Hi Gang,
I'm bidding on a site upgrade which is currently running on Drupal 4.5.5. The good (actually great) news is that there are no non-core modules running except for the image module. I haven't had direct access to the db and the node content page isn't filterable by content type in 4.5, out of the 1280 nodes, I believe that fewer than 50 are images.
I figure I'd upgrade to the last 4.5 release which was 4.5.8, then to 4.6.11, then to 4.7.11, 5.19, 6.13.
The db is MySQL. There are 1280 nodes. There is one vocabulary with about 130 terms. No important blocks. It's running a minimally customized version of Bluemarine. But I'm throwing the theme out completely, anyway.
Even though it is five upgrades, this looks like it will be simple. Am I deluding myself? Are there any gotchas that I'm not seeing? Any advice, especially about what I may not be thinking of, would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
Shai
Should be a piece of cake!
The only thing I would look for are possible dependencies on hosting weirdnesses in general and PHP 4 in particular, given the version throwback.
Make sure you preserve a copy of the original instal (the whole shebang not just Drupal).
What weirdness is in the .htaccess file? What weirdness is in the ./sites/default/settings.php file?
Prefixed db?
Victor Kane http://awebfactory.com.ar http://projectflowandtracker.com
On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 3:28 AM, Shai Gluskin shai@content2zero.com wrote:
Hi Gang,
I'm bidding on a site upgrade which is currently running on Drupal 4.5.5. The good (actually great) news is that there are no non-core modules running except for the image module. I haven't had direct access to the db and the node content page isn't filterable by content type in 4.5, out of the 1280 nodes, I believe that fewer than 50 are images.
I figure I'd upgrade to the last 4.5 release which was 4.5.8, then to 4.6.11, then to 4.7.11, 5.19, 6.13.
The db is MySQL. There are 1280 nodes. There is one vocabulary with about 130 terms. No important blocks. It's running a minimally customized version of Bluemarine. But I'm throwing the theme out completely, anyway.
Even though it is five upgrades, this looks like it will be simple. Am I deluding myself? Are there any gotchas that I'm not seeing? Any advice, especially about what I may not be thinking of, would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
Shai
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Quoting Shai Gluskin shai@content2zero.com:
I figure I'd upgrade to the last 4.5 release which was 4.5.8, then to 4.6.11, then to 4.7.11, 5.19, 6.13.
Here's what I did http://for-my-kids.com/Upgrading-Drupal.
-- Earnie -- http://r-feed.com/ -- http://for-my-kids.com/ -- http://www.4offer.biz/ -- http://give-me-an-offer.com/
Hello, Shai,
In the interests of protecting both you and your client from the surprises that will likely be lurking within either the data, the hosting config, or the content, I would be very clear that your initial bid represents an estimate, but that the actual hours for the job can only really be known when you start interacting with the data (aka, doing the work).
In some cases, we treat upgrades from older versions more like data migrations than upgrades. It depends on the job, and the amount of data, but sometimes that can be a useful context for the work.
I would also ask what the client wants to gain from the upgrade. Do they just want to preserve the existing functionality within an updated codebase, or do they want to begin to leverage some of the architectural improvements that are possible with D6 (like, for example, moving from Image to Filefield/Imagefield/CCK)?
My .02.
Cheers,
Bill
Shai Gluskin wrote:
Hi Gang,
I'm bidding on a site upgrade which is currently running on Drupal 4.5.5. The good (actually great) news is that there are no non-core modules running except for the image module. I haven't had direct access to the db and the node content page isn't filterable by content type in 4.5, out of the 1280 nodes, I believe that fewer than 50 are images.
I figure I'd upgrade to the last 4.5 release which was 4.5.8, then to 4.6.11, then to 4.7.11, 5.19, 6.13.
The db is MySQL. There are 1280 nodes. There is one vocabulary with about 130 terms. No important blocks. It's running a minimally customized version of Bluemarine. But I'm throwing the theme out completely, anyway.
