Upgrading an installation can be done at any time. You do not need to take the site offline. Currently logged in users will simply notice that the next time they redisplay or perform an action, AdvoKit will be updated to the new version.

Note that if you have made changes to the application itself, such as to the advokit.css stylesheet, or changed the Smarty templates that are used to display screens, those changes will be lost in this update unless you go through the advokit-installer package and reapply your changes to the appropriate files before running the installation.

The procedure for upgrading an existing installation is very much like that for a new installation. It just skips over the database creation step. Here's a step-by-step description:

1. Extract the installer under your webroot (i.e. accessible from a web browser).
2. Run the installer from your browser (http://<mydomain>/<mywebroot>/advokit-installer). You shold be taken to a page titled "Welcome to AdvoKit Installer".
3. On the "Welcome to the AdvoKit Installer" page, click on "Refresh 1.0.0 files, leaving the database untouched". You should immediately be taken to a page titled "Refresh AdvoKit files". (If you clicked the wrong button you would be shown a page for entering database access information. If you arrive here by mistake, just click the "Start over" button to return to the beginning.)
4. On the "Refresh AdvoKit Files" page, you will need to provide the correct paths for where your files will be located. It would be a good idea to review and understand the existing installation's file locations before entering these paths.
5. Make sure that "yes, try to preserve my settings" is selected (which is the default), otherwise you will loose access to your current data. (Note that if you make a mistake, this can be fixed by later editing the advokit.ini file manually.)
6. Double-check to make sure all your paths are correct, and then click "Continue". You will now see a list of all the files that have been written. Check for any errors in this list. (Errors usually are related to directories that the web server does not have permission to write or modify files. Resolve these issues, and then reload this page.)