Hello, I have a production website that runs on Drupal 4.7. Should I move it to Drupal 5.2? I'm concerned that migrating might be difficult, might be work, or might cause downtime for my users. On the other hand, I'm concerned about staying with an old software version that might become unsupported in the future, and that migration might be more difficult later. My Drupal 4.7 site has several modules added on and I figure that these might not all work in Drupal 5. My understanding is that backwards compatibility is not a development goal for Drupal. So perhaps the best way to "migrate" is to essentially re-do the website from scratch and then copy all the content from the 4.7 site. I'm generally happy with Drupal 4.7. Is there any page that briefly explains what's new and exciting in Drupal 5 that might make one want to move to it? Any help would be appreciated. Cheers, Daniel.
You will want to review what contributed modules you are using and whether there are Drupal 5 versions that are stable. Then you will want to allow yourself time to do this. Yes, if you run into complications, your users could be affected by downtime. But if you have no complications, it might not take more than 15 minutes of work. Laura On Oct 15, 2007, at 2:56 PM, Daniel Carrera wrote:
Hello,
I have a production website that runs on Drupal 4.7. Should I move it to Drupal 5.2?
I'm concerned that migrating might be difficult, might be work, or might cause downtime for my users. On the other hand, I'm concerned about staying with an old software version that might become unsupported in the future, and that migration might be more difficult later.
My Drupal 4.7 site has several modules added on and I figure that these might not all work in Drupal 5. My understanding is that backwards compatibility is not a development goal for Drupal. So perhaps the best way to "migrate" is to essentially re-do the website from scratch and then copy all the content from the 4.7 site.
I'm generally happy with Drupal 4.7. Is there any page that briefly explains what's new and exciting in Drupal 5 that might make one want to move to it?
Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers, Daniel. -- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
ps - you will also want to review the theme changes from 4.7 to 5. There is a handbook page that outlines these things. The main difference is in how the primary and secondary menus are called by the page template. Laura On Oct 15, 2007, at 2:56 PM, Daniel Carrera wrote:
Hello,
I have a production website that runs on Drupal 4.7. Should I move it to Drupal 5.2?
I'm concerned that migrating might be difficult, might be work, or might cause downtime for my users. On the other hand, I'm concerned about staying with an old software version that might become unsupported in the future, and that migration might be more difficult later.
My Drupal 4.7 site has several modules added on and I figure that these might not all work in Drupal 5. My understanding is that backwards compatibility is not a development goal for Drupal. So perhaps the best way to "migrate" is to essentially re-do the website from scratch and then copy all the content from the 4.7 site.
I'm generally happy with Drupal 4.7. Is there any page that briefly explains what's new and exciting in Drupal 5 that might make one want to move to it?
Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers, Daniel. -- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
Working from memory (we're in the middle of planning a similar upgrade), this isn't necessarily very complicated. 1. Upgrade to the last 4.7 release--that's mostly security stuff and some minor (any?) table changes. You need to do that in all cases, even if you don't go on to 5.x (but you probably want 5.x soon, since 6.0 is imminent.) 2. Make sure that there are updates to all of the modules you need, or modules to which you can migrate, to meet your needs. 3. Upgrade to the current 5.x. (Is there an "upgrade to 5.0" step? I don't think so, but I could be wrong. You'll want to do this on a test/dev site first, as some themes are likely to break, depending on what you have customized how. There seems to be some decent documentation on the drupal.org site. Look in the "tutorials" page of the "handbook" section. Here's a useful Introduction to Upgrading: http://drupal.org/upgrade/tutorial-introduction ari On 10/15/07, Daniel Carrera <daniel.carrera@zmsl.com> wrote:
Hello,
I have a production website that runs on Drupal 4.7. Should I move it to Drupal 5.2?
I'm concerned that migrating might be difficult, might be work, or might cause downtime for my users. On the other hand, I'm concerned about staying with an old software version that might become unsupported in the future, and that migration might be more difficult later.
My Drupal 4.7 site has several modules added on and I figure that these might not all work in Drupal 5. My understanding is that backwards compatibility is not a development goal for Drupal. So perhaps the best way to "migrate" is to essentially re-do the website from scratch and then copy all the content from the 4.7 site.
I'm generally happy with Drupal 4.7. Is there any page that briefly explains what's new and exciting in Drupal 5 that might make one want to move to it?
Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers, Daniel. -- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
Oh, 6.0 is imminent? When is it due? Normally how frequent are new releases? Btw, thanks for the step-by-step. Very helpful. This is my first ever migration. Cheers, Daniel. Ari Davidow wrote:
Working from memory (we're in the middle of planning a similar upgrade), this isn't necessarily very complicated.
1. Upgrade to the last 4.7 release--that's mostly security stuff and some minor (any?) table changes. You need to do that in all cases, even if you don't go on to 5.x (but you probably want 5.x soon, since 6.0 is imminent.) 2. Make sure that there are updates to all of the modules you need, or modules to which you can migrate, to meet your needs. 3. Upgrade to the current 5.x . (Is there an "upgrade to 5.0" step? I don't think so, but I could be wrong. You'll want to do this on a test/dev site first, as some themes are likely to break, depending on what you have customized how.
There seems to be some decent documentation on the drupal.org <http://drupal.org> site. Look in the "tutorials" page of the "handbook" section. Here's a useful Introduction to Upgrading: http://drupal.org/upgrade/tutorial-introduction
ari On 10/15/07, *Daniel Carrera* < daniel.carrera@zmsl.com <mailto:daniel.carrera@zmsl.com>> wrote:
Hello,
I have a production website that runs on Drupal 4.7. Should I move it to Drupal 5.2?
I'm concerned that migrating might be difficult, might be work, or might cause downtime for my users. On the other hand, I'm concerned about staying with an old software version that might become unsupported in the future, and that migration might be more difficult later.
My Drupal 4.7 site has several modules added on and I figure that these might not all work in Drupal 5. My understanding is that backwards compatibility is not a development goal for Drupal. So perhaps the best way to "migrate" is to essentially re-do the website from scratch and then copy all the content from the 4.7 site.
I'm generally happy with Drupal 4.7. Is there any page that briefly explains what's new and exciting in Drupal 5 that might make one want to move to it?
Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers, Daniel. -- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
FYI - I moved my drupal site (www.centernetworks.com) from 4.7 to 5 last month - I was quite worried because I edited the core along with just tons of edits. I found the process to be painless and took about 3 hrs to get everything back the way I wanted it. Some tweaks to the template were the trickiest if I remember. Just make sure you watch the upgrade video and back up everything! -- Allen Daniel Carrera wrote:
Oh, 6.0 is imminent? When is it due? Normally how frequent are new releases?
Btw, thanks for the step-by-step. Very helpful. This is my first ever migration.
Cheers, Daniel.
Ari Davidow wrote:
Working from memory (we're in the middle of planning a similar upgrade), this isn't necessarily very complicated.
1. Upgrade to the last 4.7 release--that's mostly security stuff and some minor (any?) table changes. You need to do that in all cases, even if you don't go on to 5.x (but you probably want 5.x soon, since 6.0 is imminent.) 2. Make sure that there are updates to all of the modules you need, or modules to which you can migrate, to meet your needs. 3. Upgrade to the current 5.x . (Is there an "upgrade to 5.0" step? I don't think so, but I could be wrong. You'll want to do this on a test/dev site first, as some themes are likely to break, depending on what you have customized how.
There seems to be some decent documentation on the drupal.org <http://drupal.org> site. Look in the "tutorials" page of the "handbook" section. Here's a useful Introduction to Upgrading: http://drupal.org/upgrade/tutorial-introduction
ari On 10/15/07, *Daniel Carrera* < daniel.carrera@zmsl.com <mailto:daniel.carrera@zmsl.com>> wrote:
Hello,
I have a production website that runs on Drupal 4.7. Should I move it to Drupal 5.2?
I'm concerned that migrating might be difficult, might be work, or might cause downtime for my users. On the other hand, I'm concerned about staying with an old software version that might become unsupported in the future, and that migration might be more difficult later.
My Drupal 4.7 site has several modules added on and I figure that these might not all work in Drupal 5. My understanding is that backwards compatibility is not a development goal for Drupal. So perhaps the best way to "migrate" is to essentially re-do the website from scratch and then copy all the content from the 4.7 site.
I'm generally happy with Drupal 4.7. Is there any page that briefly explains what's new and exciting in Drupal 5 that might make one want to move to it?
Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers, Daniel. -- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
Drupal 6.0 is in beta1 state right now, with beta2 expected "Real Soon Now". A final release should probably be out before the end of the year, but no guarantees; the more people help fix bugs, the sooner it will be. :-) New major releases come out roughly every 9-12 months, but it's not on a fixed schedule. The overall outline for migrating is fairly simple; any well-behaved module (which includes all of core) will upgrade your data for you so that you don't lose anything. 0. Backup. :-) 1. Make sure all of the modules and themes you use are upgraded. 2. Set up your new Drupal 5/6/whatever install. Put the new modules and themes in it. 3. Copy your old files directory to the new install, and point the new install at your database. 4. Run the update.php script to migrate all of your data. 5. Polish as needed. The catch is that steps 1 and 5 could be trivial, or could be extensive. It depends on what modules you use, how complex your theme is, and if you inadvertently coded yourself into a corner somewhere. I know in my case, I took the opportunity during a 4.7->5 upgrade of a site to heavily refactor portions of the architecture (step 5). That took a while, but is for the most part an optional step. If you're only using stock modules and they're all upgraded (at this point pretty much anything that is going to be upgraded for Drupal 5 already has been), then it should be a fairly painless process. Cheers. --Larry Garfield On Mon, 15 Oct 2007 17:19:50 -0400, Allen Stern <allen@centernetworks.com> wrote:
FYI - I moved my drupal site (www.centernetworks.com) from 4.7 to 5 last month - I was quite worried because I edited the core along with just tons of edits. I found the process to be painless and took about 3 hrs to get everything back the way I wanted it. Some tweaks to the template were the trickiest if I remember.
Just make sure you watch the upgrade video and back up everything!
-- Allen
Daniel Carrera wrote:
Oh, 6.0 is imminent? When is it due? Normally how frequent are new releases?
Btw, thanks for the step-by-step. Very helpful. This is my first ever migration.
Cheers, Daniel.
Ari Davidow wrote:
Working from memory (we're in the middle of planning a similar upgrade), this isn't necessarily very complicated.
1. Upgrade to the last 4.7 release--that's mostly security stuff and some minor (any?) table changes. You need to do that in all cases, even if you don't go on to 5.x (but you probably want 5.x soon, since 6.0 is imminent.) 2. Make sure that there are updates to all of the modules you need, or modules to which you can migrate, to meet your needs. 3. Upgrade to the current 5.x . (Is there an "upgrade to 5.0" step? I don't think so, but I could be wrong. You'll want to do this on a test/dev site first, as some themes are likely to break, depending on what you have customized how.
There seems to be some decent documentation on the drupal.org <http://drupal.org> site. Look in the "tutorials" page of the "handbook" section. Here's a useful Introduction to Upgrading: http://drupal.org/upgrade/tutorial-introduction
ari On 10/15/07, *Daniel Carrera* < daniel.carrera@zmsl.com <mailto:daniel.carrera@zmsl.com>> wrote:
Hello,
I have a production website that runs on Drupal 4.7. Should I move it to Drupal 5.2?
I'm concerned that migrating might be difficult, might be work, or might cause downtime for my users. On the other hand, I'm concerned about staying with an old software version that might become unsupported in the future, and that migration might be more difficult later.
My Drupal 4.7 site has several modules added on and I figure that these might not all work in Drupal 5. My understanding is that backwards compatibility is not a development goal for Drupal. So perhaps the best way to "migrate" is to essentially re-do the website from scratch and then copy all the content from the 4.7 site.
I'm generally happy with Drupal 4.7. Is there any page that briefly explains what's new and exciting in Drupal 5 that might make one want to move to it?
Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers, Daniel. -- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
Larry, Thanks for the help. I have a question:
1. Make sure all of the modules and themes you use are upgraded.
Here: You mean "upgraded to the latest 4.7 version" right? Stupid question maybe, but I'd rather look stupid than break something.
2. Set up your new Drupal 5/6/whatever install. Put the new modules and themes in it.
Ok... download the 5.x version of every module I have, put them all in the modules directory... and same for themes? The eCommerce module hasn't worked for me (doesn't send me emails). Do you think I can just delete that module and its tables and start over with Drupal 5? Thanks for the step-by-step list.
I know in my case, I took the opportunity during a 4.7->5 upgrade of a site to heavily refactor portions of the architecture (step 5).
I might do that. There are a couple of things on the current site that I don't like (mostly the e-Commerce package). Cheers, Daniel.
On Oct 15, 2007, at 3:57 PM, Daniel Carrera wrote:
Ok... download the 5.x version of every module I have, put them all in the modules directory... and same for themes?
