Upgrading via host with click of a button?

Hi,

I am on version 1.3.7 which was installed at the click of a button by my hosts. I can now see an option to upgrade to 1.3.8.

I have an old test site as well as a live store which works nicely. I have just hit the button to upgrade on my old site and all my customisations vanished even though i used the overirde system. Luckily I had a backup of everything so I just uploaded everything from my old CUSTOM/ directorys and it looks ok at first glance. I also lost all my product images but again I ftped them back up.

My concern is that i thought the whole reason for using the overide system was that changes were NOT lost when upgrading??

I am also wondering if there is any incompatabilty problems with me sending back up my customised pages which were created with 1.3.7 code?

I want to keep current and upgrade my live shop but I absolutely dont want any problems. can I simply download all my CUsSTOM files - hit the upgrade button and then ftp back the CUSTOM files?

Lastly - I am expecting my products database etc stays as it is? (or perhaps my host when I click the button sorts that out would you think?)

Thanks in advance
Liz

There is a very specific process to upgrading, and a simple rule of thumb - which is: the further back your existing version from the current version, the more careful you must be...

(I would not risk performing an ugrade by clicking an "upgrade button")!

As you're upgrading from 1.3.7, the process is relatively straight forward, but you must still do the following. (I trust you have religiously observed the custom template and over-rides principle?)

1. FTP your includes folder back to your local drive.

2. Every file that was customised should be in your overrides folders, so, use WINMERGE (or similar) to compare your CUSTOMISED files with their exact counterparts in version 1.3.8.

So, for example, where you have on YOUR 1.3.7 version:

includes/templates/your_template/templates/product_info_display.php

You need to now COMPARE this file with the 1.3.8a version:
**
includes/templates/template_default/templates/product_info_display.php**

You will do this comparison with ALL your customized files (including language files, module files, etc).

WINMERGE (and similar programs) will highlight differences - some will be obvious - but some may show small modifications to the code, in which case you modify your file accordingly.

The point of course, is to make sure that your 1.3.7 custom files are "upgraded" to 1.3.8a custom files.

All this happens on your local machine - well away from your store.

Basically, you want an uploadable version of 1.3.8a on your local drive that also contains your custom template.

3. You need to back-up all DEFINE PAGES as well.

4. Do a full (server-side) backup of both the existing 1.3.7 files and the database.

5. FTP ver 1.3.8a (NOW WITH YOUR 1.3.8a CUSTOM FILES TOO!) to the server.

6. Run the upgrade as per many other help postings and tutorials on this site.

thank you for your reply which seems very helpful. IM rather scared but I might try and do a 'real' upgrade rather than clicking the button - Ive got the feeling clicking the button just completely wipes zencart and does a fresh install hence there being no sign of my old override files after I clicked it.

Im no techy though and am worried about the database with all the products in it - will I need to do anything to this at all?

thanks

First time I did an upgrade I:-

1. copied (via the host admin control panel) the entire site into a sub-directory,

2. Made a copy of the database and gave it a different name.

3. Tweaked the two configure.php files to ensure that the copy in the sub-directory pointed to that subdirectory, and that the NEW database was being referenced.

4. Ran the small fix_cache_key.php file to ensure the cache reference in the new database was being correctly referenced.

Now, I had an identical site that I could "practice" on, at no risk to my "live site". When I successfully upgraded this site, I felt confident enough to try it on the live site.

LizzyB:

Ive got the feeling clicking the button just completely wipes zencart and does a fresh install hence there being no sign of my old override files after I clicked it.
You hit the nail on the head with that statement.