Even though it is five upgrades, this looks like it will be simple. Am I deluding myself? Are there any gotchas that I'm not seeing? Any advice, especially about what I may not be thinking of, would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
Shai
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
I did roughly the same migration for a small civic-action group's site I maintain. I had problems with large pieces of content in nodes disappearing because of a subtle change some place in character set handling. The MySQL database software was not changed; the hosting company was the same through out.
I also had some other problem (don't recall the specifics as it was more than a year ago), which necessitated me redoing the entire chain migration over. Be sure you keep backups of each step along the way!
The upshot is that although in theory it should be very simple, you may well hit unexpected snags. Be prepared to have to spend many extra hours fixing them.
Good luck.
..chris
On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 9:28 AM, Bill Fitzgeraldbill@funnymonkey.com wrote:
Hello, Shai,
In the interests of protecting both you and your client from the surprises that will likely be lurking within either the data, the hosting config, or the content, I would be very clear that your initial bid represents an estimate, but that the actual hours for the job can only really be known when you start interacting with the data (aka, doing the work).
In some cases, we treat upgrades from older versions more like data migrations than upgrades. It depends on the job, and the amount of data, but sometimes that can be a useful context for the work.
I would also ask what the client wants to gain from the upgrade. Do they just want to preserve the existing functionality within an updated codebase, or do they want to begin to leverage some of the architectural improvements that are possible with D6 (like, for example, moving from Image to Filefield/Imagefield/CCK)?
My .02.
Cheers,
Bill
Shai Gluskin wrote:
Hi Gang,
I'm bidding on a site upgrade which is currently running on Drupal 4.5.5. The good (actually great) news is that there are no non-core modules running except for the image module. I haven't had direct access to the db and the node content page isn't filterable by content type in 4.5, out of the 1280 nodes, I believe that fewer than 50 are images.
I figure I'd upgrade to the last 4.5 release which was 4.5.8, then to 4.6.11, then to 4.7.11, 5.19, 6.13.
The db is MySQL. There are 1280 nodes. There is one vocabulary with about 130 terms. No important blocks. It's running a minimally customized version of Bluemarine. But I'm throwing the theme out completely, anyway.
Even though it is five upgrades, this looks like it will be simple. Am I deluding myself? Are there any gotchas that I'm not seeing? Any advice, especially about what I may not be thinking of, would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
Shai
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
Yeah! Which version of MySql is running on the legacy site. You might need to export the db contents in a newer version. You can easily check that out, though, with a quick test (if you can easily move the existing site to a modern setup, you should be ok).
If you can't test the data you should find out what the host is running.
But the fact that you say there are no modules other than image (assuming no encoding problems on the filenames also) and only 1200 nodes leads me to believe it is relatively straightforward.
Victor Kane http://awebfactory.com.ar
On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 11:43 AM, Chris Johnson cxjohnson@gmail.com wrote:
I did roughly the same migration for a small civic-action group's site I maintain. I had problems with large pieces of content in nodes disappearing because of a subtle change some place in character set handling. The MySQL database software was not changed; the hosting company was the same through out.
I also had some other problem (don't recall the specifics as it was more than a year ago), which necessitated me redoing the entire chain migration over. Be sure you keep backups of each step along the way!
The upshot is that although in theory it should be very simple, you may well hit unexpected snags. Be prepared to have to spend many extra hours fixing them.
Good luck.
..chris
On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 9:28 AM, Bill Fitzgeraldbill@funnymonkey.com wrote:
Hello, Shai,
In the interests of protecting both you and your client from the
surprises
that will likely be lurking within either the data, the hosting config,
or
the content, I would be very clear that your initial bid represents an estimate, but that the actual hours for the job can only really be known when you start interacting with the data (aka, doing the work).
In some cases, we treat upgrades from older versions more like data migrations than upgrades. It depends on the job, and the amount of data,
but
sometimes that can be a useful context for the work.
