UpdateHelper SaveInstallationMessages() removed in Sitecore 7.5

Sometimes we use the Sitecore class called UpdateHelper to install packages on different Sitecore instances for example via a webservice.

Today I copied some code from a Sitecore 7.2 installation which did exactly this. It is a simple service class that installs a package from a path and then it logs the installation results as done by the Sitecore InstallUpdatePackage wizard.

public static string InstallUpdatePackage(String packageFile)
{
var log = LogManager.GetLogger("LogFileAppender");
string result;
using (new ShutdownGuard())
{
var packageInstallationInfo = new PackageInstallationInfo
{
Action = UpgradeAction.Upgrade,
Mode = InstallMode.Install,
Path = packageFile
};
string text = null;
List<ContingencyEntry> entries = null;
try
{
entries = UpdateHelper.Install(packageInstallationInfo, log, out text);
}
catch (PostStepInstallerException ex)
{
entries = ex.Entries;
text = ex.HistoryPath;
throw;
}
finally
{
try
{
UpdateHelper.SaveInstallationMessages(entries, text);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
log.Warn("Unable to write the installation messages", ex);
}
}
result = text;
}
return result;
}

public static string InstallUpdatePackage(String packageFile)

{

var log = LogManager.GetLogger("LogFileAppender");

string result;

using (new ShutdownGuard())

{

var packageInstallationInfo = new PackageInstallationInfo

{

Action = UpgradeAction.Upgrade,

Mode = InstallMode.Install,

Path = packageFile

};

string text = null;

List<ContingencyEntry> entries = null;

try

{

entries = UpdateHelper.Install(packageInstallationInfo, log, out text);

}

catch (PostStepInstallerException ex)

{

entries = ex.Entries;

text = ex.HistoryPath;

throw;

}

finally

{

try

{

UpdateHelper.SaveInstallationMessages(entries, text);

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

log.Warn("Unable to write the installation messages", ex);

}

result = text;

}

return result;

}

But the code would not compile when using the Sitecore.Update.dll from 7.5

This is because the method SaveInstallationMessages amongst others has been deleted from the UpdateHelper class without first being marked as deprecated or obsolete.

Instead Sitecore moved the logging functionality directly to the code behind of the InstallUpdatePackage page. This prevents us from re-using the code directly which is a bit of a shame.

My fix was simply to write to the Sitecore log if the installation fails and I guess this is good enough for now.

It would be best if such API methods were marked as deprecated before they were deleted. A small plead to the Sitecore dev team.

It would also be okay if it was just mentioned in the release history on SDN. I presume that the methods has been deleted in relation to this resolved issue:

The way that issue was resolved just created some new ones 🙂

Anders Laub Christoffersen

Anders has been working with Sitecore for over a decade and has in this time been the lead developer and architect on several large scale enterprise solutions all around the world. Anders was appointed the title of Sitecore Technical MVP in 2014 and has been re-appointed the title every year since then.

One thought on “UpdateHelper SaveInstallationMessages() removed in Sitecore 7.5”

Alex de Groot on November 3, 2014

Hi Anders,

This is good feedback.
For other components we do indeed go through the path of deprecating method calls. In this case we didn’t as we didn’t expect people to take a dependency on this component… Wrong assumption :). Something to work on.
If we can help you with anything, feel free to email me directly.

Br, Alex

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