1.3.9 to 1.5.7

[JimmyV]

I have found 1.3.9 doesn't play with 1.5.7 so what I have been doing is going to 1.5.5 then up to 1.5.6 then 1.5.7 because for some reason at each phase there are things to be done.

Is that normal and what everyone is doing? The leap straight up appears to simply be too much even if I clear every error in advance to upgrading I can't get a test site to go straight up

I commonly get a series of application top and a zc_plugin group of errors. I am not even clear on the purpose of the zc_plugin addition it seems to have no impact perhaps it's a later play?

[DrByte]

You've made a lot of comments that suggest you're encountering specific problems, but you've not given any specifics. Thus it's hard to give you a perfect answer.

However, one thing IS certain: there are PHP version incompatibilities between all the Zen Cart versions you haven't yet upgraded through.

https://docs.zen-cart.com/user/first..._requirements/

While I would do the upgrade in one step, you may not have that comfort level, or you may not have a PC that can run the newer PHP version for testing on.

If you're doing all your upgrading and testing on the same server as your old 139 site which must use an ancient PHP version, then you're definitely going to run into difficulties trying to use v157 which requires a modern PHP version.

If your only option is to use your live webserver, then yes you'll need to upgrade your Zen Cart in stages so that you can also have your hosting company adjust your PHP version (and maybe MySQL version too, if they can even do that) in similar stages.

[JimmyV]

I wouldn't say problems necessarily just curious if I was doing something needlessly. I have only made one other recent post about the template which you directed me to zca and that I have been modifying it's a much better template so TY for that. Changing to it necessitates everything goes to 1.5.7

Yes I run testing on a dedicated server so I can iron everything out. I do not do it on a PC as you are not then live at same time which I find helpful and the 1.3.9 was running on 5.5. So I went to zen 1.5.5 then upped php to 7.1 as it threw errors on 7.3. then went to 1.5.6 upped it to 7.3. Then went from 1.5.6 to 1.5.7.

I have done from 1.5.5 to 1.5.7 without issue so this older one needing the added step of going into 1.5.6 was an oddity I was wondering if anyone experienced.

The goal is to have an outline so clean that I can soon actually take down the 1.3.9 site and be back up in under 20 minutes and have zero errors. Hopefully.

[DrByte]

The goal is to have an outline so clean that I can soon actually take down the 1.3.9 site and be back up in under 20 minutes and have zero errors. Hopefully.

My process is outlined in the online docs at docs.zen-cart.com
but in short:

- compare old site against original old version files to identify all customizations, including plugins
- get rid of plugins no longer needed. "less is more"
- rebuild customizations onto latest version. Sometimes that's as easy as copying over customized lines in individual files. Sometimes even that needs modernizing
-- this includes language defines, define pages, template, etc
- copy live database to test environment
- run zc_install to upgrade the database to latest version
- test, noting any differences of things that need updating in the database, in preparation for "re-doing" those after going live
- if there are any database-related "fixes" that could safely be done to the live database, I do them now so the list is shorter
- take another copy of the database, and test the zc_install upgrade again
- test everything locally
- go live: site into maintenance mode; backup database; swap out all files for new ones, being sure to delete obsolete files; update PHP version on server; run zc_install; do any manual changes from my list; turn off maintenance mode. Done. Usually down-time is just 3 minutes if I've tested thoroughly on local PC.

Some of those steps involve a lot of activity not explained here. They're outlined more in the docs.

If you can thoroughly inspect for changes, and re-make them in the new version easily, then it doesn't take a lot of time.
If you can test offline easily then it makes the going-live step super simple and way less stressful.

Your mileage will vary.

[JimmyV]

Absolutely.

I trash the sample 1.3.9 and start over live on a domain any domain put an htaccess on there zero concerns about being live in mid upgrade.

I do this for each site until everything is identified. Most thiings like easypop and such have all been modified to work on 7.3.

This system has Super Orders on so I need to load latest version see if it works or make it work as the thread on it implies it doesn't work any more.

Overall I find the software very flexible and solid in every respect. Thanks for all your hard work on it.