php upgrade woes

Do you use host gator?

Do you use host gator?

Do you use host gator?

Do you use host gator?

Do you use host gator?

Do you use host gator?

Do you use host gator?

Do you use host gator?

Do you use host gator?

Do you use host gator?

Do you use host gator?

Oh my. I don't know why that posted so many times. It won't let me delete.  :(

Is there a way to tag a mod so they can delete my unintentional spam?

Yes, I use hostgator as it is a small site. I manage multiple sites and can tell you it is likely to break the site. Mine it broke the login and admin so I did not even have access. You will want to go ahead and begin the upgrade process ASAP. Upgrading is free I believe. Things you should be aware of though is that the upgrade will change some things. For example your logo and icon. Also, it will change some areas where you may have HTML activated and will go back to BB code processing.

My advice start upgrading now. Create a clone site in a file on the server called development. This will allow the license to run both the live and development site without any issues. You will want to clone both the files and the database naming the databse something different (this is crtical so you do not corrupt the original database or original site files when upgrading).

Once you have the site cloned and the database cloned you can run the upgrade script on the new development site, without affecting the live site. At that point check for issues. At that point if there are issues support will help but they do charge and will be slow to answer if you do not pay their support fee. 1 month support is $50 if I remember and well worth the reduction in headaches in trying to figure things out, especially for those with less code experience.

Once the functionality issues are resolved you can then work on the formatting issues if any. Once all is resolved move the original site to another folder (development2 for example). The move the development site files over to the original directory overwriting the original site files. If things go sideways you still have the originals in dev2 you can revert back to if needed.

Note also the lag time between the clone and dev 1 site completion. During this time if anything is published to site 1 it will be lost on the dev site as it is on a different databse. If it is not a critical community then you can put it in maintenance mode so people can not publish new stuff. If it is critical to run 24/7 what you will have to do is get your deve 1 site completed move it over to live then move clone dev site 2 with cloned database over to dev site 1 and re-run the upgrade. Then when the upgrade is done reset the settings in the main site to repoint to the the newest database. That should theoretically capture any information that happened between the dev upgrade to main upgrade to go live process. Small site going into maintenance is obviously the easiest but many people run crticial sites where significant down time is not feasible.

Hope this helps.

Not your fault...phpfox has a bug as I am seeing all the time now.

Excellent advice from Lewis.

https://docs.phpfox.com/display/FOX4MAN/Upgrading+Your+phpFox+Website

https://docs.phpfox.com/display/FOX4MAN/Cleaning+up+V3+Files+after+Upgrade