eZ Publish was eZ Platform's predecessor, a CMS in development for five = major versions and several years.
Users of eZ Publish will find eZ Platform largely similar to what they k= now. The improvements and enhancements did not turn the fundamental concept= s underlying the system, such as the content model, upside down. However, s= pecific features, solutions and recipes may work differently between the tw= o versions.
The release of eZ Platform brought about an inevitable disruption in bac= kwards compatibility with eZ Publish. This means that the process of migrat= ing existing installations requires more effort than simply upgrading from = one version to another. Here you can find details on moving existing Publis= h-powered websites to eZ Platform.
Changes overview
Incompatibili= ties with legacy
eZ Platform represents the 6th generation of eZ Publish, and while the 5= th generation had a major focus on backwards code compatibili= ty with the 3rd and 4th generations (legacy), the 6th generation d= oes not.
The 6th generation is aimed at being fully backwards compatible on the f= ollowing:
- Content from 4th and later 5th generation installation=
- Code from 5th generation system when written for P= latform (Symfony) stack
The specific incompatibilities
The specific changes that will be migrated and are incompatible with leg= acy are:
- XmlText fields have been replaced with a new RichText field
- Page field (ezflow) has been replaced by the LandingPage field, and is now provided by our commercial product eZ Platform Ente= rprise Edition
- Incremental future improvements to the database schema to improve featu= res and scalability of the content repository
Together these major improvements make it practically impossible to run = eZ Platform side by side with eZ Publish legacy, like it was possible in 5.= x series. For these reasons we recommend that you use eZ Publish Enterp= rise 5.4 (which is supported until end of 20= 21) if you don't have the option to remake your web application ye= t, or want to do it gradually.
Migration Path
From legacy (4.x or 5.x) to Platform stack (5.4/2014.11)
If you are coming directly from legacy (4.x), you need to follow the bes= t practice 5.x Platform migration path and do the following:
- Rewrite custom Field Types for the new Platform stack, see Field Type Tutorial
- Rewrite custom web front end to use the new Platform/Symfony stack= , see Beginner Tutorial=
- Rewrite custom admin modules to use the new Platform/Symfony stack
- And if you do this while on 5.x, you can use several of the available legacy migration features<= /a> to make the new code appear in legacy admin
See Upgrade documentation on how to perform the actual upgrade: Upgrade (eZ Publish Platform page)
From Platform stack (5.4/2014.11) to eZ Platform
As eZ Platform introduced completely new user interfaces with greatly im= proved user experience, the following custom developments needs to be made = if you have customization needs:
- Write UI code for custom Field Types for the new Javascript-based edito= rial interface, see Extendin= g PlatformUI with new navigation and Creating Landing Page blocks (Enterprise)
- Adjust custom admin modules for the new Symfony-based admin interface,&= nbsp;PLANNED TUTORIAL FOR 2016
For a detailed guide through these developments see Upgrading from 5.4.x a= nd 2014.11 to 16.xx
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