Approximate time to upgrade?

[cotodecazaz]

Hi,

What's the approximate time it should take to upgrade from:

v1.3.9h

to

v1.5.0



This is for a very small site.

[stevesh]

Depends mostly on how many mods you have installed, which would determine how many files you would have to compare. You could upgrade a stock Zencart site (NO mods) from 1.3.9 to 1.5.0 in ten minutes.

[sunflowertami]

My site is on 1.3.9h and just had a chance to look at the new files and changed files on 1.5.

This is a major upgrade, looks like it will take months to finish the upgrade. I'm saying this from the stand point of a site that has lots of customization plus I am only able to devote a few hours in a week to go through the files.

Someone who has dedicated time to work on it may finish it earlier I suppose. :)

[pasi]

Upgrading takes about 10 minutes...

Assuming stock install of zencart.

Been working on one of my customers shop for more than 10 hours now, and there's still a lot to be done.

[RodG]

My site is on 1.3.9h and just had a chance to look at the new files and changed files on 1.5.

If you've been managing to keep you site updated through to V1.3.9.h then you'll find upgrading to V1.5 to be just as straightforward.

This is a major upgrade, looks like it will take months to finish the upgrade.

One would hope not. A few hours tops.

I'm saying this from the stand point of a site that has lots of customization

Although I've no idea what *you* mean by "lots of customization", but I have found that most people don't have anywhere near as much 'customisation' that they think they do.

Let me explain. For the purposes of upgrades, a 'customisation' is something that has changed or modified one or more of the core files. VERY FEW people ever need to do this. The exceptions being any add-on modules they have installed that require such changes (and most mod devs avoid the need to do this as much as possible).

Assuming that the overrides have been correctly used many upgrades can be a simple matter of replacing the core files and checking/verifying that everything is all OK.

Additions, such as add-on modules are not customisations in a technical sense. They may or may not work with the updated code, but these are actually secondary to the upgrade itself. Assuming the modules being used have also been upgraded (or verified as being compatible) it is usually quicker/easier to simply re-install these with the upgrade rather than searching for any possible changes.

In short, although it may appear to be a major undertaking, in practice, it is rarely ever as complicated and challenging as it may first appear.

plus I am only able to devote a few hours in a week

A few hours on one weekend should be more than enough time. (for the majority of users).

For those that DO have lots of customisations (changes to the core files) it does become a lot more challenging, BUT, the people in this position invariably have the skills to implement said changes in the first place, and as such, won't find it too much of a challenge to re-create their changes into the new code anyway..... In other words, the skill level needed to perform any given upgrade is almost directly proportional to the skill level needed to get the store to its current state in the first place.
Roughly translated, if a 'noob' has just barely managed to get thier store up and running in the first place they have all the skills needed to update to the next version with very little effort. OTOH, an experienced store owner with lots of mods/customisations will have aquired the skills needed to update *thier* store with little effort either.

It is all a matter of perception.

plus I am only able to devote a few hours in a week to go through the files

This is generally pointless. It is safe to assume that with an upgrade such as v.3 to 1.5 that all the core files will have had some kind of change. You do not need to go though and check these for changes.

What a person needs to do is compare these files with any *custom* changes that they have made so that the same changes can be implemented into the new code. If the store hasn't had any custom changes (and most haven't) then there will be nothing that needs re-coding, so why waste time looking for changes that are irrelevent to getting the upgrade functional?

Someone who has dedicated time to work on it may finish it earlier I suppose. :)

Only if the 'someone' happens to be the same someone that created the original customisations (because only they will know what code they changed). for everyone else, it falls back to the same old advice to 'check all the files for changes', which is a time consuming process that is mostly determined by the speed of the server and the speed of the network (assuming the checks are made across the net, rather than a local installation). A bucket of water takes the same time to fill regardless of how much experience a person has at turning on the tap). A 'diff' command takes the same time to run no matter how often much experience a person has at running it.

Sorry, I'm not having a dig at you, and for all I know you really do have a lot of actual customisations to take into consideration (even though I do have my doubts), it just saddens me to read posts such as yours that is 1) probably without factual basis as to the actual difficulties/time involved, and 2) Is just one step short of fear mongering that will prevent some people from even attempting to upgrade, even though it will be trivial for *them* to do so (on account of the fact that they don't have the same customisations/addons that you do).

MOST people don't have any problems whatsoever with upgrades. Any reports of problems that people experience that you read in these forums are from the *minority* of users. If everyone that performed an upgrade without any problems posted their findings in the forums people would end up scratching their heads wondering why there are only a few dozen people with problems out of the 1000's of reported upgrades that went without a hitch. Sadly, as it stands, the 'vocal minority' seems to get all the undeserved attention, which is causing needless fears for everyone else.

The zencart team have done an amazing job with thier attention to detail and ease of upgrading, but they get so little appreciation of their efforts. Comments such as " looks like it will take months to finish the upgrade" must surely have them thinking "why the heck do we bother. People are going to make it hard for themselves (and others) no matter what we do to help them"

What I would like to see more of is comments from people that do have upgrade problems to come back to the forums with details as to what the problems were, and what they needed to do to solve them. This kind if feedback is actually helpful for everyone. Fear mongering (even unintentional) is bad. OK. :)

Cheers
Rod