I figured I would give my story on how the MASSIVE 7.0.1 upgrade went. This may or may not help you with your own upgrade. If you have a plain site that is untouched, the upgrade package should work just fine for you.
FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT - Make a COMPLETE backup of your site directories/files and database(s). I done this twice to make sure.
My site DOES have several market mods installed on it. I have spent alot of time with some custom cosmetics as well. With that said, I attempted the "upgrade" install first.. Completely screwed my site up. Which I knew would be a possibility.
If you do not have Deano's site maintenance mode, now would be the time to buy/install it BEFORE you begin this task. I put my current site into maintenance mode so no data would change during this. I decided to use a test site to build a replica of my current site, using a different directory and different database. You could say I rebuilt from the ground up to some degree. I had all my modifications documented, so I knew what needed to be installed. So, full install took maybe 15 minutes. Then come the fun part of duplicating.......
For those of you who have purchased market mods, they WILL NOT install on a clean 7.0.1 install. Don't scream.. There is a way to fix it. Here's how:
Edit the inc/header.inc.php
Change the Site Build value from '1' to a '0' this "mimics" it into version 7.0.0 so you can load your mods.. Change it back when your done!!!
I also decided to export my current database into a SQL file that I could download. I DID NOT run this file on the new database. I manually chose which queries to run that I needed to restore my values for members, member's history, member's photos, videos, wall actions, etc. Once all the scripts were ran, I copied the "files" folder for photos, music, and videos from the current site to the new. Made sure that every showed and was working right. I then installed all the mods that I had on my current site and tested those as well. Once the mods were installed, I changed the version number back to '1' (as stated above) and checked everything AGAIN.
After checking, double checking, triple checking everything, I deleted the core directories/files for my current site (REMEMBER - I have a complete backup). I copied all the NEW 7.0.1 files from my testing site into my root directory. I changed the inc/header.inc.php file to the correct URLS and paths (I was using a test site previously).
Once done, I verified again that everything was working and members could login. It sounds like alot of work, but really, I can say this took about 5-6 hours to complete. Because of my modifications, this was the best way for me to go, but may not be for you.
Word to the wise: ALWAYS keep backups and ALWAYS keep a log of changes you make to your site!
Regards,
Chris
