Best Upgrade Process?

What is the best process of upgrading from one version of Elgg to a newer version. I am using 1.801 and at some point like to upgrade to 1.8.1 without losing information and data. What is the exact process of accomplishing the upgrade?

  • Hleroy, provided you don't modify core and place all modifications in plugins, it's enought to copy new core code to your server and run upgrade.php. You can back up database before upgrade, even though there is not much risk in your data being lost.

    It's also good to keep code in SVN/GIT, so that you can always revert to older version if needed.

    Upgrading between major versions (eg. 1.7 -> 1.8) can be more complex.

  • @hleroy Here's a guide to do that:

    http://blog.arvixe.com/how-to-upgrade-to-elgg-1-8/

    Rodolfo Hernandez
    Arvixe/Elgg Community Liaison

  • @hleroy - The upgrade instructions are in UPGRADE.txt in the Elgg package you download or the newest version at https://github.com/Elgg/Elgg/blob/master/UPGRADE.txt

    @Mike - Upgrading from 1.7 to 1.8 is a similar procedure, but you have to remove some directories. Nothing too bad.

    @rj - This post has some inaccuracies that could mess up an upgrade. Please see the UPGRADE.txt file for the version of Elgg you're upgrading to and make sure your instructions match those. (eg, Don't disable all plugins or the plugin-specific upgrades won't run.)

  • @Brett I'll read the upgrade.txt again and make sure everything matches.

    I included the disable all plugins because I saw reports here of upgrades gone wrong that worked only after they disable all plugins. I also saw that behaviour last year here at the community when upgrades were being made.

    Rodolfo Hernandez
    Arvixe/Elgg Community Liaison

  • There was some discussion going on about disabling the plugins before upgrade. There are some different opinions on that.

    http://trac.elgg.org/ticket/3975

    Lot of guys may be upgrading to the new version. and me too...so I am curious to know whether we should disable all the plugins or not.

  • @Purus What different opinions? The core plugins must be enabled or their upgrades won't run. This bit at least one person when discussion posts didn't get correctly migrated.

    Ticket #3975 concerns removing the profile plugin to make sure views are deleted.

  • @Brett Will remove the disable plugin now, thanks for the info!

  • @Brett: Thanks for the clarification. I ran my last upgrade by disabling all the plugins..

  • Can someone explain and list exactly what core plugins need to be enabled during the upgrade from 1.8.01 to 1.8.1.

    Also what is the best way to back up the necessary files prior to the upgrade.

    I have read the upgrade instructions and they should be more detailed in this regard.

    Thanks.

  • I'd say that UPGRADE.txt that comes with the Elgg.1.8.1 release is quite straight-forward and has all the instructions needed for a successful upgrade ;-) There is sufficient step-by-step details in there to guide anyone through the 1.8.1 upgrade process.

    The 'best way to back up..' ? Almost any standard backup tools on the website's server platform should work quite fine - copy/cp, zip, tar, gzip, etc. Such utilities can usually be run very easily from cPanel, WHM or other control panels that are standard on all hosting Pkgs.

    The track I usually take is :-

    1)
    . Backup the Data Folder
    . Backup the DataBase
    . Backup the Old Elgg Code (in case I want to revert later;)
    . Backup the engine/settings.php
    2)
    . Kill all of the current Elgg Folders
    3)
    . Upload/Unzip the newer Elgg version
    4)
    . Copy back the old engine/settings.php to the new Elgg
    5)
    . Copy the new htaccess_dist to .htaccess
    6)
    . Goto http://MyElggDomainName.Com/upgrade.php

    This has worked fine for like.. forever.

    Any custom code changes (hacks or PlugIns) I may have made -
    I will take care of later after the new Elgg looks like running OK.

     

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