How can I upgrade my web app to a newer release?

I have been using MATLAB Web App Server with several apps, all created using the same MATLAB release. I would like to use a new feature in one of my web apps, but this feature is only available in newer releases.
How can I update my web app to use a newer release?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

A deployed app needs to run on the same release that was used to compile it. As a result, in order to upgrade a web app to a different release, you will need both MATLAB and MATLAB Runtime (on your MATLAB Web App Server) to support that release. 

This article describes the method for doing this for the product version of MATLAB Web App Server. For these steps, you will need to know your server version and the new version you are trying to upgrade to:

• The server version is the release of your MATLAB Web App Server -- for example, R2024b. If you are unsure of your server version, this information can be found in the VersionInfo.xml file in your MATLAB Web App Server install root.
• The new version is the release you are trying to upgrade to. This specific example is about upgrading, but you can use these same instructions to migrate a web app to any supported release.

If the new version is newer than your server version:

In order to use a runtime version that is newer than your server version, you will need to upgrade your MATLAB Web App Server to a release that can support that runtime. See this documentation page for which runtime versions are supported by a specific MATLAB Web App Server release.

To upgrade your web app: 

1. Install the new version of MATLAB Runtime on your server machine. See the documentation for instructions.
2. Upgrade your MATLAB Web App Server to a release that can support the new version of the runtime. See this MATLAB Answer for instructions.
3. Compile your app using the new version of MATLAB and deploy it to your server.

If the new version is not newer than your server version: 

The product version of MATLAB Web App Server supports a range of 6 runtime releases, which you can view in this table. If the new runtime version is supported by your current server version, you can upgrade your app without needing to upgrade the MATLAB Web App Server product itself -- see steps below. (If your desired runtime version is not supported by your server version, see the steps above to change your server version.)

To upgrade your web app: 

1. Install the new version of MATLAB Runtime on your server machine. See the documentation for instructions.
2. Configure your server to use the newly-installed runtime by using the webapps-runtime script: 

   webapps-runtime add <path to new runtime>

3. Compile your app using the new version of MATLAB and deploy it to your server.

Note that if you are using the development version of MATLAB Web App Server, you will always need to upgrade both your MATLAB installation and your MATLAB Web App Server installation to the new version, as the development version only supports a single runtime release.

When upgrading for a bug fix, note that some bugs related to web app functionality specifically (e.g. authentication) will have fixes in the MATLAB Web App Server product itself. In these cases, you will need to upgrade the MATLAB Web App Server product to the fixed version in order to achieve the fix.