Helpful Hints for Automatic Upgrade (plus some manual edits)

[Rhapsody]

I successfully used the automatic upgrade feature going from 1.4.4.0 to 1.4.5.1 and have a few tips to pass on. (I posted an entry at this link )

 

1. You need to manually deactive the shop in order to start the upgrade. The automatic routine does not do this for you. After the upgrade, you also need to manually reactivate your shop.

 

Steps 2 and 3 are just for peace of mind in case something drastic happens, not required to do the upgrade.

 

2. Suggest that you use the DB Backup feature in the BO Tools tab to create a backup before the upgrade. I downloaded this as an insurance policy before the upgrade

 

3. Suggest you backup your Prestashop directory before the upgrade. You can FTP it to your local disk, or copy it to another directory on your server.

 

If you made any modifications to other files:

 

4. I found that the mods I made to various mail templates were overwritten by the upgrade. So if you customized any files, plan on copying the files back, or merge any changes you made as appropriate. I use WinMerge to compare the source files from the old unmodified Prestashop files and the new Prestashop version to look for files that were changed. I have a list of files that I have modified including all the mail templates and look for any files in that list that have been changed. This is made easier because I keep just the files I've modified in a local directory that has the same structure as Prestashop.

 

5. Once the files in the new version that have changed have been identified, I copy them to a new local directory (e.g. Prestashop 1.4.5.1 mods) using the Prestashop directory structure. I add to this any of the files modified that were not changed in the newest update.

 

6. I then use WinMerge to make the file edits into the new version files. This is fairly easy using a tool like WinMerge for the changes.

 

7. When all the edits are done, all the files in the new local directory are uploaded to the server after you complete the automatic upgrade.

 

The new local directory with any modified files will be used to repeat the process the next time Prestashop is updated.

 

As a general comment, using the override feature for controllers and classes makes the upgrade process much easier. That way you are not modifying the core code. It would be nice if this capability could be extended to modules.

[indus]

THis is actually a good post.I read it a bit late though.

 

All problems i have are always database related.Anyways, i had to waste whole day doing manual installation with ultra slow ftp .

[philee]

Wow, WinMerge is awesome. Makes comparing files easy! Thanks Rhapsody!