You pretty much got it. Backup everything first, then delete everything inside your blogs folder EXCEPT your media folder. The way I always do upgrades is to edit the new config file before uploading, so edit your new conf/_basic_config.php and your old conf/_config.php files so you can transfer your database connection info from the old to the new. Also your baseurl and admin_email_id. Finally in the new one change config_is_done to 1. Now upload all the new files.

By the way you should do a delete instead of telling your FTP thingie to over-write because it'll keep your server more organized. The admin and b2evocore folders are gone in the 1.8 release, so why have them up there any more?

Backup your database for the same reason you backed up your files.

Now point your favorite browser (which is undoubtedly Firefox because people smart enough to use b2evolution are hip to how cool Firefox is) and point it to your_path_to_install/install/index.php and click the little button for "upgrading an existing installation".

There is no un-upgrade button is why you might need the backups of both files and database.

Check it out and be happy, then delete your install folder from your server. I always leave the install folder and delete everything except index.html, but that's just me.

Your skin from 0.9.2 won't work anymore. Not by a long shot! There's a page in the new manual about how to make your old skin work in the 1.8 release. http://manual.b2evolution.net/Upgrade_Skin_from_0.9.2_to_1.8

Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

btw - Firefox is my preferred and default browser.

Upgrade went through smoothly, thank you very much.

EdB wrote:

You pretty much got it. Backup everything first, then delete everything inside your blogs folder EXCEPT your media folder. The way I always do upgrades is to edit the new config file before uploading, so edit your new conf/_basic_config.php and your old conf/_config.php files so you can transfer your database connection info from the old to the new. Also your baseurl and admin_email_id. Finally in the new one change config_is_done to 1. Now upload all the new files.

By the way you should do a delete instead of telling your FTP thingie to over-write because it'll keep your server more organized. The admin and b2evocore folders are gone in the Summer Beta (1.8) release, so why have them up there any more?

Backup your database for the same reason you backed up your files.

Now point your favorite browser (which is undoubtedly Firefox because people smart enough to use b2evolution are hip to how cool Firefox is) and point it to your_path_to_install/install/index.php and click the little button for "upgrading an existing installation".

There is no un-upgrade button is why you might need the backups of both files and database.

Check it out and be happy, then delete your install folder from your server. I always leave the install folder and delete everything except index.html, but that's just me.

Your skin from 0.9.2 won't work anymore. Not by a long shot! There's a page in the new manual about how to make your old skin work in the 1.8 release. http://manual.b2evolution.net/Upgrade_Skin_from_0.9.2_to_1.8

Is this the best manner in which to do a manual upgrade?

I just recently updated to Sparkle, but I figured why not just grab 1.8. I want to do a manual upgrade, but my concern lies in "losing" all my posts and anything else that may be stored in the database, ie comments, url's, categories and the such.

Upgrading from one release to the next will NOT hurt your database unless you or your server do something funny. That's why you backup your files and database first: if your upgrade goes wrong, and it probably won't, you delete your new files and database (which is really your old database with upgrades) and then restore your backups. As long as you have backups of everything you have nothing to worry about as long as you pick the 'upgrade' feature on your installer.

I don't know if it's the BEST method of upgrading. All I know is this is how I do it ;)

Thanks EdB. Gonna try it tonight *crosses fingers*

Procedure:

A: Back-ups Creating / Downloading
1. Daily
2. Full
3. SQL DB Backup
4. Self copying the entire site to my local machine.

B. Files to remove
1. directory blog (where my current version of b2evo is installed)

C. Files to alter
1. conf/_basic_config.php to resemble current conf/_config.php
i. information should match up except leaving the password area blank, although the conf/_config.php has this scrambled for security purposes.

D. Uploading
1. The now ready Summer Beta 1.8 b2evo directory

E. Final Touch
1. EdB wrote:

Now point your favorite browser (which is undoubtedly Firefox because people smart enough to use b2evolution are hip to how cool Firefox is) and point it to your_path_to_install/install/index.php and click the little button for "upgrading an existing installation".

dreamsborn wrote:

C. Files to alter
1. conf/_basic_config.php to resemble current conf/_config.php
i. information should match up except leaving the password area blank, although the conf/_config.php has this scrambled for security purposes.

I always copy my database password over. My password looks like it's scrambled, but in truth it's just a random collection of characters that no human can speak even if they tried. If you don't include your database password in the file I think you will have to make the configuration file write-able so you can add it when you install, but if you say "config is done = 1" it'll think your configuration is complete. Therefore you might end up with problems you didn't expect. Something to think about eh?

