Every release of iMIS includes changes to themes to accommodate for new functionality and designs. Changes are often made to CSS, skin, and image files. While some of you may have only made minimal changes to your iMIS theme, many of you have likely made extensive changes to tailor the design for your organization. Regardless of your situation, the steps for upgrading your iMIS-themed website are the same. Follow these upgrade steps to avoid possible layout problems or missing images.
Important: Backup your current theme before you upgrade, so that you do not lose any of your changes.
1. Before you upgrade
If you have not kept track of the changes you have implemented in your theme, first do a comparison between the theme files you originally copied and your updated files, including all CSS, skin, and image files. There are many free file comparison tools available online to help you find the differences. In the CSS and skin files, annotate the code in your copy to mark the changes you have made, so that it is easy to identify these changes after the upgrade. For the image files, note which images you have changed or added.
For example, if you are currently on 15.2.5 and are using a copy of the Aspen2 theme, compare your copied files to the original 15.2.5 version of the Aspen2 theme files. Themes are located by default in C:\Program Files\ASI\iMIS\Net\App_Themes.
2. After you upgrade
Compare your theme to the upgraded out-of-the-box theme it is based on. For the CSS and skin files, use a merge tool to merge the new theme files into yours, making sure that you do not overwrite any of your customizations. Or, if you have not made any changes (as is often the case with skin files), you can simply overwrite your version of the file with the updated version. For the image files, copy in any new images to the images and Menu folders. There may be conflicts between your changes and the iMIS updates, which you will have to resolve on a case-by-case basis for your design.
To continue the example from step 1, if you upgraded from 15.2.5 to 15.2.10, compare your website theme to the 15.2.10 version of Aspen2. Then merge in changes from the out-of-the-box Aspen2 files to your version of the theme.
3. Test the changes
Click through your website to review the theme updates. You may need to adjust new styles or images for your design.