Upgrading to NexJ CRM version 8.8

Before upgrading, you must update the environment files, back up and update the application servers, and back up and upgrade the databases for your deployment. Also ensure that you have upgraded your metadata model. For more information about upgrading models, see the NexJ Studio Developer Guide.

NexJ strongly recommends clearing or truncating the NJSession table for any upgrade that requires a reseed. Doing so preserves client user states.

As a best practice, NexJ also recommends that you upgrade the Push Redirector to match your application framework version when you upgrade the application.

Note: As a result of supporting standards mode, the NexJ Studio Plugin for the 8.7 and later releases, which is the com.nexjsystems.nexjstudio ZIP file, is not backwards compatible with NexJ CRM 8.6 UI metadata. The plugin for the 8.8 release, however, is backwards compatible with the 8.7 release.
To upgrade to NexJ CRM version 8.8:
  1. If you run the application server in a Linux environment, you must add the Arial font, which is required by predefined reports. For more information, see Installing the Arial font in Linux environments.
  2. If you are upgrading from any of the following versions, you must perform upgrade steps specific to that version:
    NexJ Contact version 6.X
    You must update the KYC seeder. For more information, see Updating the KYC seeder.
    NexJ Contact version 7.2 or earlier
    You must update State enumeration values used in integrations or transformations with external sources and in custom UIs. For more information, see Updating State enumerations for integrations and custom UIs.
    You must update ETL methods for bulk deletion. For more information, see Updating ETL methods for bulk deletion.
    It is strongly recommended that you convert any existing project .dump files to Scheme dump scripts. In NexJ CRM version 8.2, .dump files were deprecated. Scheme dump scripts replace .dump files. For more information, see Converting dump files to Scheme dump scripts.
    NexJ CRM version 8.2 or earlier
    If you have customized class names for predefined schedule reports, you must update certain class names. For more information, see Updating schedule report class names.
    NexJ CRM version 8.3
    If you have specified unicode attribute for data source connections, you must specify the wchar attribute. The wchar attribute replaces the unicode attribute. For more information, see Setting the wchar attribute for data source connections.
  3. Update the environment file or the connections file to remove old or deprecated connections. For more information, see Removing obsolete connections for version 8.8.
  4. Update the environment file or the connections file with new data source connections, channel connections, and SOA connections. For more information, see Adding new connections for version 8.8.
  5. Update the environment file or the server and connections files with other changes required to support new functionality. For more information, see Updating server information for version 8.8.
  6. Back up application server files.
  7. Back up all databases.
  8. If you are upgrading from any of the following versions, you must perform upgrade steps specific to that version:
    NexJ Contact version 6.X
    You must create the AuditLogDatabase, LockDatabase, and ObjectQueueDatabase data sources, which are required to support new features. For more information, see Creating new required data sources for version 8.8.
    NexJ Contact version 7.1 or earlier
    You must create the NJStatVersion table for the StatDatabase data source. For more information, see Adding the NJStatVersion table to the StatDatabase data source for version 8.8.
  9. Upgrade all databases. For more information, see Upgrading data sources for version 8.8.
  10. Upgrade the application servers.
  11. If you previously created anonymous NexJ user and want to now use the default user with no privileges instead, edit the appropriate security setting in your environment file.
    Note: In NexJ CRM versions prior to 8.8, creating an anonymous NexJ user was required to synchronize NexJ CRM with Microsoft Exchange Server. Starting NexJ CRM version 8.8, this is no longer required.
    To use the default functionality for anonymous requests:
    1. In NexJ Studio, open the .server or .environment file.
    2. In the Overview tab, click the Security subtab.
    3. In the Anonymous User field, ensure that there is no user name specified.
    4. Save and close the .server or .environment file.
  12. If you are upgrading from an installation of NexJ CRM that does not support rich text for document notes in Document Manager and you want to enable this feature, run the BatchUpdatePlainConvertToHTMLCommand - updateTextField batch file to enable the rich text feature. For more information, see Enabling rich text support.
  13. Deploy the application.
  14. Start the application and verify that it has deployed successfully.

After completing these steps, you can now run NexJ CRM version 8.8.

You might also need to perform the following upgrade steps: Additional upgrade considerations