Updating Plugins After Applying a Patch

This article documents several possible solutions for updating plugins after a new fix pack has been installed. Specifically, customers have found that a plugin's libraries are not patched at the same time as the portal. Customers have also found that a customized plugin that modifies a certain file can clash with the patching tool's install commands.

Run the command patching-tool list-collisions. This command lists all the differences (collisions) between installed patch files and the plugin's version of them. Currently only hooks and ext are supported, theme collisions are not detected.

As of Patching Tool 2.0.9, patching-tool list-collisions lists only JSP file collisions in fragment bundles. Unfortunately, this feature introduced a bug that was later fixed on Patching Tool 2.0.11. For more information about the resolution, please see the Patching Tool 2.0.11 article.

Resolution

There are several possible solutions for updating plugins after a fix pack has been applied.

1. After running command: patching-tool.bat|sh install to install fix packs and hotfixes, run the command: patching-tool.bat|sh update-plugins.
2. The Patching Tool also allows for automatically updating plugins so that administrators do not have to run the update-plugins command all the time. Add the property auto.update.plugins=true in the file default.properties (if auto discovery is applicable).
   
   Note: on startup in Liferay DXP, the console prints this message:
   
   

   Deploy time dependency JARs will be updated on the DXP startup.

   
   For more information, see the Additional Information section.
3. Administrators who do not want to use the Patching Tool can always re-deploy the plugin using either the hot deploy functionality or installing the war file.

Additional Information

See the following documentation about updating plugins and using the auto discovery functionality:

CONFIGURATION
    In case "auto-discovery" is not applicable in your environment or you would
    like to use different configurations, you can add a configuration manually.

    Note: [O] indicates an optional property

    Create a text file with ".properties" extension in the Patching Tool's
    directory and add the following properties:

    patching.mode:       "binary" or "source" mode can be used
    war.path:            The path to the Liferay war file (original or unpacked
                         depending on your app. server's deploying methodolgy)
    global.lib.path:     The path to the application server's global lib
                         directory (where portal-kernel.jar [portal-service.jar
                         in Liferay 6] lives)
 [O]auto.update.plugins: Set to true to execute "update-plugins" command with
                         "install" automatically
 [O]plugins.path:        Specify the location where the plugins are located that
                         will be used during the automatic plugin detection
 [O]patches.folder:      Specify the location where you'll copy your patches.
                         By default, this is ./patches.
    source.path:         Specify the location of your Liferay source tree.
                         This property is only valid if your patching.mode is
                         source.
    liferay.home:        Specify the location where by default the data, osgi,
                         and tools folders reside.