Check it out: random people can't surf to that file to get your database password. If you try to surf to the conf folder on a 1.8 blog you'll get an index.html page that (effectively) says "don't try this crap cuz we're smarter than that". It is actually very polite, but people can't read the directory is my point. If you try to access the file directly you'll see a completely blank page. Point is that you can add your password to conf/_basic_config.php before uploading if you want to keep it simpler.

One day I should do an installation where I DO NOT edit the configuration file in advance just to see what happens...

Everything went well up to the Upgrade part.

here is my _base_config.php

<?php
/**
 * This is b2evolution's basic config file.
 *
 * You need to edit this file to your settings before attempting to install the database!
 * Last significant changes to this file: version 1.6
 *
 *
 * Reminder: every line starting with # or // is a comment, multiline comments are
 *           surrounded by '/*' and '* /' (without space).
 *
 * IMPORTANT: Take special care not to erase quotes (') around text parameters
 * and semicolums (;) at the end of the lines. Otherwise you'll get some
 * "unexpected T_STRING" parse errors!
 *
 * Contributors: you should override this file by creating a file named _config_TEST.php
 * (see end of this file).
 *
 * @package conf
 */

/**
 * Maintenance mode. Set this to true in order to temporarily disable access to the application.
 *
 * Note: il is still possible to access the install script during maintenance mode.
 */
$maintenance_mode = false;


// Below is an alternative hardcore version of maintenance mode.
// This one will bloc the install script too.
// Remove /* and */ to activate.
/*
header('HTTP/1.0 503 Service Unavailable');
echo '<h1>503 Service Unavailable</h1>';
die( 'The site is temporarily down for maintenance.' );
*/


/**
 * MySQL DB settings.
 * Fill in your database details (check carefully or nothing will work!)
 */
$db_config = array(
	'user'          => 'usclan_bvlt1',     // your MySQL username
	'password'      => 'not shown for security',     // ...and password
	'name'          => 'usclan_bvlt1',  // the name of the database
	'host'          => 'localhost',    // MySQL Server (typically 'localhost')
);


/**
 * the tables prefix (gets placed before each b2evo table name),
 * use this to have multiple installations in one DB.
 *
 * @global string $tableprefix
 */
$tableprefix = 'evo_';


/**
 * If you want to be able to reset your existing b2evolution tables and start anew
 * you must set $allow_evodb_reset to 1.
 *
 * NEVER LEAVE THIS SETTING ON ANYTHING ELSE THAN 0 (ZERO) ON A PRODUCTION SERVER.
 * IF THIS IS ON (1) AND YOU FORGET TO DELETE THE INSTALL FOLDER, ANYONE WOULD BE ABLE TO
 * ERASE YOUR B2EVOLUTION TABLES AND DATA BY A SINGLE CLICK!
 */
$allow_evodb_reset = 0;	// Set to 1 to enable. Do not leave this on 1 on production servers


/**
 * $baseurl is where your blogs reside by default. CHECK THIS CAREFULLY or nothing will work.
 * It should be set to the URL where you can find the blog templates and/or the blog stub files,
 * that means index.php, blog_b.php, etc.
 * Note: Blogs can be in subdirectories of the baseurl. However, no blog should be outside
 * of there, or some tricky things may fail (e-g: pingback)
 *
 * IMPORTANT: If you want to test b2evolution on your local machine, do NOT use that machine's
 * name in the $baseurl!
 * For example, if you machine is called HOMER, do not use http://homer/b2evolution/blogs/ !
 * Use http://localhost/b2evolution/blogs/ instead. And log in on localhost too, not homer!
 * If you don't, login cookies will not hold.
 *
 * @global string $baseurl
 */
$baseurl = 'http://www.usclan.org/blog';


/**
 * Your email. Will be used in severe error messages so that users can contact you.
 * You will also receive notifications for new user registrations there.
 */
$admin_email = 'not_telling_you@it_is_a_secret.com';


/**
 * Once you have edited this file to your settings, set the following to 1 (one):
 */
$config_is_done = 1;


# IMPORTANT: you will find more parameters in the other files of the /conf folder.
# IT IS RECOMMENDED YOU DO NOT TOUCH THOSE SETTINGS
# UNTIL YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE DEFAULT INSTALLATION.
#
# It is however strongly recommended you browse through these files as soon as you've
# got your basic installation working. They'll let you customize a lot of things!