Just to clarify, when you do this you will want to wipe out your entire filesystem from 4.7, with the exceptions of /files (where your file uploads live [possibly, unless you're using a different folder] /sites (which contains a folder where your settings.php file will reside) For your new contrib modules and themes -- all modules and themes that are not core -- you should upload them into /sites/all/modules and /sites/all/themes ...so that their folders are in the appropriate folder above. This way your core modules live in /modules but your custom and contrib modules and themes live within the /sites folder hierarchy. Other than that, the step-by-step should be in the text files that come with the Drupal 5.2 download. More info is on drupal.org. Step 0 that Larry mentioned -- that is ESSENTIAL! If by some chance it all goes wrong, you will need that database backup to get back to the starting point. Good luck! For specific, more timely questions you might want to check in on irc at #drupal-support Best, Laura
Hi Laura, Laura Scott wrote:
For your new contrib modules and themes -- all modules and themes that are not core -- you should upload them into
/sites/all/modules and /sites/all/themes
Oh, is this new in Drupal 5 or am I just out of the loop? All the modules I added to my 4.7 site are in /modules. Did I do something stupid? Can I move them to /sites/all/modules when I go to Drupal 5?
Good luck! For specific, more timely questions you might want to check in on irc at #drupal-support
Thanks. I'll take my time. I need to make a new website for another customer, so I'll get that out of the way, get a bit used to Drupal 5, and then I'll move my current sites from 4.7 to 5. Thanks for all the help. Cheers, Daniel.
The best practice was established during 4.7. With Drupal 5, you can just upload the new versions of the modules to the /sites folder hierarchy and Drupal will update the module path in its system table. Laura On Oct 15, 2007, at 4:28 PM, Daniel Carrera wrote:
Hi Laura,
Laura Scott wrote:
For your new contrib modules and themes -- all modules and themes that are not core -- you should upload them into
/sites/all/modules and /sites/all/themes
Oh, is this new in Drupal 5 or am I just out of the loop? All the modules I added to my 4.7 site are in /modules. Did I do something stupid? Can I move them to /sites/all/modules when I go to Drupal 5?
Good luck! For specific, more timely questions you might want to check in on irc at #drupal-support
Thanks. I'll take my time. I need to make a new website for another customer, so I'll get that out of the way, get a bit used to Drupal 5, and then I'll move my current sites from 4.7 to 5.
Thanks for all the help.
Cheers, Daniel. -- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
On Monday 15 October 2007, Daniel Carrera wrote:
Hi Laura,
Laura Scott wrote:
For your new contrib modules and themes -- all modules and themes that are not core -- you should upload them into
/sites/all/modules and /sites/all/themes
Oh, is this new in Drupal 5 or am I just out of the loop? All the modules I added to my 4.7 site are in /modules. Did I do something stupid? Can I move them to /sites/all/modules when I go to Drupal 5?
Drupal has supported /modules and /sites/sitename/modules since before I got here. Support for sites/all/modules and profiles/profilename/modules was added in Drupal 5, specifically so that no one would ever have to touch their /modules directory again. :-) (The same applies for themes.) -- Larry Garfield AIM: LOLG42 larry@garfieldtech.com ICQ: 6817012 "If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it." -- Thomas Jefferson
Allen Stern wrote:
FYI - I moved my drupal site (www.centernetworks.com) from 4.7 to 5 last month - I was quite worried because I edited the core along with just tons of edits. I found the process to be painless and took about 3 hrs to get everything back the way I wanted it. Some tweaks to the template were the trickiest if I remember.
You edited the *core*? Wow. As a matter of fact, I've tweaked the templates too and that's part of what I was worried about. I use the '$user' variable in a couple of places.
Just make sure you watch the upgrade video and back up everything!
Will do. I think I'll first setup a basic Drupal 5 site (I got a new order) to get a feel for the software, then I'll upgrade a less important site that I also administer and then upgrade the "mission critical" site. Question: I know that you can have multiple sites on the same Drupal installation. But can each site have a different set of modules? I admin more than one site, but they are all totally different. Thanks for the help. Cheers, Daniel.
There are many things that frustrated me when I started with drupal so I just edited them - not realizing it would mess up future upgrades. Frankly there are still a lot of things that frustrate me - how links are placed after a story, size of boxes, comment flow, no ability for people to get emails when comments are replied to, etc. Mostly nitpicky stuff but it has made me disappointed that my site isn't perfect (or even 90%). -- Allen Daniel Carrera wrote:
Allen Stern wrote:
FYI - I moved my drupal site (www.centernetworks.com) from 4.7 to 5 last month - I was quite worried because I edited the core along with just tons of edits. I found the process to be painless and took about 3 hrs to get everything back the way I wanted it. Some tweaks to the template were the trickiest if I remember.
