Upgrading to vBulletin 4

Howdy Folks,

All the licensing drama aside I will be upgrading at least 1 of my licenses to 4. Has anyone come up with an upgrade plan yet? According to the folks at vB the upgrade is going to be like any other upload and run the upgrade script, simple on the face but as I understand any customizations are going to have to be redone.

First and foremost I'm going to install a test board with 3.8 and copy my database over then upgrade to 4 on the test board just to see how everything goes if all goes well I'll carry on from there.

Before upgrading I will be doing following:

• New Style: My current custom style is coming up on the two year mark anyhow, so it's time for a new one anyhow.
• Mods/Hacks: Making sure any mods I current use are updated on .org with positive feedback. I hoping this won't be a problem for the most popular hacks, smaller ones I'm not so sure of.

After upgrading:

• Install new style, tweak whatever needs to be tweaked.
• Standby and wait for the barge of questions from members.

Have I missed anything?

 

That is pretty much my plan as well. In addition I'll simply remove mods that are only marginally useful.

I'm doing a few special things such as swapping the license numbers around so the v4 license can effectively have a public test site to work out the initial design/blogs/articles long before the main database is upgraded.

(all perfectly legal, 2 completely separate licenses being used)

 

Looks like you have everything planned out.

My main forum has several older 3.6 modifications installed that I do not know if they will work or not. Those are going to be a holding point - I'am going to have to take each modification on a one on one basis and see if I can update it. Ones with no current updates will have to be removed. There is at least one commercial grade modification that will have to be updated and that means renewing my license.

I have 3 forums to upgrade. I will probably take the smallest one, upgrade it first, then go to the next one, and the largest forum last.

During the upgrade process, if something goes wrong, I would rather restore a 20 meg database as compared to restoring a 1 gig database.

 

Here's my plan, Simple 10 step plan that should minimize down time on a live site.

1. Setup a test install of vBulletin 4 and run the upgrade script over a copy of my database
2. rebuild my style. This won't take long since my style is mostly CSS already
3. Fix any broken modifications, and assure the core functionality is working
4. Export the style and any modifications that were fixed.
5. Backup current site.
6. Backup current site again
7. Upload and run upgrade script
8. Import style and modifications
9. Double check for any small bugs or problems
10. Find things to complain about that are broken.

 

I would not assume that rebuilding your style will not take long. The variables used in the new templates and the conditions used are all different.

But, other than that, I will be upgrading my site using the same method you posted.

 

I'll be getting a brand new style
as soon as a few mods are updated (vbseo, gaz and gars) I'll began testing the site on a 4.0 upgrade.
After everything is running bug free, I'll update the production server.
I'm guessing a month or two after 4.0 gold is released assuming the mods I need are updated.
I'm not in a big hurry to update or spend the money for a new custom style..lol

 

Pretty much same plan test private/local 3.8 upgrade to 4 suite and one by one re-add custom functionality/tweaks and design to the newly upgraded 4 suite to make sure all works before going live. But that would also depend on being able to import my wordpress frontend to cms as well.

I'll probably end up paying a professional skin for vB 4 suite though (first time doing so) but will tinker with it myself to get a feel for it.

 

I'm a newbie to VB. I purchased the 4.0 suite out of the gate. I'm currently running 3.8.4 How do i get the upgrade. I've been notified about the 4.0 and I d/l'ed it. But I do not see the upgrade. Can anyone shed light on that?

 

What you need to do is go to your member account on vb.com and download Impex. That's their upgrade script.

The forum itself is either overwritten or installed in a new temp directory and then renamed to your old once you're done.

 

thanks i just finished D/L'ing it. I'm going to give it a shot...

 

You have a 3.8.4 forum working
You have downloaded 4.0 beta suite
You want to upgrade your database?

I believe uploading all the files like you initially did for 3.8.4, carefully making sure the config.php was correct, then running something like:
www.yoursite.com/forums/install/upgrade.php

Would be my initial input, but obviously you may want to use a new database at this time until you were sure about wanting the upgrade.
If it was an install on a fresh/new database then something like:
www.yoursite.com/forums/install/install.php

You may want to wait for others to give input.

 

Use a backup db for your own sake...

 

Impex for 3.8.4 -> 4.0 beta?

 

Or not?

I would have assumed that you would need to use Impex because it's going from v3 to v4, just as you had to do from v2 to v3, but I guess I could be wrong.

I would assume there are instructions somewhere on vb.com.

Again, maybe I'm wrong and you can use the integrated upgrade script (/install/upgrade.php)

 

Psst. Check out Kingdombuilders avatar, it sort of fits this situation. LOL...

 

lol

Okay, ignore me on this one...I don't know. :doh:

 

Since your a newbie to vB, I definitely wait until vB 4 goes Gold. The beta has bugs and upgrades will be coming down the tubes pretty fast. No use in getting yourself in a tail spin learning a system that's changing pretty fast.

The 'gold' version will be stable and it shouldn't be too long before it's released.

 

Actually i disagree it still worth installing a test board and figuring stuff out. You learn alot more from your errors, mistakes as you go than your successes

I've learnt quite a bit just spending last 24hrs messing with cause and effect of changing style variables in admincp hehe

 

I would concur w/ p4guru for things that maintained from beta to gold. However, if they don't then its really lost time and effort.

Depending on the depth of the user, will the balance be more valuable. I suspect you're comfortable getting down to the nitty gritty, thus agreeing with your value of the test board at this stage. However, those out there that rarely need to get into the db or even being comfortable of such file changes (aside from the basic config.php) would be --- in a tail spin of frustration when meeting a problem.

It's a 50/50 thing is all I'm saying.

 

I too will not be in a big hurry. I've mirrored my site to a local install and the upgrade didn't go well the first time. I done broke it. I have a lot of customized templates, especially for gars. So it gives me time to see and modify those till compatible versions are released. Not to mention the first thing I did was start on the style. eeewww.