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Hi,

I was wandering if anyone may have an easy way to upgrade Joomla 1.13 to 1.5?

Let me state for the record, that I have never upgraded from one version of Joomla to another and/or had to upgrade a template after modifications have been made either.

I've been reading at joomla.org on how to do this, but my biggest concern is losing all my modifications to the template and losing all my content and data base, and having to start all over again.

Is there any special tricks and tips on how to upgrade as painlessly as possible?

I was thinking of just overwriting the Joomla 1.13 files with the new 1.5 files and doing the same with the template files from 1.0x to 1.5...something is telling me this is not the way I should do it.

Any help will be much appreciated...Thanks, Don

Hi Don,
I am working on a checklist for whether to switch to 1.5, but in the mean time..

- What is the reason you are wanting to change to 1.5?
- How long has your site been running on 1.0.x?
- What functionality (extensions) are you using on your current 1.0.x site and have you checked whether all of them have 1.5 native versions available (without needing to run legacy mode).

Please keep in mind that although 1.5 is "stable" it does not have a lot of real world testing, like 1.0.x has.

We generally will use 1.5 on NEW, smaller, basic content sites and all our existing sites are being left on 1.0.15 until we are sure that there will not be any hickups in upgrading. We have heard of many people having to pay companies to downgrade their sites back to 1.0.x after upgrading, due to performance, lack of 3rd party extension support, etc.

How does the age old saying go, "if it aint broke, dont fix it"

Just my 5 cents
Cheers,
Chris

Hi Chris,

Since my last entry, like you, I have decided to wait and just did an upgrade from 1.13 to 1.15

- What is the reason you are wanting to change to 1.5?

The reason I felt I needed to upgrade was the rush every where I looked of companies upgrading templates, extensions, etc.. left you with the impression that 1.5x was more secure than 1.0x.

Which brings me to my next question, what are your thoughts on jFireWall EndPoint Protection? Is the 1.0x version of Joomla safe enough from hackers as is or would some extra site security be helpful and is this a good software extension to use for that purpose?

Chris, I have been researching Joomla and other CMS's for 8 months before making the decision that Joomla was the easiest system for myself and my clients to use for many reasons and the options that are available as add ons to the system. In real-world experience using the system I am now in my 4 month.

I found a great article that may be helpful to others who may be upgrading from 1.13 to 1.15, I followed these instructions carefully the other day and encountered no problems at all. the url is: - http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?t=33226

Chris, I am taking your advice and staying on 1.0x for now...Look forward to your thoughts on jFireWall EndPoint Protection and/or other security apps you feel may be better...let me know.

Thanks, Don

Hi Don,
Yeah i agree that the hype around 1.5 can be confusing to anyone new to Joomla!. Regarding jFirewall, i havent had the need to use it thus far, so i cant really comment with any level of authority.

Regarding securing your site, have you tried googling the topic? I did a bit of research myself recently after various exploits were discovered and there is a wealth of information available with different ways to make your joomla install more secure.

Here are a couple of things we usually do:
- Block backend admin using .htaccess and .htpasswd
- Move config file (component that handles this - can be found in the security section of the joomla extensions site).
- Use sh404SEF for your SEF urls (has additional security features).

Cheers,
Chris

Chris,

Thanks for your input -

I will look into what you have suggested and get back to you on this soon...

Thanks, Don

No probs Don