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magentomagento-1.7upgrademagento-1.8

Magento upgrade process - archiving extensions

I'm attempting to upgrade a Magento 1.7.0.2 website to 1.8.1.0 following the process given by Magento on their website: http://www.magentocommerce.com/knowledge-base/entry/ce18-upgrade-roadmap?icid=BLOG_magentoce1810release_upgradeinstructions

I follow this up to step 2b on the above link where it says:

Archive the file system. This includes the media directory and subdirectories; all extensions and customizations; and all custom themes.

I understand how to make a zip of the media directory and theme directory files. However, I don't understand how to archive/move the extensions? We have about 10 extensions installed on the website we're upgrading; some were installed by copying zip files on to the webspace, whereas others were installed via Magento Connect.

The files for the extensions are all over the webspace (in line with Magento's huge directory structure) so I don't see how it's possible to identify all of these files and move them across.

Does anyone know what the best way of doing this is?

Solution

  • The way I did it eventually was following steps similar to these: http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/283184/

    The point I was missing was the directories that needed manually moving to the "upgrade" version of the website (the "dev server" Malachy's post).

    Steps were:

    1. Install a clean copy of 1.8 on a dev server.

    2. Make a copy of the live server (1.7) database on to the dev server.

    3. Move these folders from the live server: app/design/frontend/mytheme app/etc/local.xml app/etc/modules app/code/community app/code/local js skin/frontend/mytheme media

    4. Change app/etc/local.xml to reference the 1.7 database, but on the dev server.

    5. Change the base_url (nonsecure & secure) settings in the config table of the DB.

    6. Go to the URL of the dev website, wait for the upgrade scripts to run.

    7. Test / fix - repeat as much as required.

    8. Put the dev copy of the site live.

    Caveat with this is that if your live site is getting orders frequently, you'll not get a copy of that as your database will become out-of-sync as soon as you copy it during step 2.