Complete Substrate upgrade assessment with comprehensive documentatio…

[Takeichitanaka]

Substrate Upgrade Assessment - Initial 5-Hour Phase

Overview

This PR contains the complete initial assessment for upgrading Joystream's Substrate version from monthly-2023-05 (polkadot-v0.9.41 era) to a more recent version. The assessment was completed in 5 hours as requested and provides a comprehensive analysis, implementation plan, and cost estimate for the upgrade.

Related Issue: #5035

🎯 Assessment Objectives Completed

Current State Analysis - Identified exact version, architecture, and custom pallets
Previous Upgrade Review - Analyzed PR #4932 for patterns and lessons learned
Target Version Selection - Evaluated options and selected Polkadot SDK v1.7.0
Implementation Planning - Created detailed 6-phase plan with time estimates
Risk Assessment- Identified risks and mitigation strategies
Initial Implementation - Updated dependencies and attempted initial compilation
Cost Estimation - Provided detailed breakdown with timeline scenarios

📋 What's Included in This PR

1. Comprehensive Assessment Document

SUBSTRATE_UPGRADE_COMPLETE_ASSESSMENT.md (1,230 lines, 34 KB)

This single comprehensive document contains everything:

• Executive summary with key recommendations
• Complete current state analysis
• Previous upgrade review (PR Update to polkadot v0.9.41 #4932 patterns)
• All issues identified with solutions
• Upgrade strategy and target version rationale
• Detailed 6-phase implementation plan
• Cost breakdown ($1,100-1,450 total estimate)
• Risk assessment with mitigation strategies
• Summary of work completed in 5-hour assessment
• Next steps and decision points for council

2. Automation Tools

update-substrate-deps.sh - Bash script to automate dependency updates

• Bulk updates all 23 Cargo.toml files
• Replaces repository URLs (joystream/substrate → paritytech/polkadot-sdk)
• Updates version specifications (rev → tag)
• Saves hours of manual work

3. Dependency Updates

Updated all Substrate dependencies across the codebase:

• Runtime (runtime/Cargo.toml)
• Node binary (bin/node/Cargo.toml)
• All 17 custom pallets
• Utilities and tools
• Changed from Joystream fork to upstream polkadot-sdk
• Targeting Polkadot SDK v1.7.0

Files Updated: 31 files including all Cargo.toml files

📊 Implementation Plan Summary

Phase 1: Dependency Resolution

• Resolve fflonk dependency issue
• Get code compiling with new Substrate version

Phase 2: API Compatibility Fixes

• Update Weight API usage
• Fix type system changes
• Update macro syntax

Phase 3: Custom Pallet Updates

• Update all 17 custom pallets
• Fix Config traits and storage
• Update tests

Phase 4: Node Integration

• Update node service
• Fix RPC APIs
• Update CLI

Phase 5: Testing & Validation

• Run full test suite
• Validate runtime upgrade
• Performance testing

Phase 6: Documentation & PR

• Migration guide
• Final PR for merge

[traumschule]

Thanks a lot. Additionally two documents were produced in commit 6701b7b:

• PR_DESCRIPTION.md
• SUBSTRATE_UPGRADE_COMPLETE_ASSESSMENT.md

=> Proposal for initial payment

[CodeHex083]

From a Substrate/Polkadot SDK best-practices perspective, the scope and structure of your assessment (current state → lessons from previous upgrade → target version → phased plan → risks → costs) line up well with how experienced teams approach large jumps in SDK versions.
The use of a dedicated automation script for dependency updates, plus an explicit focus on compilation first and API compatibility next, matches common guidance in recent upgrade guides.​