Upgrading Joomla 2.5 -> 3.3.x

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Upgrading Joomla 2.5 (LTS) to 3.3.x (STS) is pretty hard, if you’re using Plugins or have reconfigured your system. I haven’t yet found out the complete way how to do the upgrade, but I’m trying to do it on a staging system. Here’s a guide, how to prepare the staging system:

1. Make a backup of your web contents, e.g. with gftp. Gzip it and put it in a safe, because you’ll most certainly need it again for a backup, since the Joomla update will fail for sure! After having the backup, install it locally:

clorenz@christoph ~ $ sudo rm -rf uhrenbastler
tar -xzvf uhrenbastler.tar.gz
sudo chown -R www-data uhrenbastler

2. Make a backup of your mysql database and install it locally, too

#!/bin/bash

JOOMLA_DB="xxxxxxxxxx"
JOOMLA_DB_PASSWORD="yyyyyyyyy"
echo "Copying remote joomla db to localhost"

mysqldump $JOOMLA_DB --verbose --add-drop-table --host=www.christophlorenz.de --user=$JOOMLA_DB --password=$JOOMLA_DB_PASSWORD > /tmp/$JOOMLA_DB.dump
mysqladmin -f drop $JOOMLA_DB --user=$JOOMLA_DB --password=$JOOMLA_DB_PASSWORD
mysqladmin -f create $JOOMLA_DB --user=$JOOMLA_DB --password=$JOOMLA_DB_PASSWORD
mysql $JOOMLA_DB --user=$JOOMLA_DB --password=$JOOMLA_DB_PASSWORD < /tmp/$JOOMLA_DB.dump

If your user doesn’t exist before, you must create it the following way:

$ mysql --user=root --password mysql
mysql> CREATE USER '$JOOMLA_DB'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '$JOOMLA_PASSWORD';
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO '$JOOMLA_DB'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;
mysql> flush privileges;
mysql> \q

3. Deactivate the “Remember Me” plugin (filename “remember”)

4. Deinstall the following plugins:

  • CacheControl plugin
  • Include Content Item (NOT, ouch!)
  • n3t template
  • widgetkit
  • Advanced Google Analytics
  • Xmap (ouch! But there’s a replacement)
  • Mavik Thumbnails (maybe)
  • EasyImageCaption (ouch!, but optional)

5. Update patched “languagedomains” from localhost

6. Select “Options” -> “Short Term Support”

7. “Erweiterungen” -> “Aktualisierungen”: Cache leeren

8. Do the Upgrade (“Site” -> “Kontrollzentrum”)

9. Reinstall the following plugins

  • Mavik Thumbnails (3)
  • EasyImageCaption oder Multithumb
  • Advanced Google Analytics
  • Tooltips
  • mod_news_pro gk5
  • include_content_item (and when installed, apply the patched file plugins/content/include_content_item/include_content_item/include_content_item.lib.php (where lang.id is replaced by lang.lang_id and lang.code by lang.lang_code)
  • Phoca Gallery

10. Reconfig

  • News Show Pro GK5

11. New Template and lots, really lots of work!

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