1.3.5 to 1.3.8a AND moving hosting ! !

We have been self hosting our site for the last few years using 1.3.5. We are physically moving our office and no longer going to the access we have had in the past. We are going to use WestHost and change to offsite hosting. They have 1.3.8a in their arsenal of tools.

I am a rank amature at this, our IT person is deployed for another month and we have to change the server this weekend. I have a fairly astute friend that can help us with the FTP etc.

I assume that we need to update to 1.3.8 before the move, am I correct? I am thinking we update (after backing up) and move the updated directory to the new host where we can test and tweak, is that the best course of action?

Any insight tips, warnings etc would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Apart from making full backups of both:

• The database
• The files

... bear in mind that your shop should be set to "Maintenance Mode" while you do the upgrade. This prevents users from doing things that write to the database.

So it pays to get the upgrade done quickly... and this needs preparation. FOR EXAMPLE:

If you have followed the CUSTOM template (override) principle, you will need to COMPARE all your customized files in your current version (1.3.5) with their CORE counterparts in version 1.3.8a.

FTP your enitre file-set to a local drive (to retain file tree structure), then run WINMERGE (or other file compare software) to compare your customized files with their core (default) counterparts:

EG:

You may have the following in your 1.3.5 file-set:

includes/templates/CUSTOM/templates/tpl_product_info_display.php

You need to compare it with its CORE counterpart in 1.3.8a:

includes/templates/template_default/templates/tpl_product_info_display.php

Using features in the file compare software, you can see what's different between your file and the core file, and make mecessary edits to code.

When you have made all necessary alterations, you will use these altered CUSTOM files in your 1.3.8a custom file-set.