Upgrading from Joomla 1.5 to 1.7, and Fabrik 2 to Fabrik 3

[PattiH]

Upgrading

I am not sure how much of the previous instruction (which I have read) should be taken into account at this date.

I used jupgrade (from 1.5.25 to 2.5) and installed Fabrik3. I updated the files using the "git...." zip file through ftp.

My old data is not a part of the Fabrik data in the new installation in the jupgrade folder.

I read through the instructions about backing up the fabrik tables, renaming them, running jupgrade, renaming them back (or something like that), and then using the upgrade tool in the Fabrik extension.

One reason for renaming the original Fabrik tables seemed to be that when installing Fabrik 3, it installed into the original jos_fabrik ... tables. However, since I have installed Fabrik 3, I am able to go back in to those jos_fabrik tables and see that the new installation did NOT overwrite the old jos tables. There are new j17_fabrik tables although there is a jos_fabrik_tables, but there is not a comparable one in the j17_fabrik area.

I also do not see an "upgrade" or a "tool" area in the Fabrik 3 installation to follow the instructions for upgrading the old data to the new.

I was also a little wary of having to move the jupgrade folder to the main directory before making sure that Fabrik was going to be working right. The instructions say to move the directory before performing all the operations.

 

[felixkat]

I also do not see an "upgrade" or a "tool" area in the Fabrik 3 installation to follow the instructions for upgrading the old data to the new.

13 ) Run Fabrik upgrade. (Click Fabrik, Tools, Upgrade)


I can't work out from what you have written what you've actually done and what does and doesn't work.

I must admit I need to write the instructions clearer but due to the nature of Fabrik they have to be done in the order of the instructions.

 

[PattiH]

Ok, thanks. I think I will just get everything back the way that it was and start over ... even if I'm not quite sure I understand the whys of a couple of the steps. By "backup" you just mean an export to sql file and then import it later?

 

[felixkat]

http://fabrikar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23373&page=3

Post #27 may or maynot explain it a little better.


and yes that's correct regarding the SQL.


Everybody's original installation is different but essentially when you use jupgrade it's changing the prefix of your tables.

So using Joomla 1.5 and Fabrik 2.x your tables may have the prefix of jos_

When you use jupgrade by default your new ables have the prefix of j17_


So when you try to run Fabrik on 3.0 it may be looking for the jos_ tables still as that it what is installed within Fabrik's data.

This is why the first procedure is to change your prefix to something other than jos_ and when you run jupgrade you tell it to migrate to the prefix of jos_ (it's within the jupgrade settings). The end result is j17 running with the same prefix 1.5 did.

 

[aldan]

hmm... changing the prefix to "jos_" might work, unfortunately there are hundreds other things going on, like the main template, which needs to be either ported to the new joomla or replaced, third party plugins and components, etc, etc... and everybody, as i understand, including me, wants to upgrade a LIVE site... with tons of tables, joints and layouts that worked just great before the upgrade...

we REALLY NEED to do the new install in a parallel directory, and just switch'em when they're ready

so let's forget about jupgrade, if it's such a pain. I can cope with copy/paste of the joomla articles, if I can update Fabrik relatively easy.

If I start by installing newest joomla in a directory of it's own, a database of it's own... then install Fabrik 3.03, then update from the git, then... what? we have the old fabrik tables, the new ones, then the data tables... witch might point to data files (done by our friend, the fileupload element) located where ever on the old site... oh, and my custom templates... that I spent nights to perfect...

well, I'm ready for instructions...

thanks
alex

 

[felixkat]

Okay I'll try and get the instructions published tonight, I have three different versions at the moment!

A lot has happened since I last tested what with 2.5 \ 2.5.1, numerous changes in Fabrik.... etc

Joomla 1.7 comes to the end of it's life in the next couple of days so it will be strictly a J 1.5 to 2.5 document.

This still involves several tests though as there may be a difference between going from 1.5 -> 1.7 -> 2.5 compared to 1.5 -> 2.5.

I already have 9 test installations.... I guess a couple more won't hurt... lol

.

 

[aldan]

haha... thanks, man

 

[aldan]

in order to get the rest of the site, how about if we start by:

- use jupgrade on the original site

- install joomla 2.5 clean, in a separate directory and a separate mySql database
during this process, the jupgrade'ed tables and joomla 2.5 should get the same prefix. (I found it easier to make 2.5 use j17_ when installing, to match the jupgrade default prefix)

- in PHPMyAdmin, export all the new tables from jupgrade

- then, import them in the clean 2.5 install
(I had to drop all the tables first, then import them)

at this point we should have all the articles/menus/users...etc transferred over to the clean site, then we can go on with fabrik

up to this point it worked for me... i mean, if there were errors in jupgrade, I got them over in the clean site...