I would also ask what the client wants to gain from the upgrade. Do they just want to preserve the existing functionality within an updated
codebase,
or do they want to begin to leverage some of the architectural
improvements
that are possible with D6 (like, for example, moving from Image to Filefield/Imagefield/CCK)?
My .02.
Cheers,
Bill
Shai Gluskin wrote:
Hi Gang,
I'm bidding on a site upgrade which is currently running on Drupal
4.5.5.
The good (actually great) news is that there are no non-core modules
running
except for the image module. I haven't had direct access to the db and
the
node content page isn't filterable by content type in 4.5, out of the
1280
nodes, I believe that fewer than 50 are images.
I figure I'd upgrade to the last 4.5 release which was 4.5.8, then to 4.6.11, then to 4.7.11, 5.19, 6.13.
The db is MySQL. There are 1280 nodes. There is one vocabulary with
about
130 terms. No important blocks. It's running a minimally customized
version
of Bluemarine. But I'm throwing the theme out completely, anyway.
Even though it is five upgrades, this looks like it will be simple. Am I deluding myself? Are there any gotchas that I'm not seeing? Any advice, especially about what I may not be thinking of, would be most
appreciated.
Thanks,
Shai
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
Victor Kane wrote:
But the fact that you say there are no modules other than image (assuming no encoding problems on the filenames also) and only 1200 nodes leads me to believe it is relatively straightforward.
We don't call him Victor "The Glass is Half Full" Kane for nothing :)
Victor is probably right, but I still urge you to exercise caution. There are so many fringe cases that could pop up, and you won't see many of them until they bring your export process to a grinding halt.
But, with 1200 nodes, you could probably contract with someone to do data entry for less than what it would cost to script around fringe cases.
Cheers,
Bill
Victor, Bill, Earnie,
Thank you guys so much.
The potential client is going to give me server access so I'll have more solid information later and check back in.
I appreciate both, "the cup half full" and cautionary approaches!
Shai
On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 9:28 AM, Bill Fitzgerald bill@funnymonkey.comwrote:
Victor Kane wrote:
But the fact that you say there are no modules other than image (assuming no encoding problems on the filenames also) and only 1200 nodes leads me to believe it is relatively straightforward.
We don't call him Victor "The Glass is Half Full" Kane for nothing :)
Victor is probably right, but I still urge you to exercise caution. There are so many fringe cases that could pop up, and you won't see many of them until they bring your export process to a grinding halt.
But, with 1200 nodes, you could probably contract with someone to do data entry for less than what it would cost to script around fringe cases.
Cheers,
Bill
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
Update,
PHP is 4.4.9 and MySQL is 5.0.41 which is good news. Still poking around.
What took me longest so far was locating the password to the db. Found it in includes/conf.php. No settings.php back in the 4.5 days. I'm a newbie at three years :)
I'll keep you posted. Again, thanks for the help.
Shai
On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 9:32 AM, Shai Gluskin shai@content2zero.com wrote:
Victor, Bill, Earnie,
Thank you guys so much.
The potential client is going to give me server access so I'll have more solid information later and check back in.
I appreciate both, "the cup half full" and cautionary approaches!
Shai
On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 9:28 AM, Bill Fitzgerald bill@funnymonkey.comwrote:
Victor Kane wrote:
But the fact that you say there are no modules other than image (assuming no encoding problems on the filenames also) and only 1200 nodes leads me to believe it is relatively straightforward.
We don't call him Victor "The Glass is Half Full" Kane for nothing :)
Victor is probably right, but I still urge you to exercise caution. There are so many fringe cases that could pop up, and you won't see many of them until they bring your export process to a grinding halt.
But, with 1200 nodes, you could probably contract with someone to do data entry for less than what it would cost to script around fringe cases.
Cheers,
Bill
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
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Bill Fitzgerald -
Chris Johnson -
Earnie Boyd -
Shai Gluskin -
Victor Kane