Upgrading database

[dbltoe]

Allaction Seems like you may be jumping around the steps rather than follow a particular plan. There's a great guide at http://www.zen-cart.com/entry.php?3-...d-of-upgrading. Try using that.

[Allaction]

I followed the readme instructions in order. But even though I put a new database in a seperate folder with its own back up copy of the original site. When I selected "database upgrade", a message came across my original site that says the site is down for maintenance to the public. I can pull up the original site admin and the upgrade test admin, but not the front side of the test site.

Now what is ambiguous is how to turn off "down for maintenance" on the live site. Or maybe that will turn off when I go live with the new site? The instructions just say to turn it off and they dont say how to do that. The instructions then day "go live". Again, not how to do that. Maybe thats easy for a pro, but not for a novice, I was looking a bit more detailed specificity.

Also, I only have 2 mods made to my original zencart version. The rest of my mods are to the template, so Im not worroed about that. But do I need to go in and set up my zencart pages again? or will those stay the same when I get the new version live on the site?

[lruskauff]

I followed the readme instructions in order. But even though I put a new database in a seperate folder with its own back up copy of the original site. When I selected "database upgrade", a message came across my original site that says the site is down for maintenance to the public. I can pull up the original site admin and the upgrade test admin, but not the front side of the test site.

Now what is ambiguous is how to turn off "down for maintenance" on the live site. Or maybe that will turn off when I go live with the new site? The instructions just say to turn it off and they dont say how to do that. The instructions then day "go live". Again, not how to do that. Maybe thats easy for a pro, but not for a novice, I was looking a bit more detailed specificity.

Hi
If you go to the link that dbltoe provided, it has detailed instructions like:

Put your live shop down for maintenance (Admin->Configuration->Website Maintenance->first option, turn it on)

That is how you put a store in and out of maintenance.


I understand that things can be difficult as a novice but sometimes you have to read and reread the instructions again. A few month ago I was upgrading also and hadn't done it in a long time. I ended up hiring someone to do part of my upgrade for me and I'm glad I did. Now, 2 months later, I no longer need that help and am comfortable in doing it myself.

When I look back at the help that was provided to me, I realize that sometimes I missed what they were saying, because the lingo was all new to me.

So take your time and go through the steps again. And don't go on to the next step until you have the current step worked out. Your current site should remain intact until you have your new test site working. It sounds like you might have gotten stuck when it was upgrading your database but I would be guessing at the source of the problem at this point.

Let us know how it goes.

lruskauff

[mc12345678]

You say you had your database in a separate folder? The database doesn't exist in that way... The files do... It sounds as if the database has now been upgraded and is referenced by both the live site and the new upgrade...

This will cause issues if the live site is put back online while using the old files... You should make the new site/files what are opened/accessed by going to your "old" URI.

In following the instructions, there is no step to place the site in maintenance mode (done automatically when performing the database upgrade to prevent outside changes to the database while performing the upgrade and the follow-on action).

As for taking the site out of maintenance mode, take a look at the configuration menu in the admin panel.

To verify the truth of both sites using the same database, can review the database information (defines that have DB_ as a prefix) in each includes/configure.php file...

[Allaction]

OK, I have been working on this off and on as that's all the time I'm able to devote to it. Thank you all for your help. I have now my live site and a test site going. Hostgator was causing my previous troubles, they were putting it in maintenance mode and leaving it there when I never requested that.
Anyway, my current issue now is that I cannot log into my test admin to work on my new (test) site. My password doesn't work. I looked all through the the install steps and I put all the correct info in the configure.php pages. The password that is on that page is for the database which is attached tot he test site fine. I never set a password for the test site. I am using the same username for the test side as for my live side, does that make a difference? Should I change the username? Can I do that if I've already established the user for my new database?