiveCycle ES. The same types of operations are available in ES. But it will be a manual rewrite.



Forms that you created in LiveCycle 6 will render in LiveCycle ES as they did back in LiveCycle 6. However, if you need to edit your forms in Designer ES, you may need to edit the layout of the document in order to maintain its look and feel. Any script that you have in the forms will not need to be modified (except to work with the new Workflow engine). If you do have to edit your form in Designer ES, once you've edited the look and feel to work in ES, you won't have to change it again.



The other area is in the APIs. Many of the APIs that were present in LiveCycle 6 are present in LiveCycle 7. And as such, are included in the LiveCycle compatibility layer that is present in LiveCycle ES. The main exception is the toSimplePS() API. In LC7, it was documented that that API would go away in the next version of the product. So in ES, it did go away. There are other ways in LiveCycle ES to create a Postscript document.



The only way to get the compatibility layer in LiveCycle ES is to upgrade from LiveCycle 7. In the upcoming version of LiveCycle ES, we're adding flexibility to allow you to install the compatibility layer without having to formally upgrade from LC7.



We are working on a Technical Guide that describes best practices for upgrading from 7 to ES and from products previous to LiveCycle 7 to ES.



Thanks,

Mark

[Former Community Member]

Thanks for the information Mark. It was very helpful.



That being said, it did spark a couple of questions.



Since the current version of LiveCycle ES is 8 and it has been out since last summer, when is the next version scheduled to be released.



Along those same lines, will upgrading to this next release pose the same challenges as upgrading to the current release. Now I know this might be a more speculative answer than your previous one but I understand.



One final request. Would it be possible for you to let me know once this technical guide is available? Just a quick email at tom.pollett@merceradvisors.com would be great.



Thank you for all the valuable information.



Regards,

Tom