Upgrading Theatre Manager

10.06 Upgrade Steps

10.06 Upgrade Steps

The underlying technology for Theatre Manager has not changed. However, there have been upgrades to postgres that may make this seem like a full install. Depending on your environment, it may not take long to do. The steps are repeated here for an overview.

Also, if you meet a number of prerequisites, you may be able to take the fast track which only needs Theatre Manager installed on each workstation, resulting in a 10-20 minute update process.

 

Take the easy path...

If you meet all of the following pre-requisites, you can take the fast track/easy path on the right of the diagram.

  • Your version of Postgres is
    • 9.5.4 or later, or
    • 9.4.9 or later, or
    • 9.3.14 or later
  • Your web pages are:
    • responsive pages and you already have google analytics set up, or don't need it yet.
    • the older traditional web pages and you don't want to update them at this time
    • You don't mind updating web pages later
The easy path means that all you should need to do is follow the steps on the web page describing how to download and install Theatre Manager.

In general, you should be able to install V10.06 on top of 10.05, 10.04 or 10.03 and it should work with your current web pages.

Always test a complete web sale and checkout after an update.

 

More than just Theatre Manager requires updating

The last major update was 18 months ago. There may be additional steps required if a simple update cannot be done. You many need to do one or more of the following:

  • Stop all services
  • Upgrade Postgres
  • Upgrade Theatre Manager
  • Upgrade Web Services
  • Update web pages
  • Start all services

 

Upgrading Postgres

 If you are using Postgres 9.3.8 or earlier, or 9.4.3 or earlier, then you must update the postgres database server. If you are at more recent versions (but not the latest) you can skip this step, or update if you wish. You will need to:

Contact us if your venue has been set up with streaming replication server. Do not attempt to update the database server..

Upgrade Theatre Manager

 After the database sever is updated (if needed) follow the standard instructions to download and install Theatre Manager. Upgrading Theatre Manager automatically upgrades web services.

Optionally, you can install the following version 10.05 at any time on all workstations PRIOR to updating to version 10.06. They contain all the latest components that version 10.06 requires. If you do this, then Version 10.06 becomes a push out install for the machines where you physically ran the installers below.

Upgrade Web Services

 Since the Theatre Manager server is paused, then automatically updates itself after updating Theatre Manager at a workstation, most upgrades can skip this step. However, there is one significant change for those venues running multiple outlets. If you have multiple outlets, you will need to:
  • Open System preferences->Web Options for all outlets and enable (or disable) the Enable Web Sales option. You must have all web pages directories in place on the TM WebServer for each enabled outlet AND language combination, otherwise the classic server will not start.
  • Open the Director and reconfigure the number of classic servers. In a single outlet situation, this will not change from before. In a multi-outlet server, you previously needed at least 1 server per outlet where as you may be able to have fewer set up. The number depends on load at each outlet and use of plugins. Generally, this number should be the same as the number of second generation listeners.

The classic listener service is now outlet aware.

You must have web pages for each language and outlet that is enabled - otherwise the classic listener will not start

Updating Web Pages

 Most venues have already updated to the responsive web pages. There are sufficient benefits in using the responsive pages such as:
  • cleaner and more modern interface,
  • updated technology and html5 page compliance, and
  • better online search page rankings by google

Updating pages is a matter of:

  • downloading the latest web page updates
  • compare the web pages to your existing pages. a number of minor tweaks have been made to the responsive pages. We suggest replacing all the standard ones - but you can probably use the existing ones just fine.
  • Configuring use of Google analytics by opening Company Preferences->Web Listener tab and entering your Google Analytics Account number if you are using google analytics. The web pages have been changed to recognize the existence of this value. If entered, analytics automatically starts.

There is NO REQUIREMENT to use the responsive pages despite a recommendation to do so.

You can still use the older web page design if you prefer. However, beginning with Version 10.06 of Theatre Manager, we will no longer be providing updates to those older style pages and all new features will be provided in the responsive pages only.

If you are not using responsive pages, we would be more than happy to help you convert - please just ask.