You Lose Portal Customizations and Custom Web Parts After You Upgrade from Evaluation Version of Portal Server (296610)

CAUSE

This behavior can occur because the SharePoint Portal Server upgrade process always installs the latest version of the portal files and overwrites your customizations. To prevent this behavior, follow the instructions at the following Microsoft Web site

http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/downloads/Eval2Full.asp

to run a preparation script before you perform the upgrade.

This article discusses how to restore your portal customizations if you did not run this preparation script before the upgrade.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for SharePoint Portal Server 2001. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

312963 How to Obtain the Latest SharePoint Portal Server 2001 Service Pack

At the root of your workspace, there is a hidden folder named "Portal," which contains all the dashboard site files. Before you install new portal files, the upgrade process renames your original folder to match the format "Portal_(date and time of upgrade)." For example, if you upgraded on August 3rd, 2001 at 11:35:32 A.M., the Portal folder would have been renamed "Portal_2001_8_3_11_35_32." Open your workspace root (as a Web folder) to determine the actual folder name.

You can export the customized contents of this saved folder to your current Portal folder to restore your original Portal settings. Do not copy all of the folder contents directly from the saved folder to the Portal folder, because doing so may overwrite newer Portal files. Copy the customized files only as needed, following the steps in the "Workaround" section of this article.

WORKAROUND

To recover your original portal settings, follow these steps while you are logged on as a workspace coordinator:

Restore custom Web parts.

If the custom Web parts are available from another source, such as backed up to a .dwp file, you can re-acquire each Web part and import them into the upgraded Portal. If the Web parts are not available, you can open the old Portal and export them to a file. To do this, follow these steps:
1. To open the old Portal, type the workspace URL appended by the renamed Portal folder on the Address bar of your browser. In the preceding example, this would be as follows:
  http://server name/workspace name/Portal_2001_8_3_11_35_32
2. When the Web page has loaded, click the Content link.
3. Click the name of a custom Web part to see its settings.
4. At the bottom of the page, click the Export button.
5. Save the Web part to disk.
  
  This file can be safely deleted when you are finished importing it into the Portal.
6. Open the new, upgraded portal (http://server name/workspace name), and then click the Content link.
7. Select Import a Web Part File, and then follow the instructions to import the Web part that you just saved.
8. Repeat steps c through g for each custom Web part.
Restore Portal page layout and settings customizations. Re-apply the settings on the new portal page.
Restore dashboard files that you have modified or created. Copy the files manually by using Web folders.

STATUS

This problem was first corrected in SharePoint Portal Server 2001 Service Pack 1.

MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: Consult the SharePoint Portal Server software development kit (SDK) for information about which files may be safely modified. Service packs and hotfixes may overwrite changed files unless they are mentioned as safe for modification in the SDK.

Also, do not copy the entire old folder structure directly; doing so causes the same loss of customization the next time that SharePoint Portal Server services are restarted. Copy files individually, and only those files that you need.