W3StudioCMS versions

W3StudioCMS is distribute in four different versions:

The Plugin version
The Standalone Application version
The Application version
The Sandbox version

All these versions have the same version of W3StudioCMS plugin, what changes it the enviroment. Let's explain in detail.

Plugin version This is the basic W3StudioCMS version, in fact only the plugin is distributed. You can use this distribution when you still have a full Apache, mySql, PHP5, Symfony 1.2 system configured on your PC.

Standalone Application version This version is a full ready-to-use system already configured. Is is powered by server2go server, which basically distribute an AMP system so any web application can be used without any configuration and installation is required. It can be placed into a usb-key. This version has the pourpose to let everyone who doesn't know anything about PHP, to use W3StudioCMS on his computer. Since the 1.1.5 release, this version uses as predefined browser FirefoxPortable. If you ever use Firefox to browser the web, this could be a great occasion to try this great browser. This version works only with windows and cannot be installed on a web server. To upgrade the standalone application give a look to this tutorial

Application version This version is a full application which has only to be installed and configured for your AMP system. It comes with a standard theme and it's cross-platform. Requires an AMP system installed. It can be used on a web server.

Sandbox version This version is a skeleton application which contains only W3studioCMS plugin and the others required plugins. It can be used to play with W3StudioCMS or to start an empty project based on W3studioCMS.

How to install

Every distribution contains the install file where you can find detailed information to install W3StudioCMS. On the web site it is only reported the install procedure for the Plugin version.

How to upgrade

W3StudioCMS has been developed to be fully extensible, so if you made changes to some parts of the plugin you haven't to do them inside the plugin itself, but in the main project's lib directory. You can change something of the core of the application, or something of the config directory of the project's application, as explained in this tutorial. When you follow these simple rules, the upgrade project consist only in removing the old sfW3studioCmsPlugin inside the plugins directory and replace it with the new one. When you upgrade, you should give a look inside the sfW3studioCmsPlugin folder because sometimes it can be necessary to launch a task that usually changes something into the database or doing some easy manual operations.

Note: If you have downloaded the Sandbox version, or the Application version or the Standalone Application version, when you want to upgrade you don't have to download again the full package, but you have only to download the Plugin version and replace the old plugins/sfW3studioCmsPlugin directory with the new one you have just downloaded.