Ok, I am a chicken - I am scared to upgrade

[libertate]

I am scared to upgrade, because what I see is a limited amount of information on how to deal with already installed hacks/mods.

I run vB 3.0.7, vBadvanced CMPS v2, vBadvanced Links Directory, Article Bot (RSS feed), Geek Article System, Geek Autolink Manager, vB Statistics, user self delete, and vBa CMPS boxes in a left column in forumdisplay.

What is the best way to go about this?

Do I "upgrade" vB to 3.5 then install vBa CMPS, left column, then GAS, GAM, and such?

How will this impact the "articles"? Will they have to be reflagged as articles? Will the additional fields in the article records be lost? I see there is "GARS" now. Has anyone upgraded from GAS to GARS succesfully? Any pitfalls? What order is the proper order? vB-vB, vBa->vBa, GAS-> GARS?

Can I just install everything in a pararallel system, then "port" the data in some fashion?

Arrrghhh!!!

[Brian]

With so many hacks and such, you should make a backup of your database, restore it, then run the upgrade script on that backup so you can test things. When upgrading the CMPS all you have to do is download the vB 3.5 files from here, upload them to your server, and then run the upgrade script (instructions are also included in the readme file).

[KW802]

I run vB 3.0.7, vBadvanced CMPS v2, vBadvanced Links Directory, Article Bot (RSS feed), Geek Article System, Geek Autolink Manager, vB Statistics, user self delete, and vBa CMPS boxes in a left column in forumdisplay.

That's a lot of hacks!

- CMPS will be painless, I just upgraded my personal site and it's essentially just replacing the existing versions of the files and running the installer script & choosing the 'upgrade' option. Took only a minute or so for the whole thing.

- Links, same as CMPS.

- Article Bot, as far as I know the author didn't upgrade it to 3.5 yet but if you look on vB.org there is one called Inferno RSS that does the same thing. I was running Article Bot on 3.0.x and am looking at Inferno RSS now.

- GAS, see The Geek on his site (http://www.thevbgeek.com) as there is a newer version called GARS (IIRC).

- GAL, same as GAS. There is now a 'lite' version and a Pro version. I'm using the Pro version on 3.5 but I don't know if there is an upgrade path available since I wasn't using it on 3.0 (was trying to avoid any hacks the modified files but the new version is a plugin). Best to ask The Geek.

- vB Statistics, don't know about a 3.5 version. I ended up removing it entirely. I haven't searched yet to see if there is an upgrade.

- Use self delete, sorry, but I haven't played with that one yet.

- CMPS panels on left column, the functionality is still there but it'd be best to take a look at the manual as Brian has indicated that he has recently updated the instructions.


Like Brian said, with that many hacks you'll want to test the upgrade first. Check out this post from Eva2000 on vB.com for a guide; I've used that method so far on two 3.0.x sites with no problems. The vBa stuff shouldn't be an issue but you'll run into some problems with a few of those other hacks.

[libertate]

Ok, thanks both.

Reading "Eva2000"'s notes, in step 5, last part "remove hacks" [...]"you have hacks on your database, you can remove them".

The only hack that I can see that modified the DB is the article system. KW802, how did you manage the upgrade to the GAS to GARS, yet no loss of info?

My steps are then -
copy old DB to new DB
upload vB3.5 to clean directory
Run Upgrade vB3.5 - will this distroy the GAS information in the DB?
Install CMPS
Install all other stuff.

In reality, the only thing I am concerned about is the articles getting lost.

[A Geek]

Since the articles are really just threads, you wont lose any data EXCEPT possibly the bylines, synopsis's and header images... essentially each of the article forums will become normal forums and your articles will turn into threads.

HTH's

[KW802]

For GAS, it's best to ask The Geek.... as part my conversion to 3.5 I got rid of a bunch of hacks that was I was using and so far I haven't replaced GAS yet with anything else.

[libertate]

Thank you all! Ok. So.... When I get GARS installed, I presume I can select any of the specified forums to become the "article" forum again. Right?

[A Geek]

yup

[libertate]

Brian, I seem to have two problems with the CMPS after upgrade.

This is what I did -
Make copy of DB & whole site.
Created new folder and DB for duplicate site.
imported old DB, and uploaded old files into new location.
uploaded vB 3.5 on top of copy
Upgraded vB to 3.5 - no problems
uploaded CMPS for 3.5 on top of copy
Upgraded CMPS for 3.5 - no problem

Went into CP, had the usual language issue (menu) not showing. So I "resaved" in "langugage" and "phrase" managers. Yet, there is still stuff not showing up in the menu.

Menu showed up partially:
[vBa CMPS ]
Default Settings
[blank]
[blank]
[blank]
[blank]
Download / Upload Module
Quick Permissions Editor
Styles & Templates

Also when cmps_index.php is running I get the error:
Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /home/libertate/www/fora2/modules/latestlinks.php on line 56

Thanks for your continued help!

[Brian]

That's strange that the phrases didn't get added. Try going to the install file in your browser again, select the option to reinstall the phrases, and see if that helps.

Also when cmps_index.php is running I get the error:
Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /home/libertate/www/fora2/modules/latestlinks.php on line 56

That would be from a module that was designed for vB 3.0. If you disable it in your admin cp though that should make the error go away.

[libertate]

That both worked. The culprit for the error was a Link Directory module, that was not upgraded just yet. Thanks Brian!

Last question, promise.

If I want a clean install of EVERYTHING except messages forums, users and user rights, is there a way to do this?

I have noticed, after several versions of my porting, that some hacks/mods stay even after complete replacement. There are also several tables I am sure are not part of CMPS or vB, but I am afraid to drop them, not knowing how much they are embedded in the system.

In essence I would like a clean vB, vB CMPS install, then port the forums, their messages, and port users and their rights and stats. Is this possible and how would I go about it?

[Brian]

There should be a vB import script that would allow you to do a clean install of vB and then import all of the info from your current database. You could use that and then re-install the CMPS.