How upgrade affects Search Center sites (Search Server 2010)
Applies to: Search Server 2010
Topic Last Modified: 2011-08-05
Search Center sites that an administrator creates in Search Server 2010 have a new look compared to the look of Search Center sites created in Search Server 2008. During product upgrade, a server administrator can upgrade old sites to the new look. After product upgrade, a site owner can upgrade old sites one at a time.
Note
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The information in this article applies to both Microsoft Search Server 2010 and Microsoft Search Server 2010 Express.
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This article is specific to the effect of upgrade on Search Center sites. It does not pertain to the effect of upgrade on other types of SharePoint sites.
In this article:
Server administrator options for upgrading sites during product upgrade
Site owner options for upgrading sites after product upgrade
Server administrator options for upgrading sites during product upgrade
During product upgrade, the server administrator can specify one of the following three options for upgrading Search Center sites to the new look:
Keep the old look for all existing sites.
Keep the old look for sites that were customized, and apply the new look to sites that were not customized.
Apply the new look to all existing sites.
The effect of the server administrator’s choice on an existing site depends on which of the following three levels of customization the existing site has:
No customization
Minor customization (such as minor modifications to Web Part properties and cascading style sheets)
Extensive customization (such as significant modifications to page layout, cascading style sheets, and master-pages)
The following table shows how the look of a Search Center site after product upgrade is affected by the level of customization of the existing site and the visual upgrade option that the server administrator selects at upgrade time.
| This visual upgrade option | Has this effect on Search Center sites that were created in Search Server 2008 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sites with no customization | Sites with minor customization | Sites with extensive customization | |
| Keep old look for all sites. | All sites keep the old look. | All sites keep the old look and old customizations. | All sites keep the old look and old customizations. |
| Keep old look for sites that were customized, and apply new look to all sites that were not customized. | All sites get the new look. | Sites that were not customized get the new look. Sites that were customized keep the old look. | Sites that were not customized get the new look. Sites that were customized keep the old look. It might be necessary to adjust some cascading style sheets so that the upgraded Search Center closely matches the old look. If the page layout was customized before upgrade, after upgrade the administrator must add code so that the new layout displays the ribbon. For more information, see Displaying the Server Ribbon and Site Actions Menu on Customized Search Pages Upgraded to SharePoint 2010 Using Visual Upgrade (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=178924). |
| Apply new look to all sites. | All sites get the new look. | All sites get the new look. Old customizations are carried over. | All sites get the new look. Old customizations that an administrator provided in separate page layout and master page files that are on disk (not in the product database) are retained following upgrade. However, old customizations of native Search Server 2008 search page layouts and master pages are lost. |
Note
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Some kinds of Search Center site customizations are not supported. This includes customizations that directly alter related files on disk. Also, transfer of such customizations during the upgrade process and use of the customizations after upgrade are not supported.
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Web Parts that are new in Search Server 2010 are not added to upgraded sites. For example, the Refinement Web Part is new in Search Server 2010 and is not added during upgrade. The site owner can add it to the left zone manually after upgrade.
Site owner options for upgrading sites after product upgrade
Following the product upgrade, site owners can upgrade sites from the old look to the new look one at a time. However, the site owner’s options are affected by the decisions that the administrator specifies during upgrade. For example, if the administrator upgraded all existing sites to the new look, the site owner has no choices remaining in this regard after upgrade.
Before committing to upgrade a site to the new look, the site owner can preview the new look for a site by using the Title, Description, and Icon link on the Site Settings page. This preview capability is especially helpful when the site was customized in Search Server 2008 because it enables the site owner to determine how much work might be required to upgrade the site to the new look.