We get asked this question every time an update is available for ShopSite. Clients aren’t sure if we’ll automatically upgrade their ShopSite ecommerce store, or if they need to request the upgrade.

Here is our policy when it comes to ShopSite upgrades…

Maintenance release -> Automatic update

If ShopSite releases a maintenance version (like the recent 11 SP2 r5 update), then we will auto upgrade / patch any store that is running the previous version (i.e. any store that was at version 11 SP2 r4).

A maintenance release is normally for bug fixes and very small feature changes. These type of updates do not make major changes to the software. They do not cause problems with existing stores. Because of this, we will update all hosted ShopSite stores running the previous version within a week or so of the release.

We will *not* send individual emails when these type of updates/patches occur. Instead, we will announce this on our website, in our news forum, and in our monthly ShopSite newsletter.

Major / Minor version update -> Must be requested

If ShopSite has a major update (i.e. version 11 to version 12), or a minor update (i.e. version 11 SP1 to version 11 SP2), we will *NOT* automatically upgrade stores at the previous version.

Why you ask?

There are a number of reasons:

• New versions that introduce new features or changes that are more than bug fixes can sometimes have bugs and issues that could break existing functionality. An auto upgrade could result in a store owner not knowing that an important feature is now broken.

• A new version may change existing functionality that a store owner relies on. The change could be problematic or even disastrous for an online store. We want to make sure our clients are aware of the changes, and are ready to test things after an upgrade occurs.

• A new version may incur an upgrade fee for clients that own their ShopSite license. This would need to be acknowledged and accepted by the client before the upgrade is completed.

How fast do we offer ShopSite upgrades?

For maintenance releases and patches, we typically have these ready to be applied within a few days of the release being available. We perform a few test upgrades in-house, verify no major issues are encountered. We also check our internal bug list to make sure issues that are described to be resolved are resolved as expected.

For minor and major releases from ShopSite, these may be a few days to a week or two. We perform a more thorough testing program, and often only upgrade a handful of stores initially to make sure there are no show-stoppers or major issues. Once we’re happy with the results, we then offer the upgrades to everyone.

How do you know a new version is available?

We typically announce new versions (maintenance, minor, or major) in a variety of ways:

• Our news forum

• Our homepage

• Our blog if it’s a minor or major release

• Our monthly email newsletter (if you’re not getting our email newsletter, let us know, and we can add your address)

• Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

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Hopefully that helps clear up how new ShopSite versions are handled by our team.