Upgrade Guide

Upgrading to a New Version

# 1. Update the package
composer update falconcms/falconcms

# 2. Run the update command
php artisan falcon:update

falcon:update handles everything automatically:

• Runs new database migrations
• Syncs permissions and roles
• Refreshes admin assets (CSS, JS)
• Refreshes the default theme
• Publishes child theme skeleton (non-destructive — never overwrites your customizations)
• Clears application cache
• Auto-creates any missing e-commerce pages

Child theme safety

falcon:update will never overwrite files in your child theme. Your customizations in resources/views/themes/my-child-theme/ are always preserved.

CLI Commands Reference

Command	Description
php artisan falcon	Show all Falcon CMS commands
php artisan falcon:install	Full fresh install
php artisan falcon:update	Update assets, migrations, and permissions
php artisan falcon:seed	Seed default menus and demo content
php artisan falcon:publish-scheduled	Manually publish due scheduled posts
php artisan make:falcon-page {Name}	Scaffold a new admin dashboard page

Scaffolding a Custom Admin Page

php artisan make:falcon-page Analytics

Creates:

• app/Http/Controllers/Admin/AnalyticsController.php
• resources/views/admin/analytics/index.blade.php
• Route entry in your routes file
• Sidebar menu item

Scheduled Tasks

Falcon CMS auto-registers a scheduled task via Laravel's scheduler. Ensure your cron is set up:

# crontab -e
* * * * * cd /path/to/app && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

This runs falcon:publish-scheduled every minute to auto-publish scheduled posts.

If you can't set up cron, Falcon CMS also auto-publishes as a terminating callback after every web request — so scheduled posts publish on the next page load after their scheduled time.

Backups

Always back up before upgrading:

1. Go to Admin → Tools → Backup
2. Click Create Backup
3. Download the backup file
4. Then run composer update and falcon:update

If something goes wrong, restore from backup:

1. Admin → Tools → Backup → Upload your backup file
2. Click Restore

WordPress Migration

Import content from a WordPress site:

1. Go to Admin → Tools → WordPress Import
2. Export your WordPress content as XML (wp-admin → Tools → Export)
3. Upload the XML file
4. Optionally: import media files
5. All posts, pages, categories, tags, and users are imported

REST API

Falcon CMS includes a REST API for headless use.

Enable API

1. Admin → Settings → API
2. Toggle Enable REST API
3. Click Generate Token

Endpoints

GET /api/v1/posts
GET /api/v1/posts/{slug}
GET /api/v1/pages
GET /api/v1/products
GET /api/v1/products/{slug}
GET /api/v1/categories
GET /api/v1/tags
GET /api/v1/menus
GET /api/v1/settings
GET /api/v1/search?q=keyword

Authentication

Authorization: Bearer your-api-token-here

Write operations (create/update/delete) require a token with appropriate permissions.