Removing solution in SharePoint, keeping the pages with older webparts, redeploying updated solution with newer webparts

Question

What I am trying to do is to keep SharePoint pages that were created in SharePoint while the solution underneath is retracted, updated, and then redeployed. Has anyone done this before, what issues may I run into?

I'm worried that the state of the old webparts on the page may use values that are incompatable with the newer updated webparts. Any advice would be great.

Answer 1

Make sure that the new version web parts don't remove any properties and any added properties have default values - as long as you maintain backward compatibility in the code you shouldn't have any problems.