Upgrading from 2.5.2 to 2.10.2
How Do I?
I have an old site that I’m trying to overhaul. It’s in a pretty bad state so I think starting from scratch is the best option. However, what implications does that have for the database?
Assuming I reinstall all the necessary add-ons, would there be any significant conflicts if I imported a database from a 2.5.2 installation into a 2.10.2 installation?
Alternatively, would it be better to just clone the site, perform the upgrade and then methodically break down all the gunky parts and rebuild it?
Regarding the clone, what is the best option for setting up a staging environment? Can I just create subdomain and then have all the duplicate files inside a folder in the public_html folder (eg. /public_html/dev/public_html/)? Would it be smarter to set it up on a different server altogether?
EDIT: I uploaded 2.10.2 on a new account and tried to install, but got a 500 error when I tried to run the installer. According to the EE Wizard the only thing the server was lacking was PHP Fileinfo, which I’m not having any luck installing because of the memory required to compile Apache with Fileinfo. Is this actually the cause of the 500 error and any tips for getting the build to succeed?
> Assuming I reinstall all the necessary add-ons, would there be any significant conflicts if I imported a database from a 2.5.2 installation into a 2.10.2 installation?
No, that won’t work. The database needs to match up to the files.
You’ll want to actually update from 2.5->2.10. So- clone/setup a development environment and work the kinks out of the update there.
As for the staging environment, I like to have it on the same server in case some weird server issue is causing problems on one site and not the other. Someone yesterday was having issues with a white screen and no errors after copying over their perfectly fine site from the dev server. Turns out the live server didn’t have the mysqli extension installed. Oops!
That said- opinions do vary.
Let’s see- 500 errors are vague. Does the first page of the updater come up at all? And the fileinfo issue… I looked and we’re not checking for it in the update preflight, but I won’t swear it couldn’t be in play.
Might be worth seeing if you can just get the ‘clone’ up and working first. Make sure you can copy over the working site. If that’s good, then we can look at the update again.
And I will toss in- I know some folks who have to revamp a really bad site will start fresh- set things up how they want as far as channels and templates go, and then use DataGrab or Solspace’s Import to bring in the old data that way. I haven’t done it myself, but it’s an option.
Let’s see- 500 errors are vague. Does the first page of the updater come up at all? And the fileinfo issue… I looked and we’re not checking for it in the update preflight, but I won’t swear it couldn’t be in play.
No, I can’t get anything but the EE Wizard to display.
As for the staging environment, is it safe to just have it in a subdirectory of public_html? So I would have the following structure:
/public_html/dev/system /public_html/dev/public_html
Would I need to make any changes in htaccess to prevent any conflicts?
It should be safe in a subdirectory as far as not affecting your live site. You may want to password protect the directory to keep people from finding it, but it shouldn’t hurt your live site at all as long as you’re careful to keep your databases separate.
And for a stock EE htaccess file, you wouldn’t need to make any changes to run an EE install in say ‘dev’ along side your live install.
What I’ll typically do in a whitescreen is exit out until process of elimination I can spot where exactly it’s breaking. But if it keeps giving you trouble, it might be a good case for [email protected].
It may also be the case that if you try it in the subdirectory it may just work (i.e., it’s some environmental issue, which would be my bet).
Thanks Robin. I managed to perform the upgrade with relative ease, just a few quirks with individual add-ons that were resolved quickly. There didn’t seem to be any adverse effects and it is completely isolated from the live site. Now I’m in the fun process of completely reconstructing the templates.
😉 Glad that worked.
And man- I’d rather code a new site than revamp an old any day. Even when the old one is mine! I do not envy you this one!