# DO NOT EDIT THE FOLLOWING!

define( 'EVO_CONFIG_LOADED', true );

if( file_exists(dirname(__FILE__).'/_config_TEST.php') )
{
	include_once dirname(__FILE__).'/_config_TEST.php';    // Put testing conf in there (For testing, you can also set 

$install_password here)
}
?>

I click

Upgrade from a previous version of b2evolution: Upgrade your b2evolution database tables in order to make them compatible with the current version. WARNING: If you have modified your database, this operation may fail. Make sure you have a backup. NOTE: Your stats will be reset.

And I get nothing. A side-note, the table that appear on the right hand side of the multi-lingual stuff, keep showing and then disappaering eachtime i hit go.

$baseurl = 'http://www.usclan.org/blog';

Try adding a trailing slash to that.

$baseurl = 'http://www.usclan.org/blog/'; 

Still same problem as mentioned above.

Side menu is showing properly now as well as the top logo. But I'm not getting beyond this point still.

I just poked around in your URLs a bit and am completely stumped. Sorry, but all I know about is the things that worked for me. I then try to help, but sometimes get buggered up.

So just to verify: you're absolutely sure you've transferred your database password correctly?

(My "smart person call" worked once before, so let's see if it'll work twice.)

Hey smart people! We got a really good problem that only a really smart smart person can solve!!! Smart people NEEDED here NOW!!!

(They like that sort of stuff ... ;) )

ya the password is correct, triple check that part just to be sure.

gonna wait a maybe 1 or 2 more days, if not then i'm going to revert back to Sparkle

is it normal your username and database are the same ?

Mine always are. I think it's a Fantastico thing.

I was just thinking at what kind of mistakes I used to make... that was one ;)

has been since day 1, i even tried making a new db username and made sure it had access to the same db as the tables and such, and still nothing.

I know you said you've triple checked, but are you sure your db details are correct? When I visit http://www.usclan.org/blog/ I get a "can't connect to db" error.

¥

I simply copied over what my previous _config.php file had to the _basic_config.php (a straight copy and paste of the test found within the ' ' marks.

As for the password, I typed that in myself to the password of the db username.

Evenwhen I created a new db username and password and gave it full priveledges to the same db, I still recieved teh same error.

Ok I remade a new username and password for the db, granted it all the same access. And now it worked. However, I'm guess that having the same username as teh db may have been the problem.

So I ran the install script, and then I had to manually update the db schema from 8066 to 92000. Which I did useing myPhpAdmin.

I click the upgrade tables, option 2, here is what occurs:

Checking DB schema version... 9200 : OK.

The version number is correct, but we have detected changes in the database schema. This can happen with CVS versions...
Altering table «evo_groups»...

    * Added column evo_groups.grp_perm_admin enum('none','hidden','visible') NOT NULL default 'visible'
    * Added column evo_groups.grp_perm_files enum('none','view','add','edit') NOT NULL default 'none'

Altering table «evo_blogusers»...

    * Changed type of evo_blogusers.bloguser_blog_ID from int(11) to bloguser_blog_ID int(11) unsigned NOT NULL default 0
    * Changed type of evo_blogusers.bloguser_user_ID from int(11) to bloguser_user_ID int(11) unsigned NOT NULL default 0
    * Added column evo_blogusers.bloguser_perm_media_upload tinyint NOT NULL default 0
    * Added column evo_blogusers.bloguser_perm_media_browse tinyint NOT NULL default 0
    * Added column evo_blogusers.bloguser_perm_media_change tinyint NOT NULL default 0

Altering table «evo_users»...

    * Changed type of evo_users.user_firstname from varchar(50) to user_firstname varchar(50) NULL
    * Changed type of evo_users.user_lastname from varchar(50) to user_lastname varchar(50) NULL
    * Changed type of evo_users.user_nickname from varchar(50) to user_nickname varchar(50) NULL
    * Changed type of evo_users.user_icq from int(10) unsigned to user_icq int(11) unsigned NULL
    * Changed type of evo_users.user_email from varchar(100) to user_email varchar(255) NOT NULL
    * Changed type of evo_users.user_url from varchar(100) to user_url varchar(255) NULL
    * Changed type of evo_users.user_ip from varchar(15) to user_ip varchar(15) NULL
    * Changed type of evo_users.user_domain from varchar(200) to user_domain varchar(200) NULL
    * Changed type of evo_users.user_browser from varchar(200) to user_browser varchar(200) NULL
    * Changed type of evo_users.user_aim from varchar(50) to user_aim varchar(50) NULL
    * Changed type of evo_users.user_msn from varchar(100) to user_msn varchar(100) NULL
    * Changed type of evo_users.user_yim from varchar(50) to user_yim varchar(50) NULL
    * Added column evo_users.user_ID int(11) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment
      An unexpected error has occured!

