Need Advice on Upgrading from v139h to v154

Hi,

It has been a really long time since I last posted here. I'm on a very old version of Zencart v139h which was working fine for me until lately got into trouble with some hack attempt which I have fixed.

But now I am looking into finally doing the upgrade to a more secure version.

My hosting is GoDaddy and the php version I currently have is 5.0 on v139h.

I'd like advise on how best to approach the upgrade since I would have to upgrade the php first.

Will it function OK if I go ahead and upgrade it to php 5.3 while I work on the upgrade version in a separate folder? That is my first concern.

If that works then I can start working on the upgrade. Unfortunately Godaddy does not have 5.4 so I can only upgrade to v1.53 at best.

This was my first site so I was a little gungho in adding a lot of modules which I regret now and would like to start anew by just stripping it to only the essentials.

I'd like to carry over just products, product descriptions, bare essentials. Customers will have to register all over again on the new site. Or maybe I can carry over customer info but not product purchase?

Can I carry over database (restore it), go into the database, remove all non essential tables and just leave the product information then do the upgrade using the new zencart files? That way I do not have to mess with comparing files from old to new. It will be a new site except the product portion will be pre populated.

That is my theory for now but I know a lot of you out there are more techy than I am and may see the holes where I can't. So need your advice if this is a good game plan or if there is a better way to go about it. Remember, my goal is to get to a new version, and try and get only the essential product info carried over.

Thank you for your help in advance.

sunflowertami:

Hi,

It has been a really long time since I last posted here. I'm on a very old version of Zencart v139h which was working fine for me until lately got into trouble with some hack attempt which I have fixed.

But now I am looking into finally doing the upgrade to a more secure version.

My hosting is GoDaddy and the php version I currently have is 5.0 on v139h.

Unfortunately that seems to be your major problem - any other host I know has a php version selector in their cPanel...

sunflowertami:

I'd like advise on how best to approach the upgrade since I would have to upgrade the php first.

Will it function OK if I go ahead and upgrade it to php 5.3 while I work on the upgrade version in a separate folder? That is my first concern.

If that works then I can start working on the upgrade. Unfortunately Godaddy does not have 5.4 so I can only upgrade to v1.53 at best.

I prefer to do upgrades on a local clone of my site, make sure that all works ok before I make the changes on the live site.

sunflowertami:

This was my first site so I was a little gungho in adding a lot of modules which I regret now and would like to start anew by just stripping it to only the essentials.

I'd like to carry over just products, product descriptions, bare essentials. Customers will have to register all over again on the new site. Or maybe I can carry over customer info but not product purchase?

Can I carry over database (restore it), go into the database, remove all non essential tables and just leave the product information then do the upgrade using the new zencart files? That way I do not have to mess with comparing files from old to new. It will be a new site except the product portion will be pre populated.

That is my theory for now but I know a lot of you out there are more techy than I am and may see the holes where I can't. So need your advice if this is a good game plan or if there is a better way to go about it. Remember, my goal is to get to a new version, and try and get only the essential product info carried over.

Thank you for your help in advance.

You can start afresh without loosing any customer data, I have done this numerous times for clients. Every time old and outdated / unused plugins were stripped and only the absolute necessary plugins were installed, provided they are compatible with the latest version of ZC.

Cheers / Frank

I suggest that you align yourself with a better host first

Kobra,

I hear you. GoDaddy has not been my first choice. I actually have another site on BLue Host and prefer to keep both so that if one goes down the other is still up. FYI GoDaddy has improved through the years, their uptime is now far better than Blue Host.

So working with what I have, any suggestions?

The following is a good reference offering at least an overview of how to do the process. After the rebuild and functional operation, I would then suggest the "stripping" of the database tables with the frequent use of database backups in case more than desired is removed.

http://www.zen-cart.com/entry.php?3-How-do-I-rebuild-my-site-on-the-new-version-instead-of-upgrading

sunflowertami:

....

So working with what I have, any suggestions?

