[Forum] Couple of general upgrading questions

[Mark.B]

Ok as my long awaited upgrade to 4.0.8 (from 3.8.6) draws near, it's time to start thinking about the little issues that may cause problems, and hopefully get some tips on the best way round them from others who have been through this.

The situation: I have upgraded and modified a test mirror and customised many templates and also added mods and then customised those.

So what we have are a lot of customised standard templates, customised modification templates, customised modification plugins, and customised phrases.

These all somehow have to be ported over to the live site in the immediate aftermath of the upgrade - the site cannot go live without them.

So basically I need to replicate 100% my test board onto the live site.

Here's what I have sussed out so far....

1) Immediately after the upgrade, I will need to export all products and plugins from the test site to get the "modified" versions of the modifications.
2) I will need to export all phrases...do these have to be exported by product or can the lot be done at once somehow?
3) I'll need to export the 6 styles I have created (all of which use the same modified templates so it's just different stylevars)

Now, my concern is re-importing these in the correct order.

If I import the products first, then the new styles aren't in place to receive the modified mod templates, if that makes sense...so, I should do the styles first.

But then, if I do the styles first, the modifications that some of the templates relate to, won't yet exist. Will this cause a problem?

I am presuming that exporting a product also exports any modifications made to the plugin code and template code, and not just the "default" code?



My plan is to:
1) Import the styles
2) Import the products and plugins
3) Import the phrases.

Then I shall need to manually update all the settings in vBulletin options to match the test site.

I don't know why but I'm suddenly a bit bothered that I might run into trouble trying to copy all these changes over from the test site.....

[Lynne]

2) Do you add the phrases or where they added from products? If from the products, then just installing the products should bring the phrases with it.

If you have modified templates that belong to products, then exporting the style and then importing it before you have imported the product should be fine. The product imports it into the MASTER STYLE. So, your template will show as 'unmodified' when you first import the style, but after importing the product, it should show as 'modified' (hope that makes sense).

[Mark.B]

Thanks Lynne;

2) Do you add the phrases or where they added from products? If from the products, then just installing the products should bring the phrases with it.

They are mostly from products, but I have then further customised some of them. Will those customisations be brought through if I export the modified product from the test site then import it to the live one?
I have also added a handful of totally new phrases that relate to individual products, but have created these under the relevant product, so will these custom phrases also export then import with the modified product I created them under?

If you have modified templates that belong to products, then exporting the style and then importing it before you have imported the product should be fine. The product imports it into the MASTER STYLE. So, your template will show as 'unmodified' when you first import the style, but after importing the product, it should show as 'modified' (hope that makes sense).

Perfectly, thanks.

[Lynne]

If you export the product and you have modified the phrases, or you have added some phrases and associated them with that product, then they should export with the product. You can always verifiy this by just opening the exported xml file in a text editor and looking for it.

[Mark.B]

If you export the product and you have modified the phrases, or you have added some phrases and associated them with that product, then they should export with the product. You can always verifiy this by just opening the exported xml file in a text editor and looking for it.

Thanks Lynne. I don't foresee any problems now.