The following information pertains to upgrades of FootPrints from version 10.0.2 or prior to the latest version of FootPrints Service Core 11 (Currently 11.6).

Prior to upgrading to FootPrints Service Core 11.x, please plan to move a copy of your production system to a test environment, upgrade the copy to version 11.x and perform acceptance testing.

Please see How to Upgrade to FootPrints Service Core 11. View Information about upgrading to FootPrints Service Core 11.6.x from earlier versions for information specific to upgrading to FootPrints Service Core 11.6.

The FootPrints Service Core version 11 series includes several major improvements, some of which require more processing during the upgrade than previous versions and others which will change the look and feel of the system for your administrators and end users. Please view this document for an overview of the new features and information on how to prepare for the changes. An "Upgrade Assistant" tool can be downloaded here and run on the FootPrints server to help provide detailed information regarding what features may be affected by an upgrade to FootPrints Service Core 11.x. Below is a summary of the key areas of change, and steps to perform before upgrading to FootPrints Service Core 11.x.

1. The FootPrints Service Core version 11 series introduces a powerful, new Form Designer.
   • The Form Designer gives a fast and easy way to build workspace forms to maximize data entry efficiency.
   • This new Form Designer works differently than the Workspace Field Maintenance page of prior versions of FootPrints, and the current forms will look different. Plan to spend some time 'tweaking' the look and feel of the workspace forms in the new version, especially if there are created custom forms for end user ticket entry.
   • Please allocate enough time to make these changes following the upgrade to keep interruption to your users at a minimum.
2. A new Executive Dashboard that makes reporting on summary data about the issue workload and trends easier.
   • The Executive Dashboard makes use of a Datamart within the FootPrints database.
   • This Datamart is built immediately following the upgrade to FootPrints Service Core 11. Building the Datamart is a very resource intensive process and will impact performance on your Database Server.
   • Depending on the size of the database, this process may take some time, several hours in extreme cases. However, once the Datamart is built, performance will return to normal.
   • For these reasons, it is advisable to run the upgrade after hours while there is limited usage of FootPrints.
3. The System Requirements for FootPrints Service Core have changed.
   • Please confirm that your server meets the System Requirements.
   • The Server Performance Report (found at Administration | System | Server Performance Report) will help provide additional details of the FootPrints installation and how the system is currently being used.
4. As with all major upgrades, but especially with the FootPrints Service Core 11 series, we strongly recommend that you first create and upgrade a test installation of FootPrints and perform acceptance testing before applying the upgrade to your production environment.
5. Additional items to consider before upgrading:
   • In the FootPrints Service Core 11 series, we have replaced the concept of two different dependency types (pop-up and drop down) and unified them into a single, In-Line dependency. In-Line dependencies do not have the limitations that pop-up and dropdown dependencies had. With an In-Line dependency, there is no limitation to the number or type of fields that can be included in the group. The fields appear on the issue page as needed when you select the appropriate choice of your parent/decision dropdown field. There is no longer a need to have new windows pop-up in order to display new fields.
   • We have expanded the functionality of field headers to be much more useful and user friendly. We have also included a new feature to allow you to insert custom HTML into your forms. In previous versions of FootPrints, field headers were often used to store this custom code. After the update, you will need to adjust the field headers and custom HTML code fields so your form looks the way you want.
   • Functionality has been added to keyword searches to allow for faster more efficient searches. As part of this change, 'Anchored' keyword searches are used by default unless a wildcard character is specified. Searches for "Micro" will now only return fields with the word "Micro" and not "Microsoft" for example. However you can follow your search term with a percent symbol (%) or asterisk (*) to mimic the behavior of earlier versions of FootPrints. For example? "Micro*" will find both "Micro" and "Microsoft". Reports, searches, escalations or change management processes using keyword criteria may need to be adjusted to account for this new functionality.
   • With the new Executive Dashboard feature as mentioned above, the ability is also added to define a status as a "Closed" status. For instance, statuses such as "Resolved" and "Rejected" can also be considered as "Closed" statuses for reporting purposes. Since this data is integral to the functionality of the Executive Dashboard, when alterations are made to status settings it requires the system to rebuild the "Data Mart" used by the Executive Dashboard. Building the Data Mart can be a time consuming and resource intensive process.