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Manage visual upgrade (SharePoint Server 2010)

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Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010

This article provides procedures related to the Visual Upgrade feature. When you upgrade from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, you can choose to use the Visual Upgrade feature to give site collection owners and site owners the opportunity to preserve the previous user interface temporarily. This allows them to update customizations to work in the new user interface. For a full description of Visual Upgrade and related choices, see Plan visual upgrade (SharePoint Server 2010).

In this article:

  • About using Visual Upgrade

  • View status of current user interface

  • Revert sites to previous user interface

  • Force an upgrade to the new user interface

  • Site owner options for visual upgrade

About using Visual Upgrade

When you upgrade, either by using in-place upgrade or by using the database attach upgrade method, you can choose to use Visual Upgrade.

During an in-place upgrade, you make the choice to use Visual Upgrade as a step in the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard. The visual upgrade feature is not available in the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard if you are performing an upgrade on a stand-alone server with built-in database. However, the Visual Upgrade feature is available in this case from the Psconfig command-line tool. You can then use the syntax: psconfig.exe -cmd upgrade [-preserveolduserexperience <true|false>].

During a database attach upgrade, the choice to update to the new user experience or stay in the old user experience is accomplished by using either:

  • The Updateuserexperience parameter of the Mount-SPContentDatabase Windows PowerShell cmdlet.

  • The preserveolduserexperience parameter of the addcontentdatabase Stsadm operation.

For additional information about using these parameters during an upgrade, see Attach databases and upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010.

View status of current user interface

You can view the current user interface status by generating a list of all Web sites in a site collection and their corresponding visual upgrade data. This is useful if you have set a time limit by which site owners must have prepared their sites for the new user interface and you want to monitor their progress. The following procedure shows you how to view the current user interface status.

To view status of current user interface by using Windows PowerShell

  1. Verify that you meet the following minimum requirements: See Add-SPShellAdmin.

  2. On the Start menu, click All Programs.

  3. Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products.

  4. Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

  5. At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:

    $sc = Get-SPSite http://machinename/sites/collectionname; $sc.GetVisualReport() | Format-Table

For more information, see Get-SPSite.

Revert sites to previous user interface

If a site collection owner or site owner finalizes the new user interface by mistake, or if they have a problem that they cannot solve, you can revert back to the previous user interface by using Windows PowerShell. This procedure shows you how to revert one or all sites in a site collection to the previous user interface.

To revert sites to the previous user interface by using Windows PowerShell

  1. Verify that you meet the following minimum requirements: See Add-SPShellAdmin.

  2. On the Start menu, click All Programs.

  3. Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products.

  4. Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

  5. To revert a specific site in a site collection to the previous UI, at the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:

    Get-SPSite http://machinename/sites/V3UI | Get-SPWeb "webname" | Foreach{$_.UIVersionConfigurationEnabled=1;$_.UIVersion=3;$_.Update();}

    To reverts all sites in a site collection to the previous user interface, at the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:

    Get-SPSite http://machinename/sites/V3UI | Foreach{$_.UIVersionConfigurationEnabled=1;$_.UIVersion=3;$_.Update();}

For more information, see Get-SPSite.

Force an upgrade to the new user interface

If you want to forcibly apply the new user interface after an upgrade has taken place, you might first want to give site collection owners and site owners a specified time during which they can preview the new user interface and fix any issues they might have. When you force an upgrade to the new user interface, you can use a script or use the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard during the initial upgrade. For information about upgrade and the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard, see Run the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard. The following procedure shows you how to programmatically upgrade all site collections and all sites to the new user interface.

To force through an upgrade to the new user interface by using Windows PowerShell

  1. Verify that you meet the following minimum requirements: See Add-SPShellAdmin.

  2. On the Start menu, click All Programs.

  3. Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products.

  4. Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

  5. At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:

    $webapp = Get-SPWebApplication http://sitename

foreach ($s in $webapp.sites)

{$s.VisualUpgradeWebs() }

For more information, see Get-SPWebApplication

To upgrade a single site collection to the new user interface, type the following commands at the Windows PowerShell command prompt:

$site = Get-SPSite https://server

$site.VisualUpgradeWebs()

To upgrade a single site to the new user interface, type the following commands at the Windows PowerShell command prompt:

$web = Get-SPWeb https://server/site

$web.UIVersion = 4

$web.UIVersionConfigurationEnabled = 0

$web.Update()

Site owner options for visual upgrade

The site owner can use the Site Setting user interface to toggle between the Use the previous user interface and Preview the updated user interface options. Once the site owner is satisfied with how the site looks, the new UI can be finalized by selecting the Update the user interface option.

The following table describes the different upgrade options that are available for the site owner to choose for their sites. The upgrade modes are available from the Site Settings page in the Title, Description, and Icon section.

Mode type Description

Use the previous user interface

Site owners use this mode to have all their sites use the interface from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Preview the updated user interface

Site owners use this mode to evaluate how their sites will look and function in the new interface. When this mode is chosen, features from the previous version interface will not be available.

Update the user interface

Site owners use this option when they are satisfied with the changes and are ready to switch to the new user interface. If needed, an administrator can restore the user interface to the previous version interface.

See Also

Concepts

Plan visual upgrade (SharePoint Server 2010)

Other Resources

Downloadable book: Upgrading to SharePoint Server 2010
Resource Center: Upgrade and Migration for SharePoint Server 2010