Quote Originally Posted by mjpwall View Post
I'm concidering the same approach, do everything off line, import database, use my template, add contributions that am currently using and when it looks transfer to live site, is this possible?
Um ... well ... let's break that down a bit:

do everything offline
Yes, that's a good idea. That's why the official upgrade instructions walk you through doing that.
use my template
As long as you update everything in your custom template to work with the new version, including comparing and merging any changes to template files that may exist in the latest version into your old version's template files.
add contributions that am currently using
As long as you double-check every file in every one of those contributions to make sure they include the changes from the latest version, or adapt to new coding requirements suitable to the new version. In many cases there may be an updated version of the contribution which might make the task easier in some cases.
when it looks
I'm guessing you mean something about confirming that it tests properly offline
transfer to live site
After testing is done, yes, you would repeat the process on the live site, removing the old files, putting up the new files, and upgrading the database.

So ... in short ... you're basically trying to say "I don't like the official upgrade instructions, so I'm gonna do it my own way", but you really still need to follow the same steps as explained in the upgrade instructions, despite that you're trying to take shortcuts that really won't save you in the end.

You've missed a few important things, including the fact that you won't be happy if you do the upgrade offline with last week's database and then copy that database back to your live store today, and thus wipe out the last week's sales data and customers. That, and other things, will make you wish you'd followed the published steps.

What exactly is wrong with the official instructions?