Hello,
How are people dealing with v13 > v16 upgrades and specifically Property Converters?
I belive uSync Migrations wont work? Has anyone got a steer on the best way to covert Nested Content, Grid Layout and JSonViewer properties?
I think uSync is a good way to go anyway. Though uSync Migrations would’ve been perfect for a V7 or V8 I think you’re right it won’t help you converting from 13 unless you write a bunch of extra code yourself.
However writing some code that reads regular uSync files from V13 and translating the JSON to an upgraded structure could well benefit from using similar techniques as uSync migration. You can deserialize and serialize using the grid and block types for V13 since they haven’t changed that much. As well as doing the “rest” with regular json objects.
The main trick for me is to do this from unit tests so I can control how much I try to migrate while working on the translation code. If unit tests are too unfamiliar you could likely get away with a Console App instead.
In any case, I thorougly recommend doing this with uSync files so you can import incrementally better and more migrated content as you go.
HTH,
Lars-Erik
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Hey Neil,
I developed a custom tool that my team has used to convert data from old deprecated properties to new ones: (I will be updating it to work on the new backoffice soon)
It’s similar to uSync Migrations, in that you export a .zip file from your old site (which contains .xml representations of your content and media) using the “Source“ package, then import that .zip file int your new site using the “Target“ package. You can define some C# mappers, on the Target site, to convert the property data as you see fit.
There’s an example implementation of an Old Grid to Block Grid mapper in the repo docs folder, although you will likely need to tailor it to your grid components etc…
I haven’t yet updated the package to work on the new v14+ backoffice, but you could just do a v13 > v13 migration using the tool, then run that database against the v16 site.
We’ve used this tool on all of out v7/8 > v10/13 migrations, and plan on using it on any future migrations that need data conversion.
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Hey @Neil-Hodges ,
I’m not sure whether Migrations works for a v13→16 migration, but we’ve been using uSync Migrations for an in-place migration on v13 sites. It’ll cover off the Nested Content → Block list and Grid → Block Grid but it’s also a great framework to build custom migrators too.
Once you’ve done an in-place migration, you can then upgrade your site to v16 (although, as an aside, my experience is that v17 is already a lot more stable than v16!) as Owain suggests you’d do with his tool.
Owain’s tool is also a great option. Check which properties each tool will convert for you by default and factor in if you have existing experience of uSync Migrations.
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Hi Neil
I’ve used the import/export feature of Deploy to migrate content from v8 to v16. It works similarly to uSync Migrations, and migrators for custom property editors is somewhat simple to write.
Note, it doesn’t require a license if you run everything in localhost 
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Hi Joe,
When using uSync Migrations, when you nuget install that onto the v14 instance, how are you getting around the dependency to Umbraco.Cms.Web.BackOffice 10.4.0 ?
Im getting an error in my Startup class because of the dependency, so i cant compile.
I tend to download the repo rather than using the package. That way you can add references directly.
I also just noticed you said v14 - I suspect there may be no functioning backoffice UI for v14. It runs fine in v13, though.