      If this error persits, please report it to the administrator.

      Go back to home page
      Additional information about this error:

      MySQL error!

      Incorrect table definition; There can only be one auto column and it must be defined as a key(Errno=1075)

      Your query:

      ALTER TABLE evo_users ADD COLUMN user_ID int(11) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment FIRST, DROP PRIMARY KEY, ADD PRIMARY KEY user_ID (user_ID)

Some progress has been made people. Now onto the next challenge.

Searched for 1075 ( as in teh errno) and found a russion page with the similar problem ( at least i think so, i dont read russion). So once again I tag in the smarties.

#

Error: 1075 SQLSTATE: 42000 (ER_WRONG_AUTO_KEY)

Message: Incorrect table definition; there can be only one auto column and it must be defined as a key
- Source: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/error-messages-server.html

I know this doesn't help much, but I'm looking around, because this is def more of a Server Side issue.

Ok I'm not sure if my continual post are considered spamming or flaming, but if they are then I'll start editing my posts. But I was able to manually alter that former ID to user_ID as teh code was requesting.

Additional information about this error:

MySQL error!

Duplicate entry 'urlname' for key 2(Errno=1062)

Your query:

ALTER TABLE evo_blogs ADD UNIQUE KEY blog_urlname (blog_urlname)

I try to manually put in the unique code and even use the lil button to make the table itself unique, and it give me the same error.

When I click the Browse button, I'm directed to evo_blogs

SELECT *
FROM `evo_blogs`
WHERE CONCAT_WS( "-", `blog_urlname` ) = "urlname"
ORDER BY `blog_urlname`
LIMIT 0 , 30

I can edit the PHP code that is above, not sure what to do there, and it is also showing me my 3 blogs (Blog All, Journal, and Links). The CONCAT_WS is in red, not sure if it is supposed to be that color, but I'm thinking it isn't.

I'm steadily working on this. I have a few more hours before my trip.

- Did a Search and nothing really. So I'm lost once again "imitates EdB's smarty call".

- Problem solved. I went ahead and created unique names for each blog_urlname which was named urlname => unique name (blog_all, etc)

Installation a Success:

Current Problem - Blank Page!?

Edit:
Ther is no blog being displayed though I reset teh skin to basic and my admin panel isn't showing up? Should I just revert back to Sparkle?

Apart from the install folder, did you edit any other files?

¥

no, no other files were edited. only the conf/_basic_config.php

Hmm, ok, often a blank screen means that there's an error in one of the conf files (or a plugin), but your blog got as far as setting a cookie (so that means it got through _basic_config.php) and, seeing as you can't get into admin, I'm assuming it isn't a plugin problem.

You can try a couple of things :-
1/ conf/_advanced.php, set $debug = 2; and see if it spits out any debug log (I don't think it will, but it can't hurt to try)

2/ you may have a corrupted file. Try downloading the zip from the downloads page and reuploading all the files (except conf/_basic.config.php) and see if that cures it.

If that doesn't cure it then I'd be tempted to restore your db backup and try upgrading again (you really shouldn't have had any MySql errors during the upgrade of the tables, what version MySql are you running?)

¥

alright so i backedup my db's again, seperate folder. did a complete clean install.

General Server Information wrote:

Apache version 1.3.36 (Unix)
MySQL version 4.0.27-standard
PHP version 4.3.11
PERL version 5.8.0

Mind you, I have no idea if the server will take back my db's if not, then I can input the posts and such again manually via the backoffice once it's working again.

- Uploading my db was a bad idea new Error:

An unexpected error has occured!

If this error persits, please report it to the administrator.

Go back to home page
Additional information about this error:
Unhandled LIMITING mode in ItemList (paged mode is obsolete)

However, backoffice is now working. When I go to view my Posts (ie Edit them and such via the backoffice is when I face the error mentioned above.

So the good news is slow and steady progress.

BTW I'd like to offer my thanks for your continual help on this to both EbD and ¥åßßå.

Damn, it never rains but it pours :P

If you want, pm me the backup of your sparkle db, and I'll upgrade it to 1.8 and send you it back along with a zip of the 1.8 install that I used. Hopefully this will then cure all your errors.

¥

Yabba and I are trying to resolved this issue. (more like he's doing all the hard work)

However, I hope this does provide some insight into possible problems other people may have, if they have any at all. If not then it could just be a randome fluke of a problem.

[SOLVED]

:D

¥