Need help to do an upgrade from 1.5.0 to 1.5.5

Of course, you were right. I was missing ONE file in the emails folder! and yes, I found that out in the log file .
Still poking around, but it is looking better now.
Some tweaking with my French text in the define pages.

Not giving up, but I will be offline for a few days.
I was hoping this was going to be done before I left, but better slow than rushed (I guess).

Early return from vacation (weather NOT permitting).

Back to the grind:

• I have installed one ZenCart from scratch using a copy of the cloned store database + installed all the wanted mods
• I have upgraded one ZenCart from the cloned site, with the cloned site database + installed the wanted mods
• I have upgraded a full copy of the live store, with a copy of the live store database + installed the wanted mods
• I have upgraded a full copy of the live store, with a copy of the live store database + installed the wanted mods + tweaked the look of the template + completed successfully a transaction (a free product)

What other thing should I test before it would be "safe" to upgrade the live store?

CaroleAs:

Early return from vacation (weather NOT permitting).

Back to the grind:

• I have installed one ZenCart from scratch using a copy of the cloned store database + installed all the wanted mods
• I have upgraded one ZenCart from the cloned site, with the cloned site database + installed the wanted mods
• I have upgraded a full copy of the live store, with a copy of the live store database + installed the wanted mods
• I have upgraded a full copy of the live store, with a copy of the live store database + installed the wanted mods + tweaked the look of the template + completed successfully a transaction (a free product)

What other thing should I test before it would be "safe" to upgrade the live store?

Considering that it seems the above summary is based on the 21 pages of this thread and not necessarily all having been done just now, my suggestion would be to replicate your existing live site "one" more time. Then in treating that site as your live site, do the upgrade (yes again) and in trying to minimize the time that the particular site is in maintenance mode, verify it's operation and that it performs/supports the operations necessary for your normal operation. Remember that in doing the upgrade, one of the expected actions/operations (unless there has been no change in the applicable code) is to remove and reinstall all of the needed modules in the admin->modules section such as payment, shipping and order totals. If there is anything else in that dropdown then it is up to the code of the addition as to whether additional action is needed.

Then to also make your customers aware of the transition/change. Ie. Service will be temporarily out while an upgrade is performed on this date and during this time. Please contact us for any issues identified after this time. And pick a time when it normally seems that traffic is relatively low. Monitor any customers that are browsing at the time to either temporarily add them to the list of allowed viewers so that they can finish their purchase/browsing and place the store in maintenance mode awaiting their completion or to terminate their ability to continue until the upgrade is performed.

As part of the "repeat" of the operation, be sure to consider backing up the database as soon as it is put in maintenance mode and then again as part of the database upgrade being complete. This last run or test is about making your "live" site the upgraded site so you want everything to be as realistic for you as possible to either become familiar with how to overcome any last issues or to be comfortable doing it on the live site and know that you have what is needed to recover if something goes wrong.

Thanks. That is a great summary of this next step. Will do that today.
My customers are aware that the upgrade is coming, although I have not told them of a specific date. I have not added new products in the last couple of weeks in order to not attract new ones at the "wrong" time.

CaroleAs:

Thanks. That is a great summary of this next step. Will do that today.
My customers are aware that the upgrade is coming, although I have not told them of a specific date. I have not added new products in the last couple of weeks in order to not attract new ones at the "wrong" time.
Was just thinking also, have you tried searching for product in one of your updated sites as well was the db2utf8 utility used as ZC now primarily uses utf8 data rather than the possible latin1 and having such discrepancies between database and fileset could cause display and search issues. The utility is run on your updated store (database) as part of making the entire database updated.

Strangely, as I run the zc_install, it gives me the typical message:
Your configure.php file is an old version and requires updating before we can continue.

But as much as I click on the Update Configure File, it stays at that same page, with the same message. I tried Refresh, and it is not going anywhere else. It is the first time this happens.

CaroleAs:

Strangely, as I run the zc_install, it gives me the typical message:
Your configure.php file is an old version and requires updating before we can continue.

But as much as I click on the Update Configure File, it stays at that same page, with the same message. I tried Refresh, and it is not going anywhere else. It is the first time this happens.
So, do you want the easy answer or the how to figure out what is going on?
I think you know both...

mc12345678:

So, do you want the easy answer or the how to figure out what is going on?
I think you know both...