You won't have any joy running a ZC 1.5.4 site with PHP 5.0 - and that is a given. I'd move the site to any (any...) other host first, a host that can give you the choice of your desired PHP version.

Hi Frank,

Moving it is not an option I have right now.

I was going to just upgrade to 1.5.3 or 1.5.0 and upgrade php to 5.3.

Should I upgrade php first, then do work on the new zen site or work on the new zen site then upgrade to php 5.3?

Would 1.39h survive the php upgrade if I do the former first.

sunflowertami:

Hi Frank,

Moving it is not an option I have right now.

I was going to just upgrade to 1.5.3 or 1.5.0 and upgrade php to 5.3.

Should I upgrade php first, then do work on the new zen site or work on the new zen site then upgrade to php 5.3?

Would 1.39h survive the php upgrade if I do the former first.

Well, I remember running a 1.3.9h site on PHP 5.4, it did work somehow. So, how about you upgrade to PHP 5.3 first and then get your store to a higher ZC 1.5.x version? BTW, the upgrade from 1.5.3 to 1.5.4 is a cake walk..... you can always do that later.

Personally I would clone the site to my local (LAMP) server, do the full hog of upgrading and then copy the result to a server other than GoDaddy and make it live.

But that's just me...

Hi Frank,

Unfortunately I have a windows os on my pc and my site is running on Linux. So I believe it maybe better to test the environment it will be working in.

sunflowertami:

Hi Frank,

Unfortunately I have a windows os on my pc and my site is running on Linux. So I believe it maybe better to test the environment it will be working in.

Once a page of any type can be presented properly, essentially it doesn't matter what os you're using... More important would be what php version is being used.

For your windows PC

https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html

or

http://www.wampserver.com/en/

kobra:

For your windows PC

https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html

or

http://www.wampserver.com/en/

Yep, and either of the 2 lets you choose your PHP version. Haven't used them though for more than 6 years since I swapped all my PC's to Linux.

Hello all,

I use IXwebhosting and have for years. It is the reason I found zencart really.
But they offer only manual upgrade and version 1.3.9e....................... They have one great support chat staff..........
I will tell them to upgrade if they can.

Meanwhile I am so scared to lose the database and would do total clean install as I haven't modified to much yet anyway and actually lost some stuff I switched off/deleted while learning the system.

My biggest fear is having to re enter even the only 7 products and the attributes manually again............ That is harder than a fresh install for sure. If I knew what to sql from existing database I could run a droptable/replace/insert or whatever on new database I am thinking and the rest is pretty easy to restore the store to where it is now.

ANy advice????

Sincerely,
Mike

ParseRaider:

Hello all,

I use IXwebhosting and have for years. It is the reason I found zencart really.
But they offer only manual upgrade and version 1.3.9e....................... They have one great support chat staff..........
I will tell them to upgrade if they can.

Meanwhile I am so scared to lose the database and would do total clean install as I haven't modified to much yet anyway and actually lost some stuff I switched off/deleted while learning the system.

My biggest fear is having to re enter even the only 7 products and the attributes manually again............ That is harder than a fresh install for sure. If I knew what to sql from existing database I could run a droptable/replace/insert or whatever on new database I am thinking and the rest is pretty easy to restore the store to where it is now.

ANy advice????

Sincerely,
Mike
Already answered on the other thread where this "issue" was described... There are these instructions to support the rebuild that would be necessary, but pretty much the same as above, export all tables (there are some settings recommended by ZC to ensure that import will be a breeze), then if/when a new database is required to be used, import all of that data into a blank (no tables with the same table names) database, perform a zc_install upgrade only of the database to bring it to whatever version of ZC is newer than the previous. As for manual upgrade, well that's pretty much the path suggested to go because ZC does not have an automatic program to install and anyone that offers an automatic installation may have also modified the ZC files which could lead to operational issues... But, the database upgrade portion of the process for the ZC core database part is painless...