 

[aldan]

if you get an error like this:
Warning: require(/site_root/modules/mod_articles_news/tmpl/vert.php) [function.require]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/pspc00/public_html/j25/modules/mod_articles_news/mod_articles_news.php on line 18
then you need to rename modules/mod_articles_news/tmpl/vertical.php
to modules/mod_articles_news/tmpl/vert.php

i guess it's a jupgrade bug?...

 

[felixkat]

Not quite sure of the idea here as ....

- in PHPMyAdmin, export all the new tables from jupgrade

- then, import them in the clean 2.5 install
(I had to drop all the tables first, then import them)

... this essentially duplicates the jupgraded site which defeats the object of doing a clean install. .... or have I got this wrong?

 

[aldan]

you said that the coexistance of "jos_" and "j17_" in the same database confuses Fabrik... so here we're in a NEW database, no "jos_"... and how else am I going to transfer the non-fabrik stuff?

 

[felixkat]

Ahh okay I see what you mean, your splitting up the two installations from the same database, which is what jupgrade does, and putting 2.5 in it's own database.

Sorry It didn't seem obvious at first what you were trying to achieve.

On that basis, once you have everything running you should be able to install Fabrik, update to the latest github, drop the fabrik tables, copy\restore you 1.5 tables across and then run the upgrade.

Last time I did this there was an issue with the fabrik_connections and I had to edit this by hand but this may have just been a one off.

If you have any wierd messages or problems then take some screenshots and post them here.

I've been watching the jupgrade in github and I know they have made a few changes recently, so it may be worth updating to the latest git on jupgrade as well before the migration.

https://github.com/fastslack/jUpgrade

Let us know how you get on.

 

[aldan]

you got it, i'll do that... just let me make a backup first

 

[felixkat]

Make two....

 

[aldan]

i did... one before fabrik install, one after. Anyhow, it went relatively well:

note: I couldn't find in phpmyadmin a function to change the names of the tables, so I had to use search/replace in a word processor, on my computer, to replace "jos_" with "j17_" before uploading the tables

note2: in the f2 installation, there are tables that I guess are not used anymore: fabrik_plugins and fabrik_ratings; then, fabrik_tables is now fabrik_lists, but this is taken care of by the updater

i didn't overwrite fabrik_connections (since it's a different configuration), and probably because of that, I got:
Unknown column 'attribs' in 'j17_fabrik_connections' SQL=ALTER TABLE `zcrr_fabrik_connections` CHANGE `attribs` `params` TEXT;
Unknown column 'state' in 'j17_fabrik_connections' SQL=ALTER TABLE `zcrr_fabrik_connections` CHANGE `state` `published` INT( 1 ) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0';
the rest of upgrading was "OK"? or so it said

now there are a bunch of post-fixes, that i'm working on, I'll post here as soon as I figure them all out. Some are misses in the upgrade process, some are generated by the custom templates from Fabrik 2...

depending of the number of lists one has in fabrik, I guess it would be easier to just recreate them, rather than fighting with fixing them, as i am doing now... and having the old website still working makes things so much easier, you can compare parameters side by side

 

[felixkat]

note: I couldn't find in phpmyadmin a function to change the names of the tables, so I had to use search/replace in a word processor, on my computer, to replace "jos_" with "j17_" before uploading the tables

No you would have to do it by command line, or word processor as you say on the sql dump..... or prior to the upgrade 02 ) Install akeeba Admin tools (or a utility that allows you to change table prefix).

note2: in the f2 installation, there are tables that I guess are not used anymore: fabrik_plugins and fabrik_ratings; then, fabrik_tables is now fabrik_lists, but this is taken care of by the updater

The fabrik_ratings is a table that is only there if it was installed.... if that makes sense. The upgrade script should handle it though as I vaguely remember having to move it from the mysql script to the PHP script. I'll double check on this.

