Upgrades and Backward Compatibility

Transitioning from IFPS15 to IFPS16:
There are major structural changes in the formatters from IFPS15 to IFPS16.  Information on transitioning your formatters can be found in the Power Point presentation at:    http://www-md.fsl.noaa.gov/IFPS/16/ChangesIFPS16.ppt

Transitioning from IFPS13/RPP20 to IFPS14/RPP21:
Products that ran in IFPS13  will NOT run in the current infrastructure.  You must delete (or rename) all your existing Local files and customize the core products delivered with the release.   It may be helpful to simply re-name your Local files so you can refer to them when customizing the new core products. Be aware that most of the methods have changed, so the actual customization code cannot be copied from the old Local file to the new.  However, you will have a record of the kinds of customizations you may need to make to the new products.  Make sure that you delete infrastructure overrides such as the "Holidays" file which changed in this version.

Products from IFPS14/RPP21 and beyond:
Products that run in IFPS14/RPP21  and beyond should be compatible  with the current release.  The few exceptions are highlighted in the Release Notes.

Products Created in RPP17 or Prior:
If your site is running existing products using the infrastructure from RPP17 or before,  they will continue to work for a few more releases.  However, after reading the Advanced Text Product Documentation (to be supplied), you should convert these products to the new infrastructure as the old infrastructure will eventually be discontinued.