If you have kept your modifications in the template override files and outside of the classic folder, then for the most part the core code could be replaced, the template files verified to be up-to-date with the normal ZC template code and then away ya' go. :)

See this post about upgrading.

So I checked my BlueHost account and found that I can actually host several sites on it. So that means I can transfer my other site on GoDaddy to BlueHost rather than upgrade it from there.

What I would like to do is to start afresh rather than upgrade. I have downloaded 1.5.4 and will be adding this to the site along with database. If I want to just carry over the tables that I have created for the product descriptions, products only. No customer info. Is it just a matter of exporting the tables associated with products?

sunflowertami:

.....If I want to just carry over the tables that I have created for the product descriptions, products only. No customer info. Is it just a matter of exporting the tables associated with products?

If you just export/import 'some' tables then you are setting yourself up for lots of headaches. There are many cross-references which need to be observed, I would not do that.

My approach would be to install a fresh version of 1.5.4, backup the new DB then drop all tables. Next I'd import the old 1.3.9h DB and run a DB upgrade using zc_install. This way you preserve the integrity of all tables. You can always delete old customer data later.

sunflowertami:

So I checked my BlueHost account and found that I can actually host several sites on it. So that means I can transfer my other site on GoDaddy to BlueHost rather than upgrade it from there.

What I would like to do is to start afresh rather than upgrade. I have downloaded 1.5.4 and will be adding this to the site along with database. If I want to just carry over the tables that I have created for the product descriptions, products only. No customer info. Is it just a matter of exporting the tables associated with products?

There's maany tables associated with products, what is the reason to drop all of your customer data if everything else central to the store will remain the same?

You would be dooing a rebuild which in a way is an upgrade, but an upgrade of the database, a new set of files to host the previous store....

http://www.zen-cart.com/entry.php?3-How-do-I-rebuild-my-site-on-the-new-version-instead-of-upgrading

Also: https://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?142-i-want-to-move-my-zen-cart-installation-to-another-host-or-a-different-server

But really should move or upgrade, not both just in case...

Yes that makes sense.

So in order to know which tables I need to drop because of some outdated module. Is there a list of tables for a fresh install of zen cart database that I can compare with?

sunflowertami:

Yes that makes sense.

So in order to know which tables I need to drop because of some outdated module. Is there a list of tables for a fresh install of zen cart database that I can compare with?

Most up-to-date "list" is in the install package there is sql that is core to ZC and at every insert table of the file is, well, one of the defined tables. :)

sunflowertami:

Yes that makes sense.

So in order to know which tables I need to drop because of some outdated module. Is there a list of tables for a fresh install of zen cart database that I can compare with?

Let us look at this in a more realistic way:

Whatever you have stored in your DB needs to be 'called' by code in your file system before it takes effect.

So, if your ZC 1.5.4 is a fresh install it's code will not call any outdated DB entries. These outdated entries are just sitting there and doing nothing. As a consequence there is nothing to worry about other than having a bloated DB. But the imported and upgraded DB will work fine with your new 1.5.4 installation.

Next, not many modules are actually creating new tables. Some mods modify tables in a sense that their install SQL creates extra fields in existing core tables - and they are difficult to find if we don't keep a detailed record of mods which we install at some stage.

My approach: on the old site (1.3.9h) try to locate any mods which have been installed, refer back to the readme file of those mods to see how to uninstall them and then 'kick them out'. Do that for each old module which you want to get rid of. When done you have a reasonably clean 1.3.9h DB which you can import into your new 1.5.4 system.

But beware: in any case, whatever you decide to do, make sure you have backups of everything. And once again (see my posts above) it is best to do this on a local installation and not on a production server.

mc12345678:

Most up-to-date "list" is in the install package there is sql that is core to ZC and at every insert table of the file is, well, one of the defined tables. :)

Ummmmhhh ... this makes absolutely no sense to me. SQl that is core to ZC does not give us any idea whatsoever which mods may have been installed unless you want to send the OP down the path of making very tedious comparisons.