Upgrade method is a MESS

NineNine · Post by **NineNine** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 4:10 pm

The upgrade method is an absolute mess. phpBB is VERY difficult to upgrade. The directions are a complete and utter mess. After several passes of downloading things that are labeled wrong, following instructions that make no sense, uploading batch after batch of files, I ended up with a broken message board. What absolute GARBAGE!

First off, there are not directions for upgrading several versions at a time. The downloads, from what I can tell, only do one version at a time. if you're not checking for upgrades daily, then you're out of luck, apparently (I don't really know... the instructions don't say what to do).

Still, I tried to follow the instructions... download this, upload this, stand on one foot, spin around, etc. Wow. I have to go through thousands of individual files and figure out which ones are the right ones to use? Are you kidding? I've been a developer for 10+ years, and I've never seen anything this bad.

I don't have the time to delve into the code to get a basic message board working. I'm going to spend money to buy something functional.

Good luck to all PhpBB developers... you're gonna need it!

Post by **thecoalman** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 5:17 pm

An upgrade to the current version is very straight forward unless you have mods.

For example if we're going from 3.0.1 to 3.0.5 you could download the changed files pack and unzip it. Within that you'll find a zip archive to go from 3.0.1 to 3.0.5. You unzip that and upload those files to overwrite the current files.

Upload the install folder and point your browser at phpbb3_folder/install/database_update.php. Delete the install folder...

Update complete, should take only a few seconds excluding the FTP transfer time.

Post by **Marshalrusty** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 5:49 pm

Hello,

The updating instructions explain exactly which package you should use for your setup. The package names on the download page match up with the updating instructions, so once you figure out which package to use, you shouldn't have any trouble locating it. If you feel that a certain step of the process I mentioned it broken, please explain where and why. If you've never worked with phpBB before, then you will need to read the instructions in their entirety to understand what each package does. In other words, the learning curve requires you to read the directions before proceeding.

I would, however, like to point out that our releases are not frequent. You certainly don't have to check for new versions daily, but even monthly or bi-monthly would result in having the latest version when a new one is released. A developer of your experience should know how important it is to always use the latest version of software, especially internet based software.

I don't appreciate your pseudo-hostile approach in this topic, however I would be very interested in working with you to make the process clearer from an objective point of view. If you are willing, please feel free to PM me or continue here.

Artack · Post by **Artack** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 6:00 pm

Marshalrusty
Please, include full code changes package. I'm using phpbb since 2006, and my board is hardly modded. I think that many users want to see full code changes package, as many are accustomed to manually update, without any problems. I know about automatic updater, but it doesn't useful for me.
Regards.

Post by **Marshalrusty** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 6:11 pm

A package has been generated and is currently undergoing testing. Due to the amount of changes, the package is gigantic (as in megabytes).

For heavily modified boards, I use the automatic changes package and then fix any conflicts manually. In most cases, anywhere from "some" to "most" of the files can be successfully merged by the script. The rest can be done with a diffing tool.

Naturally, the more modified your baord is, the more manual work will need to be done. That said, I've updated very modified boards where only a few files needed any manual intervention.

Artack · Post by **Artack** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 6:13 pm

Marshalrusty wrote:A package has been generated and is currently undergoing testing. Due to the amount of changes, the package is gigantic (as in megabytes).

Yahoo!!!

Many, many thanks!

If need more tester, I'll be help to test with great pleasure (24/7/365(6)

)

Phil · Post by **Phil** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 6:14 pm

Artack wrote:
Marshalrusty wrote:A package has been generated and is currently undergoing testing. Due to the amount of changes, the package is gigantic (as in megabytes).
Yahoo!!! Many, many thanks!

Please do note, however, that there is no guarantee of when said package will be provided.

Artack · Post by **Artack** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 6:16 pm

iWisdom
always ready help with testing to make it sooner

Post by **thecoalman** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 6:49 pm

Artack wrote:Marshalrusty
Please, include full code changes package..

You can do this yourself and much faster than manually editing, here's my upgrade path.

I have on my local machine a copy of just the files I have modified.*

Note that It's essential that all changes to your local files have been properly commented so you know what is and isn't a modification.

Download the changed files package.
Using winmerge or similar tool you can compare your copies to the those in the change files package.
If the file exists in the change files package and your local copy compare them side by side and merge the changes into your local modified files.
After merging the changes into your custom files copy them to the changed file pack overwriting those that exist.
You'll now have a folder that contains files in three states.
- Files that are standard but changed since the last release.
- Files you have modified previously but haven't changed since the last release
- Files you have modified that also contain changes from the last release
Proceed to upgrade normally by uploading and overwriting the files on the server and run the database update script.

Of course the usual caveats and make sure you backup everything before proceeding.

*If you don't have a copy of files like this you can create one using winmerge and comparing all the files in your production board against the previous release. It's not absolutely necessary to have acopy like this but it makes things a little easier to manage.

Artack · Post by **Artack** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 7:00 pm

T U very much for carefully unstructions

I knew about it too, also how update with auto-package.
As 1000 of people, who using phpbb, I'm just accustomed to manually update and don't trust any automatic

kunglek · Post by **kunglek** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 1:51 am

I did everything manually as told and teh update failed, wrote sub folders into my original folders and didn't update properly after a couple of gos at it. any chance a package can be written that will do what it's expected to do.

I've been running and updating phpbb's for a while and I have to agree, 3.04 to 3.05 is very dodgy, not straight forward at all and results in no upgrade occurring.

I found it quite odd as I haven't had a problem with this before and now this update is indeed a mess.

why do i need two packages for instance?

why is it putting a folder within a folder?
why when i delete the install folder is it wanting to delete all the files I've just updated elsewhere in the main folder?

it did this twice. at first I thought I had erred, but, then, it appears I did not.

weird stuff guys.

ChriZathens · Post by **ChriZathens** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 9:33 am

What folders and subfolders are you referring to?

The process is straight-forward :
1. Run the updater
2. Download the changed files package
3. Upload the files you downloaded (which have had the necessary changes applied automatically by the upgrade engine), overwriting the old ones.
4. Done

kunglek · Post by **kunglek** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 2:05 pm

ChriZathens wrote:What folders and subfolders are you referring to?
The process is straight-forward :
1. Run the updater
2. Download the changed files package
3. Upload the files you downloaded (which have had the necessary changes applied automatically by the upgrade engine), overwriting the old ones.
4. Done

yes, this is exactly what i did.
no brainer right?

nuh uh. did not complete the upgrade process.
still scratching my head.

Post by **Marshalrusty** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 5:05 pm

Can you be a bit more specific about what actually happened? We can't help you if we don't know what happened.

Anubis_The_Jackal · Post by **Anubis_The_Jackal** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 9:30 pm

Marshalrusty wrote:A package has been generated and is currently undergoing testing. Due to the amount of changes, the package is gigantic (as in megabytes).

I throw my full support behind this. Is there a topic specifically for it yet?

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