The fabrik_plugins table used to be a list of plugins installed within fabrik 2.x as all additional fabrik plugins were installed via Fabrik and not Joomla. That's changed now in 3.x, plugins are effectively Joomla plugins for Fabrik.... or Fabrik plugins that are installed via Joomla.... heh heh, which ever one makes sense.

i didn't overwrite fabrik_connections (since it's a different configuration), and probably because of that, I got:
Unknown column 'attribs' in 'j17_fabrik_connections' SQL=ALTER TABLE `zcrr_fabrik_connections` CHANGE `attribs` `params` TEXT;
Unknown column 'state' in 'j17_fabrik_connections' SQL=ALTER TABLE `zcrr_fabrik_connections` CHANGE `state` `published` INT( 1 ) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0';
the rest of upgrading was "OK"? or so it said

Yes this would make sense. A mysql script runs during the upgrade that changes any 'old' Fab 2.x paramters across to fab 3.x.

The actual commands for hat part of the script are

ALTER TABLE `#__fabrik_connections` CHANGE `attribs` `params` TEXT;
ALTER TABLE `#__fabrik_connections` CHANGE `state` `published` INT( 1 ) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0';

In Fab 2 the status of something was it's 'state' wheras now it's simply 'published'. Also attributes are nor parameters which is what the second line changes.

depending of the number of lists one has in fabrik, I guess it would be easier to just recreate them, rather than fighting with fixing them, as i am doing now

In some cases yes, if you have a simple contact form then it would probably be just as quick re-creating it using a copy of any backend tables you use.

Keep use posted on how you get on though.

 

[aldan]

well, it works, site is up and running... and the results are in!...

first, the database i am trying to convert is probably not the best example. I am feeding mysql from a desktop Filemaker app, so I don't care for fancy element types, databasejoin, cascading dropdown and such, my main work on the website is in the presentation templates.

second, it seems to me to be 3 types of errors/mishaps that can happen:
1- generated by the Update utility
2- generated by incompatibilities in the template format between F2 and 3
3- generated by Fabrik new features, new behaviors or bugs (uh, did i say that??)
I'll let you guys figure out which us which?

- my one and only visualization, a calendar, had lost its "data" section (which is now under "options"), I had to re-enter it manually

- in the Fabrik: edit list:
- Filters don't work unless you "edit" then save the table? sorry, list
- access to delete records is not transferred correctly, it defaults to "public" (oops!?), although before was set to "editor"
- CVS import/export setting is not transferred either, defaults to "public"
- access level to Group by is set to "public" (I guess this is new)
- navigation > rows per page number - the setting in the menu overrides the setting in list edit (took a while to figure this one out?)

- elements:
- file upload has a strange behavior? it lists only every 10th row or so, although data is present in other rows too. changing the element type to field then back to file upload does NOT solve the problem; if element is field, all data is present. weird
- dropdown element doesn't transfer the options, and when adding them, it wants to change the element from varchar to text

- form > details/form view templates don't seem to work in frontend, it defaults to the default template; work-around is to define a custom link for the element that links to details view, specifying the template to be used
- form doesn't transfer over the submission plugins
- got an error in front end when submitting a form: "SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected character"

- templates transfers; I have copied my custom templates over, and here is where it squeaked:
- there's a new model to handle css, so if you want to use your old template.css, you need to add something like:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="components/com_fabrik/views/list/tmpl/my_template/template.css" type="text/css" /> to the default.php file
(side note: what's the purpose of moving the css in the template.css.php file?? so I can't use dreamweaver to edit it by clicking buttons?- see, i'm making it real personal?)
- the line "foreach ($this->pluginButtons as $pluginbutton)" will generate the error: Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()

- because the menus were created by jupgrade BEFORE the installation of Fabrik, the menu items referring to lists/forms are missing, under options, template (says "none-used") and no elements to show. I guess it's a new behavior to add elements manually in stead of using the enabled elements in the backend??
bottom line, Menus might need to be recreated

that's all i stumbled upon, again, my database was pretty plan and simple from the start.

 

[aldan]

felix, besides the tutorial to update joomla/fabrik, maybe you or someone would make a tutorial about transferring custom templates to the new Fabrik3 model?

 

[troester]

Hi felixkat,
I've done a migration yesterday, using your very helpful steps in post#27.
I've started a wiki based on your post as long as the impressions are present.
http://fabrikar.com/wiki/index.php/3.x_Migrating_from_Joomla1.5.20+/Fabrik2.1

jUpgrade has some issues but fabrik upgrade is running very well (including joined tables, repeated groups, multiple content plugins).
But I'm still testing.

One issue I found is migrating visualisations, params aren't converted to json.

 

[aldan]

the main problem I see with your tutorial, troester, is that it will probably take days (at least...) before one figures everything up and has a working site once again.