Upgrading to BrowserHawk 10.x

Introduction

This document provides important information on how to upgrade from older versions of BrowserHawk to BrowserHawk 10.01. It also covers some important considerations to keep in mind while planning for your upgrade.

BrowserHawk 10 offers several major new features and capabilities. In addition it provides dozens of enhancements and important updates. For more details see What's New in BrowserHawk 10.x.

Quick Index:

Backward compatibility
Obtaining your license key
Obtaining and Installing BrowserHawk 10.01
Important notes - please read
Performing the upgrade
Additional reading

Backward compatibility

BrowserHawk 10.01 is fully backward compatible with all BrowserHawk code written for BrowserHawk 5.0 and later. This means that you can simply install the BrowserHawk software and should not have any need to update your BrowserHawk code.

Obtaining your license key

Before installing BrowserHawk 10.01 please read the following to make sure you have a valid license key that will work with this version prior to installation.

Customers with ACTIVE Support and Maintenance

Your upgrade to BrowserHawk 10.01 is free if your Support and Maintenance Plan (SAMP) is current.
Your SAMP will be current if either:
- You purchased new or upgraded BrowserHawk licenses within the past 365 days. In this case the key we sent with your order is already coded to run this latest version.
- Or, you purchased a renewal to your SAMP, and your renewal term is still in effect. In this case the updated license key we sent with your renewal order is already coded to run this latest version. This assumes, however, that you installed the updated key when we sent it. See the note below for information on how to verify your key is valid in case you are not sure.
Important note: Please confirm that your existing license key is valid for the latest version of BrowserHawk before upgrading, especially if you are not sure whether you previously installed the latest license key sent with a SAMP renewal order. Use the license key validation tool to verify your key is valid.
Customers with EXPIRED Support and Maintenance

If you previously purchased BrowserHawk, but your Support and Maintenance Plan (SAMP) was not renewed and is expired, you are eligible to purchase an upgrade to BrowserHawk. Your paid upgrade will include one year of support and maintenance, so that all upgrades over the next year as well as your technical support are free. With your order you will receive a license key that runs version 10.01.

Upgrading Across Editions

After comparing editions, if you find features in a higher edition of BrowserHawk of interest, you can purchase an upgrade to the desired edition. For example, you can upgrade from 9.01 Professional to 10.01 Enterprise, or even 10.01 Professional to 10.01 Enterprise.

Obtaining & Installing BrowserHawk 10.01

Use one of the following links to download version 10.01.

BrowserHawk 10.01 for ActiveX/.NET

BrowserHawk4J 10.01 for CFMX / JSP / Servlets / Java / Other

Please see the above section to make sure you have a proper license key for this version prior to installation.

Important notes if upgrading from BH 9.x or earlier

This section outlines some important considerations regarding upgrading to BrowserHawk 10.01 from versions prior to 10.01, and offers some useful tips on areas you may want to focus on.

All developers: If you have customized your browser defintions using the BrowserHawk Editor, please be sure to backup your maindefs.bdf, maindefs.bdd, and maindefs.mrg files before upgrading, as your customizations may be overwritten during the upgrade process.

All developers: IMPORTANT - BrowserHawk 10.0 includes an newer version of jvmdetector.class. This file is critical for detecting the JavaVendor, JavaVersion, MSJVMBUild, Plugin_JavaVer, OSName, OSVersion, and OSArch properties. Be certain that you replace all copies of jvmdetector.class that reside in your web directory or directories with the newer version. The automated installer prompts you for a location to save this file (provided you enable the install option "Java based property tests"). BH4J also contains a copy of this file in the .zip.

All developers except Classic ASP: IMPORTANT - BrowserHawk 10.0 includes an newer version of bhawk_sp.dat. This file contains a critical update for BrowserHawk's connection speed testing. .NET developers using BH with manual deployment, and CFMX and JSP developopers, should be certain to replace all copies of bhawk_sp.dat that reside on your system with the newer version. The automated installer will place this updated file in the BrowserHawk install directory. BH4J also contains a new copy of this file in the .zip.

All developers: BrowserHawk 10.0 provides many new features, enhancements, and important updates. Please explore the documentation and samples that ship with the product for more information.

Classic ASP and ASP.NET developers: If you are using the BrowserHawk Reports Web Service (BRWS), this version of BH includes an update to the BRWS DLL (ISAPI extension). The first time a request is made to the BRWS in 10.0, it will automatically upgrade your database schema to add new columns to the BHSTATS table, and add a new PLT table used by BrowserHawk's new Page Load Time (PLT) monitoring functions.

JSP developers: If you are using the BRWS4J you will find SQL scripts to adding the new PLT table and other modifications to the schemas within the BH4J zip distribution.

All developers: BrowserHawk now includes our patent-pending technology for tracking the actual page load times (including latency) of your site visitors. Unlike traditional page load time monitors, this data is tracked by tracking the site activity of your actual visitors.

Performing the upgrade to 10.01

This section outlines the general procedure for upgrading your software.

BrowserHawk ActiveX/.NET

If you have BrowserHawk 7.x or higher installed, you can simply run the automated BrowserHawk installation program. There is no need to remove your older BrowserHawk software first, as the installation of 10.01 will take care of this for you.

TIP: To minimize the chances of needing to reboot after the installation, stop the IIS Admin Service and BrowserHawk BDF Service prior to running the installation program. Be sure to restart these services once the installation is complete.

ASP.NET developers: If you manually copied the BrowserHawk.dll into one of your bin directories, as would be the case if you used simple (manual) deployment, you must replace all those copies with the new DLL found in the BrowserHawk\dotnet folder after installation of 10.01. Otherwise you will continue to use the older version. If you did not manually copy the BrowserHawk.dll and used the automated installation previously, there is no need to manually copy over this file (the reference copy of BrowserHawk.dll and version in the GAC will be automatically updated). In any event, you most likely will need to recompile your web application under BH 10.01 and deploy it; otherwise you may receive a run-time error since the older version of BrowserHawk your site was compiled with is no longer present.

BrowserHawk4J (Java)

Generally it is recommended that you remove all BH4J files and follow the detailed installation instructions found in the readme.txt file within the BrowserHawk zip file.

If you replace your browserhawk.properties file, first take note of any customizations you made to your old file. In particular, be sure that the new file points to your BH4J license key.

If you are running BrowserHawk 9.01 and want to just replace the main files that have changed, here is a list of the file changes between 9.0 and 9.01:
- bhawk4j.jar
- maindefs.bdd
- BrowserHawk4j.cfm
- JVMDetector.class
- bhawk_sp.dat
- readme.txt
- optional: copy of the updated Javadocs from the docs folder
- optional: brws4j/brws4j.txt
- optional: brws4j/brws4j.zip
- optional: brws4jtest.jsp (new sample demonstrating BRWS4J usage)
For more information see the readme.txt distributed with BH4J.

See the installation instructions in the readme.txt file to determine which directories these files should be placed in.

Attention ColdFusion MX developers: You must stop and restart the ColdFusion MX Application Server Service before CFMX will recognize the new files.

Additional reading

See these links for more information about BrowserHawk 10.0: