Very Confused After Upgrade

[Miss Tiina]

Hi I have zencart via my fantastico cpanel on my hosting, I saw that there was an upgrade available so I clicked upgrade. Now everything is completely messed up and I would like to restore it but Im totally confused how to do it. Please help!

Thanks
Tiina

[lib99]

There are significant differences (improvements) between v1.2 and v1.3. Hopefully you have a good backup of your v1.2 files and database. Restoring from the backup would be your best choice. Once successfully restored, read up on these differences and recommendations for making the jump from one to the next. (Avoid using Fantastico for upgrade installations.)

[rbrown]

I think they should make it so that shows up in the Fantastico section as a manual upgrade. So that others won't do the upgrade through Fantastico.

PHPAdsNew usually makes you do a manual upgrade and gives you specific instructions on what to do, so you don't screw up your installation/site. Mambo has done upgrades both ways if I remember correctly.

If the Zen Cart upgrade won't screw up the site, then have it as an show up as an automatic update. Otherwise make it a manual update.
That way people won't screw up their sites.
Like I did... too.

My two cents...
Bob

[rwoody]

I couldn't resist on this one... many hosts Have Fantastico on their servers and the host chooses what applications can be installed by their customers in their WHM. The available app list is extensive, containing the most popular Open Source Applications/Projects such as Zen-Cart.

The problem is most hosts do not support any of these applications and usually there is a statement to that effect right in Fantastico. A very long time ago, I removed Fantastico from my server due to such issues. One of my customer's actually managed somehow to delete his entire public_html directory (his root directory) by uninstalling a program that he had installed via Fantastico in the root. He clicked "uninstall" in Fantastico and vroom his root directory no longer existed!! What a mess. Thank goodness I keep the servers backed up each night and I was able to get him back to square one in about 15 minutes.

That is my suggestion to you. If you do not have a backup of your site, contact your host and see if they have a recent backup they can install for you. You really should become familiar with installing Zen-Cart manually. It has a wonderful installation program and at the same time you learn more about your system and how to support it.

Just my two cents.

[rbrown]

Yes most hosts I deal with do have that listed, but I'm not sure how Fantasico works, or how Fantastico "knows" when there is an update. If the hosting provider gets the update notice or if Fantastico gets it and feeds it to the hosting providers.

My point was... there are other software developers that let you know which is the best way to install the upgrade through Fantastico.

With advent of WHMHosts and Fantastico, there are many people out there that have different levels of expertise.

If they (the end user) have been lulled into an easy install/upgrade with past installations/upgrades, when a new version comes out, that will drastically change the function/display of the site. I feel the software developer should try to save their end users and the hosting providers who help the software developer push their software, (for free... I probably wouldn't have tried Zen Cart if it hadn't been on the server.) time and energy by warning the end user what to do, before they do it. Instead of a button to push to do an update automatically when it should be done manually.

Don't you agree?

It would make newer users feel better about using the software knowing they will be notified somehow . The email I received form Zen Cart never mentioned that I should do something different or manually upgrade. They just said:

----------------------------------
This is a follow-up reminder that if you are running Zen Cart v1.3.0, v1.3.0.1, or v1.3.0.2, you are advised to install the Security Patch immediately.

Security Patch details can be found here:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43579

Additionally, REGARDLESS OF VERSION, if you haven't already taken the recommended steps to secure your site, it is good practice in the online world to take precautions to protect your store. A number of guidelines are distributed with Zen Cart documentation, but are also available online here:
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.p...ecommendations

Zen Cart takes security issues seriously, and has fixed the reported security problems for the soon-to-be-released v1.3.5 code which has a lengthy list of enhancements in addition to fixes following a full re-audit of security issues in the code.

Please update your site ASAP to protect yourself from those who have nothing better to do than wreak havoc on your business website.

Regards,
The Zen Cart Team


Note: Replies to this email will not be read. If you have questions or problems, please post them to the support forum at http://www.zen-cart.com
----------------------------------

The key sentence is "Please update your site ASAP to protect yourself from those who have nothing better to do than wreak havoc on your business website.". And the thread listed in the email didn't say anything about you need to do this manually. I don't remember or have the first email I received, I maintain a lot of sites so I get a ton of mail I have to wade through every day. But again, no warning that it will trash your site when you update.

So anyway... I assumed and apparently others did too, that if I upgrade it will patch the system and I won't need to worry.

But in another thread there is the warning about what it will do to your site. How hard would it be to include that in the notifications/reminders?

I have over 75 websites to maintain, I don't have the time to spend looking for warnings when I do an upgrade. Other software developers provide warnings on a major change to the software, why can't Zen Cart too?

It would make for happier end users and hosting providers who help support Zen Cart by having it on their servers and using their software.

Correct?

Or am I wrong here?

I was lucky and the hosting provider was able to reinstall the previous version backup because there was a problem with my CPanel backups. Then I manually updated.

But I wasn't happy that I had to mess around longer than I needed to with this and almost lost the clients pages. Now I need to figure out what I need to do to do a "full" upgrade.

My four cents...
Bob

[Ajeh]

Every release we make we tell people to never upgrade a live site without doing a test upgrade in a test directory with a test database and test that version from add customers to add to cart to checkout to my account to admin orders etc. etc. etc.

We cannot stress this enough ...

No matter how we say it ... the inevitable posts come in on the broken Live site where no attempt was made to test the upgrade ...

We provide methods of using templates and override directories to prevent immediate destruction of customizations, language changes etc.

But only you can test the true effects of an upgrade ...

Good backups of both the database and site are a must before every attempting an upgrade ...

There isn't a method that we can code where "something" won't need updating or changes in some manner after an upgrade on sites that are customized ...

We do what we can to help you in your upgrades and protect you from yourselves ... but every site is different and we can only hope that you listen to the cautions that you never, ever upgrade a Live site or you will be doomed ...

[samfred]

My problem is that I decided to change the sub directory from (/store to /shop) for the upgraded store. Can anyone tell me how to make root index point to shop?

[Ajeh]

If you edit the two configuration files:
/includes/configure.php
/admin/includes/configure.php

You need to change the path references from /store to /shop ...

[samfred]

Worked a treat! I knew it had to be a simple tinkering with files having come so far. Many thanks!