Difference between revisions of "How to upgrade JReviews"

Revision as of 10:48, 11 September 2010

What happens to my existing listings, reviews and customizations when I upgrade

Upgrading JReviews does not remove your configuration settings, nor any of your existing data such as listings and reviews. These are stored in the database and the upgrades affect mostly the file system. If an upgrade requires database changes then this is automatically taken care of by JReviews.

If you've made any theme or code changes you should make a backup of your modified files before proceeding with the upgrade.

Upgrading the licensed version

Remote Upgrade (JReviews versions 2.1.9 or later)

You can do a one-click remote upgrade by using the Installer/Updater menu in the JReviews administration under the Maintenance header on the left column. Always upgrade the s2framework first and JReviews second.

Remember to backup any files you've customized because they will be replaced during the upgrade. You can use the JReviews Code Overrides to move the files outside the core folders to prevent them from being overwritten.

The upgrade doesn't work, what now?

Enable FTP Layer in Joomla Global Configuration and try again. If that doesn't help, use your ftp client to temporarily modify the permissions of the Joomla /tmp folder to 777 and do the same with the components' administrator and frontend folders. For example /administrator/components/com_jreviews and /components/com_jreviews.

You can also use the regular upgrade method described below.

Manual upgrade on JReviews versions < 2.1.5

1. If you are upgrading your production server it's always a good idea to perform a full backup of your site, including database and files, in case you need to revert the upgrade.
2. Backup your JReviews theme and other files if you made changes to them. If you are using JReviews Code Overrides feature to put modified files outside com_jreviews folder, then it is not necessary.
3. Uninstall both S2 Framework and JReviews Component
4. Install new versions of S2 Framework and JReviews Component
5. Re-upload your modified JReviews theme files. Upgrading from JReviews 2.0 or 2.1 to JReviews 2.2? keep in mind that your themes will not necessarily work with the new version and don't have all of the functionality in them. It is recommended that you transfer your changes to the new theme files.
6. Unzip the module files and replace the existing ones in the /modules directory. No need to uninstall/reinstall which would require you to setup your modules all over again. You might need to go into each module and adjust the setting parameters if something isn't right, there are many new configuration options in all modules.
7. Clear the browser cache! Otherwise you may end up with non-working links.

Troubleshooting a broken upgrade

The most important thing to do when an upgrade presents broken functionality is to test the same function without any theme or code changes. If you use the code overrides functionality, you should rename the jreviews_overrides folder to something else and clear the file registry. If the issue is solved then it means you need to update your modified files to bring them up to date with their most recent versions.