I know. double-triple-check the configure.php file.
Sure enough. I found the issue.
Continuing

(I am glad you are close by, just in case)

CaroleAs:

I know. double-triple-check the configure.php file.
Sure enough. I found the issue.
Continuing

(I am glad you are close by, just in case)

And to help those that may be following along, what did you find the issue to be?

mc12345678:

And to help those that may be following along, what did you find the issue to be?

ONE instance of the store URL was not updated to the "new test URL"

Everything working fine so far:

• database copied
• whole store copied
• zencart installed
• mods installed
• stylesheets replaced
• sideboxes in place
• free transaction went through fine
• email template displaying correctly

Now, a live transaction through Paypal went through, but the download links are not in the invoice as expected. Is that a difference with 1.5.5e or something that is missing somewhere? The link is available in the My Account, just not in the email invoice.

OK I think i was mistaken and there was never a download link in the invoices (Strange that it still says "Download 1 zip file 1" on the invoice so I thought the link was supposed to be there).

So, it works as intended. Transaction went through. The link is available in MyAccount.

The last thing that is puzzling me, is the look of the backend. Somehow, it does not look like it should:

It is the first time it does that in all my test installs.

CaroleAs:

OK I think i was mistaken and there was never a download link in the invoices (Strange that it still says "Download 1 zip file 1" on the invoice so I thought the link was supposed to be there).

So, it works as intended. Transaction went through. The link is available in MyAccount.

The last thing that is puzzling me, is the look of the backend. Somehow, it does not look like it should:

It is the first time it does that in all my test installs.

Typically would chalk that up to missing css file(s), mistake in admin/includes/configure.php (too many slashes in one or more of the defines, though that should be automatic), or the need to clear the browser cache/cookies.

mc12345678:

Typically would chalk that up to missing css file(s), mistake in admin/includes/configure.php (too many slashes in one or more of the defines, though that should be automatic), or the need to clear the browser cache/cookies.

Perfect. It was just a cookie issue. So everything works fine.

Now, when I do the upgrade of the LIVE site, unlike all the tests on TEST sites, I will likely get a message that this is a live database, won't I? And if that is the case, it would state that everything will be wiped out and it will be a fresh install, correct? So what will i do?

CaroleAs:

Everything working fine so far:

• database copied
• whole store copied
  **- zencart installed
• mods installed
• stylesheets replaced**
• sideboxes in place
• free transaction went through fine
• email template displaying correctly

Now, a live transaction through Paypal went through, but the download links are not in the invoice as expected. Is that a difference with 1.5.5e or something that is missing somewhere? The link is available in the My Account, just not in the email invoice.

The bold "steps" above, should ideally all be one step as far as software is concerned and technically the sideboxes in place part and as necessary mod installation could be through a single sql "file".

By all that referring to the fact that the mod installation portion really should not involve much of anything if anything other than putting/swapping the files around.

CaroleAs:

Perfect. It was just a cookie issue. So everything works fine.

Now, when I do the upgrade of the LIVE site, unlike all the tests on TEST sites, I will likely get a message that this is a live database, won't I? And if that is the case, it would state that everything will be wiped out and it will be a fresh install, correct? So what will i do?

You should see nothing different than what you have seen...

Today alone you have prepared a copy of files that were your live site files.
You have copied your database which is/was a live database.
Everything in this copy appeared to be a live store.

Why would treating some other location the same way cause a different response?

mc12345678:

Why would treating some other location the same way cause a different response?

It is just because, in previous tests, when the configure.php file was not correctly "edited" for the test site, I would get that warning that it was a "live database" and the option was a clean install. Now, I would not have to edit the configure.php file to anything else, since I would be using the actual live database. Because of that, I thought I would get that warning.

But maybe, to help me understand (and be comfortable with it), what information of the configure.php file would trigger that message that this is a live database (if at all)?

CaroleAs:

It is just because, in previous tests, when the configure.php file was not correctly "edited" for the test site, I would get that warning that it was a "live database" and the option was a clean install. Now, I would not have to edit the configure.php file to anything else, since I would be using the actual live database. Because of that, I thought I would get that warning.

But maybe, to help me understand (and be comfortable with it), what information of the configure.php file would trigger that message that this is a live database (if at all)?

Generally speaking if the database has been upgraded (or seen as up-to-date with the current version) then you will see that message about it being a live store and the database will be deleted type message.

mc12345678:

Generally speaking if the database has been upgraded (or seen as up-to-date with the current version) then you will see that message about it being a live store and the database will be deleted type message.

Thanks.

Taking a deep breath then, and I'll give it a go tonight.
(hoping you will be around... just in case :) )