Need help to do an upgrade from 1.5.0 to 1.5.5

CaroleAs:

YESSSSSS!!!

I did it! Live site is upgraded and working!
Congratulations!
You've worked hard on this, and your patience has served you well.

And mc12345678 has obviously been a huge help. Kudos there too!

DrByte:

Congratulations!
You've worked hard on this, and your patience has served you well.

And mc12345678 has obviously been a huge help. Kudos there too!

mc12345678 has been the greatest help in this process. I felt like I had someone sitting right beside me, patiently guiding me and teaching me.

In the end, I am glad I didn't pay someone to do this upgrade. Not because a developer would not deserve it, but because
(1) I got to learn more about my store
(2) I was able to tweak the design to something new, which a developer would not know what is in my head
(3) I might know a bit more about troubleshooting if I see something not working (not 100% sure, but I am less ignorant)
(4) I get to choose which mods I still want/need, or new ones I might want to install

And kudos to you too, DrBytes as you are the first one who "convinced" me that it was possible for a non-programmer to do.
And Kudos to lat9 who also gave me an even more detailed list of steps to proceed.

Cheers everyone!

Since I have one test store and one live store, I will be testing any change, mod, etc. on the test store first before going to the live one. Considering that I MIGHT be testing something that either won't work or won't do what I want and I will choose not to install it on the live site, is it best practice to clone the live site back into the test one every time I want to test something to make sure it is always being tested on an identical version of the live site? Or is it unnecessary?

CaroleAs:

Since I have one test store and one live store, I will be testing any change, mod, etc. on the test store first before going to the live one. Considering that I MIGHT be testing something that either won't work or won't do what I want and I will choose not to install it on the live site, is it best practice to clone the live site back into the test one every time I want to test something to make sure it is always being tested on an identical version of the live site? Or is it unnecessary?
Not a desired answer, but it somewhat depends. Mostly it depends on what else has been done, to what extent the new feature is being tested, how it interacts with other features/operations. Generally unnecessary has been my experience if referring to data refreshing. Files, well goal is to do to the live site what was done to the test site. So, the test site should look like the live site at least in software.

It doesn't hurt per se to update the test site with the live site data in a test scenario/condition. if something doesn't seem to work as expected when the software is the same between the two sites, then the "only" thing different is the data and therefore resolving the issue becomes identifying those differences and how they interfere.

While I don't think there is a clear cut answer, there are arguments for doing/not doing a database refresh for each such modification. Generally, I find it unnecessary and in fact other than to have tested the initial upgrade would tend to return back to a default database install and not worry about the records of the live database. Afterall what is most like a default install/operation than records that are as provided in a new condition? Also, if a problem is introduced that affects some sort of security, the worst case for the one particular location is that default ZC data is "released" and perhaps some sort of innocuous testing credentials, nothing about actual customers.

Thanks. I guess I had forgotten that the database was only... well... data and nothing to do with other "changes" with tested mods or changes to the look. Your answer is still helpful. Thank you.

CaroleAs:

Thanks. I guess I had forgotten that the database was only... well... data and nothing to do with other "changes" with tested mods or changes to the look. Your answer is still helpful. Thank you.
Well, there is one aspect of database equivalency that definitely plays into the bolded part above. The settings in the database do have an effect on how the site looks. It really depends on what aspect of new development you are concerned about. Exact placement of each little piece of data on screen is a little different than will I get a result/database result that I want and then fine tune it if necessary. All goes back to understanding what is to be done, expected and when inserting code within existing areas what is happening "around" it to be able to identify say why something isn't displayed (admin switch set to not display a piece of info or some other cause, etc...)