Upgrading... and MOVING?

[xfourninetwox]

Hey All,

So recently we noticed a problem that seems somewhat common, we got an error at our admin page when attempting to login... the details of the issue were listed here: (http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50534)

So I then download the patch and install the necessary files. Soon after I changed my admin/ folder to a new name (as directed by the readme instructions). I close out all my windows, exit my ftp, and attempt to go login a second time through the new admin directory name. Low and behold it was gone, and when I visit mysite.com/zen/admin it's back named as it was??

So here's my real question now... we have two domains that point to the same site, but when visiting the cart the older domain is the one that's used. We'd like to move our cart into the directory that the newer domain points to, eventually phasing out the older of the two. Now in order to circumvent any such problems like this one we just had in upgrading, instead of upgrading from version 1.3.0 to 1.3.8 we were wondering if there is a way to just install 1.3.8 into the new directory and somehow transfer our customer information and products?

Is this at all possible? To download the necessary files to move product images, information, quantities, attributes, prices, etc. and upload into another, newer cart?

Any information on this would be greatly appreciated because as of right now we don't even have a working cart.

Thank you!!

[jdw1979]

Well, it certainly is possible. But it's going to take some time. To import your product data, I recommend EasyPopulate. It's an incredibly powerful module that will allow you to put all of your product data into a spreadsheet and upload that data, via your admin center, to your store. It can be found here: http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...=easy+populate -- It's easy to install, and use. I wouldn't be able to run my shop without it. I was able to upload an inventory of about 50,000 items in about an hour with this thing. Which, now that I mention it, if you're uploading a large product database (1000 or more) then you will need to break up your spreadsheet (.csv format) into 1000 piece chunks, or you will have timeout issues.

The customer data import is a much more involved trick. There aren't any modules (that I could find) that did the same thing with customer data that EasyPopulate does with product data...so if you want to avoid adding your customers in one at a time, you're going to have to get intimate with your phpMyAdmin. I needed help doing this too, and I got support for it here: http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showth...811#post790811

Best of luck to you.

[jdw1979]

Also, help using the EasyPopulate module can be found here: http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Easy_Populate

[xfourninetwox]

Much thanks, jdw. I will look into this asap and report back with how it went!

[DrByte]

There's no need to go the EasyPopulate route.

You're upgrading. Period. So, do your upgrade on one server. Then test that it's working properly, before going live. Whether that server is the old one or the new one is your choice, but before you upgrade, make sure it's working, and then test again afterwards. Don't mix the "move" into the middle of it. Do the move before OR after, not during upgrading.

I always recommend doing the upgrade on the OLD server. Then do testing to prove everything's fine. Do several REAL live transactions. Sort out any and all errors and any templating/appearance issues. You manually do the PHP and template/HTML/addon/customization/language-file updates yourself. The zc_install part of the upgrade process preserves your data by upgrading the existing database's structure to the new required structure, typically AFTER you've updated all the PHP files. http://tutorials.zen-cart.com/index.php?article=98

THEN do your move to the new server: http://tutorials.zen-cart.com/index.php?article=100 , and test its functionality there.

You want it working properly on the old server before moving to the new server, in order to rule out "where" a given problem might be occurring.

If you just move it and upgrade it all in one step you'll be pulling out hair trying to figure out where some little thing went wrong ... or else you'll be pulling OUR hair out with endless questions here trying to fix something you broke and not believing us when we tell you it's a certain thing but you think it's something else.
Sorry, that's just the voice of tons of experience.

Wishing you well.

[xfourninetwox]

I ending up backing up with Easy Populate, which gave me piece of mind. I then used my ftp to download my cart folder. I used my phpadmin to export a backup on my database.

I then uploaded the cart into a new folder and made a new database to work with that cart. I imported the backed up database into the new one. After that I just uploaded the new Zen files folder by folder, checking after each to see if anything caused any problems. If I ran into a problem, I isolated it and fixed it.

I then ran the database upgrade checkbox by checkbox, as directed in the wiki entry. When everything was through I double checked all aspected of the cart were functioning.

Now I've directed the traffic of the site to the new folder and everything is working fine. We're up to date and in the correct folder/domain. What seemed to be a hugely daunting task ended up being a few hard hours of work.

Thanks for the help, folks!

[xfourninetwox]

OK So now it seems there is one issue we are running into... our Paypal payment moldule.

For some reason we are unable to edit it in anyway. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling but that didn't seem to change anything.

Any ideas?