You've seen the videos,
the blog posts and the feedback,
and naturally started wondering: "Would Courier work for me, and
how do I know without paying?"
Well, the only way to know if Courier fits your way of working,
is by trying it out. And luckily, we've made it very easy to do
just that.
Trial version and licensing
First of all, Courier 2.5 functions completely unrestricted as
long as you run it on your local machine. There are zero
limitations on the trial version as long as it happens on your
machine, and not an internet/intranet server somewhere. So don't
worry about those trial messages, as long as you stay on your local
machine, it will be a fully working version
Setting up 2 local sites
Setting up local testing sites can be done in 2 ways, either you
simply create 2 new empty sites in IIS as you normally would
through web platform installer (
video), or by copying your website files and database from an
existing site. Whatever you do, you should end up with 2 sites
running on your local IIS webserver, in their own Application Pool,
so each site has its own .net 4 integrated mode Application
Pool.
Installing Courier 2.5
To make a connection between the 2 sites, you need Courier
installed on both sites. To install Courier,
follow the instructions below, which refers to the below
screenshots:
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| 1. Courier in the repository |
2. Setting the destination domain |
3. Courier installed |
4. Right-clicking to start
deployment |
5. the deployment dialog |
Open the Umbraco backoffice, login, and browser to the developer
section. Open the packages folder, and choose "umbraco
package repository" In the window on the right side, it
will now load the most popular pakages for umbraco, and enable you
to search for a package. Search for "courier" and the Courier
package should appear, then click the "install" button. (image
1)
When the install is complete, you will be prompted about
entering a location domain. This refers to the
toplevel domain your other umbraco site is installed on, so if it's
on a local domain such as "mytestingdomain", or "test.local" simply
enter those. If you run it on a specific port, enter the domain
name, followed by port number, ex: "localhost:8078" (image
2)
Courier is now installed and ready to use (image 3). If
you want to change the location domains, or add additional domains
later,
watch this video, or read the document on installation and
configuration, found
here.
When you have installed and configured Courier on both sites,
it's time to perform your first deployment. Simply right-click the
item you wish to deploy, and select "Courier" in the context menu
(image 4)
This will launch the Courier transfer dialog, where you can now
select what items you wish to transfer, or you can drill into
selecting specific files or overwriting modes, by selecting
"advanced settings" (Image 5)
You have now performed your first deployment with Courier. Now
to dig a little deeper, I suggest you watch the Courier 2 videos on
umbraco.tv
(free) read the documentation on Courier, (if you need to work with
apis or custom configurations)
found here, or simply ask any questions you have on the our.umbraco
Courier forum.
Upgrading trial to full version
When its time to go from the trial version, to the fully
licensed one, it is simply a matter of a installing a license file
from umbraco.com, if you havn't done it already, purchase Courier 2
from here,
either as the standalone product or as part of Umbraco
Complete.
When you've purchased a license, you can find it on your profile
page on umbraco.com, where you can configure the top-level domains
you need for your site.
After that configuration is done, simply open the umbraco
backoffice, go to the Courier section, and enter your credentials
on the Courier dashboard (image 3). This will give you the
option to install the Courier licenses you've purchased directly on
your site. Simply click "install" and your licenses is instantly
installed, with Courier ready to use. Do this on all the sites you
need Courier on.
Remember: Launch discount
To celebrate the Courier 2.5 launch, we're for a limited time
offering
Courier 2, Full version at a discounted price of just
€99, that means you save €350
To get the discount, simply enter the discount code
"fgdtt2237asds" on the Cart page, during checkout.
Offer ends December 1st