I’ve finally got around to upgrading to the next version and I can’t say it’s been a pleasure. Not due to the software itself but because, when I set the site up, I made the mistake of installing the blog in the site root folder. This means the web.config settings automatically flow to all virtual directories below. Any <httpModules> and <httpHandlers> sections need to be carefully undone in web.config files lower in the tree. The problem is that to remove an entry from these sections the web application needs to load any referenced assemblies. Simple – just copy them into the bin directory. Unfortunately not if, like nGallery, the application is actually using a previous version of that assembly. I’ve had to do a special build of nGallery referencing an updated FreeTextBox control.

I did try setting a new blog up in a sub-folder and redirecting any relevant requests but testing with RssBandit showed that news aggregators would have a problem. Everyone would just assume the feed had died unless they actually pointed a browser at the URL. Also, I wonder what Google does with permanent redirects? Does it update it’s copy or just index the new page losing the original Page Rank?

There are a number of new features in this upgrade; most of them behind the scenes. But one you can play with is the new Month View. I’ve also upgraded the wiki. If anything is broken then let me know.