Published: 03/28/2014

How to Install Orchard

To install Orchard using Web PI, follow these instructions: http://docs.orchardproject.net/Documentation/Installing-Orchard. Web PI will detect your hardware environment and install the application.

Alternatively, to install the release manually, download the Orchard.Web.1.8.zip file.

http://docs.orchardproject.net/Documentation/Manually-installing-Orchard-zip-file

The zip contents are pre-built and ready-to-run. Simply extract the contents of the Orchard folder from the zip contents to an IIS virtual directory (or site root) and then point your browser to the site. You can also just extract to a local folder and open the Orchard folder in Visual Studio or WebMatrix as a web site (but not as a web application). Please make sure you have a machine key http://docs.orchardproject.net/Documentation/Setting-up-a-machine-key or you may experience frequent disconnections.

What file to download?

If you just want to use Orchard and don't care about the source code, Orchard.Web.1.8.zip is what you want to use, preferably through the WebPI instructions. Do not attempt to build the WebPI version in VS. Use the full source if you want to use VS.

If you want to take a look at the source code or want to be able to build the application in Visual Studio, Orchard.Source.1.8.zip is fine.

If you want to setup a development environment for patch or module development, you should clone the repository by following the instructions here: http://docs.orchardproject.net/Documentation/Setting-up-a-source-enlistment

Branches are described here: http://docs.orchardproject.net/Documentation/Developer-FAQ#Whatarethedefaultanddevbranches?WhichoneshouldIbeusing?

Who should use this software?

This software is in version 1.8. The code is in a stable state and constitutes a solid foundation for building applications, themes and modules. Suggestions are welcome in the discussion forums.

You are allowed to use this software in any way that is compatible with the new BSD license. This includes commercial derivative work.

What's new?

Orchard 1.8 fixes bugs and introduces the following changes and features:

  • Migration to Microsoft .NET 4.5
  • Upgrade project targets
  • Remove unnecessary Medium Trust support code
  • Define 4.5 framework in web.config files
  • Erik (erik_oppedijk) owns this contribution
  • Upgrade ASP.NET Web Stack to newest versions
  • ASP.NET MVC 5.1
  • WebAPI 2.1
  • Razor 3.1
  • Put back the List module with improved functionalities
  • The goal is to be able to use it to mimick the Blogs module
  • Sipke (sfmskywalker) owns this contribution
  • Performance improvements by unleashing the power of the document db architecture built in Orchard
  • Sebastien (sebastienros) owns this contribution
  • Multi-tenancy improvements
  • Calendar support
  • Daniel Stolt (Decorum) owns this contribution
  • Jobs Queue module (done)
  • Orchard.JobsQueueing
  • Templates module (done)
  • Orchard.Templates
  • Business Caching modules
  • Orchard.Caching
  • Orchard.Email
  • The messaging infrastructure has been deprecated and replaced by a simpler one. As part of this change you can now define the email templates directly in shapes.
  • The SMTP settings are read from the web.config file by default if available.
  • Azure Media Services has been contributed by Microsoft Open Technologies and provides a seamless integration with the Media module
  • Orchard.Azure.MediaServices
  • Orchard.Azure:
    • PlatformConfiguration (static class to read settings from CloudConfigurationManager) is gone. Its place is taken by an injectable dependency called IPlatformConfigurationAccessor and the old implementation's logic is moved to the DefaultPlatformConfigurationAccessor class, which was then extended to look for settings among the ConnectionStrings too.
    • These changes are reflected throughout the Orchard.Azure module, though the Azure database cache's behavior (AzureCache* classes) is not affected by IPlatformConfigurationAccessor implementations other than DefaultPlatformConfigurationAccessor due to certain NHibernate limitations.
    • Added a new setting called Orchard.Azure.Media.StoragePublicHostName which makes it possible to override the public host name when using Azure storage.
    • Orchard.Azure.Media and Orchard.Azure.DatabaseCache now depend on Orchard.Azure.

The full list of fixed bugs for this release can be found here:

How to upgrade from a previous version

You can find migration instructions here: http://docs.orchardproject.net/Documentation/Upgrading-a-site-to-a-new-version-of-Orchard.

No matter what migration path you take, please take the precaution of making a backup of your site and database first.

Upgrading from Orchard 1.7.1 and earlier

Please follow the upgrade instruction from this document: https://github.com/OrchardCMS/OrchardDoc/blob/1.8/Documentation/Orchard-1-7-2-Release-Notes.markdown

Then proceed with the upgrade steps from 1.7.2.

Upgrading from Orchard 1.7.2

BEFORE DOING ANYTHING PLEASE FOLLOW THIS STEPS:

  • Backup your database and your website content
  • Assign the Administrator role to your current Super User account.

You will need an account with the Site Owner permission before you update your website with the new release. Without this step you won't be able to access the dashboard.

In case you are discovering this notice too late, here is the manual operation to apply. In your database table Orchard_Framework_ContentItemRecord, on the record with id=1 (the site content item), update the value with this content <Data><SiteSettingsPart SuperUser="admin"/></Data>

  • Enable the Upgrade module

Migrating Email activities

In Orchard 1.8 the Send Email workflow activity has been replaced by a new one which is able to send emails asynchronously using the Jobs Queue.

  • Click on Upgrade To 1.8 from the menu
  • Select the Messaging tab and click Migrate

Migrating Infoset

In Orchard 1.8 a new data storage technique is introduced saving some of the content in the infoset document of content items instead of records. This way some records are obsolete and can be deleted. The data it contained needs to be migrated though.

  • Click on Upgrade To 1.8 from the menu
  • Select the Infoset tab and click on all the Migrate buttons one at a time

If you are not sure if one button was clicked you can try again and it will just be ignored if it was already processed.

Contributors

This software would not exist without the community. In particular, for this release, we should all be grateful to the following people who contributed patches and features:

Special Thanks to Christian Surieux (csadnt) for his active participation on the forums.