You edited the *core*? Wow.
As a matter of fact, I've tweaked the templates too and that's part of what I was worried about. I use the '$user' variable in a couple of places.
Just make sure you watch the upgrade video and back up everything!
Will do. I think I'll first setup a basic Drupal 5 site (I got a new order) to get a feel for the software, then I'll upgrade a less important site that I also administer and then upgrade the "mission critical" site.
Question: I know that you can have multiple sites on the same Drupal installation. But can each site have a different set of modules? I admin more than one site, but they are all totally different.
Thanks for the help.
Cheers, Daniel.
At the latest count, I have 9 core modules that I've edited. You just need to be very careful about keeping a list of what you've changed and on which line numbers. I just upgraded from 5.1 to 5.2 and it really didn't take more than about 10-15 minutes to put those core edits back in. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Allen Stern" <allen@centernetworks.com> To: <support@drupal.org> Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 11:45 PM Subject: Re: [support] Upgrade to Drupal 5?
There are many things that frustrated me when I started with drupal so I just edited them - not realizing it would mess up future upgrades.
Frankly there are still a lot of things that frustrate me - how links are placed after a story, size of boxes, comment flow, no ability for people to get emails when comments are replied to, etc. Mostly nitpicky stuff but it has made me disappointed that my site isn't perfect (or even 90%).
-- Allen
Daniel Carrera wrote:
Allen Stern wrote:
FYI - I moved my drupal site (www.centernetworks.com) from 4.7 to 5 last month - I was quite worried because I edited the core along with just tons of edits. I found the process to be painless and took about 3 hrs to get everything back the way I wanted it. Some tweaks to the template were the trickiest if I remember.
You edited the *core*? Wow.
As a matter of fact, I've tweaked the templates too and that's part of what I was worried about. I use the '$user' variable in a couple of places.
Just make sure you watch the upgrade video and back up everything!
Will do. I think I'll first setup a basic Drupal 5 site (I got a new order) to get a feel for the software, then I'll upgrade a less important site that I also administer and then upgrade the "mission critical" site.
Question: I know that you can have multiple sites on the same Drupal installation. But can each site have a different set of modules? I admin more than one site, but they are all totally different.
Thanks for the help.
Cheers, Daniel.
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
Drupal doesn't do that out of the box, but, as is Drupal standard, "there's a module for that!" :-) There is an increasing amount of work to do the further you want to get from the default look and workflow. If you're willing to put in the effort, you can make Drupal look and act not a thing like Drupal. How much effort you're able and willing to put in is up to you. Each new version of Drupal, hopefully, lowers that curve so you can get farther with less work, but it can't be eliminated completely. --Larry Garfield On Mon, 15 Oct 2007 17:45:34 -0400, Allen Stern <allen@centernetworks.com> wrote:
There are many things that frustrated me when I started with drupal so I just edited them - not realizing it would mess up future upgrades.
Frankly there are still a lot of things that frustrate me - how links are placed after a story, size of boxes, comment flow, no ability for people to get emails when comments are replied to, etc. Mostly nitpicky stuff but it has made me disappointed that my site isn't perfect (or even 90%).
-- Allen
Daniel Carrera wrote:
Allen Stern wrote:
FYI - I moved my drupal site (www.centernetworks.com) from 4.7 to 5 last month - I was quite worried because I edited the core along with just tons of edits. I found the process to be painless and took about 3 hrs to get everything back the way I wanted it. Some tweaks to the template were the trickiest if I remember.
You edited the *core*? Wow.
As a matter of fact, I've tweaked the templates too and that's part of what I was worried about. I use the '$user' variable in a couple of places.
Just make sure you watch the upgrade video and back up everything!
Will do. I think I'll first setup a basic Drupal 5 site (I got a new order) to get a feel for the software, then I'll upgrade a less important site that I also administer and then upgrade the "mission critical" site.
Question: I know that you can have multiple sites on the same Drupal installation. But can each site have a different set of modules? I admin more than one site, but they are all totally different.
Thanks for the help.
Cheers, Daniel.
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
On Oct 15, 2007, at 3:45 PM, Allen Stern wrote:
Frankly there are still a lot of things that frustrate me - how links are placed after a story, size of boxes, comment flow, no ability for people to get emails when comments are replied to, etc. Mostly nitpicky stuff but it has made me disappointed that my site isn't perfect (or even 90%).
Links placement -- Change it in theming. Size of boxes -- Edit css. Comment flow -- There are configuration options in the admin area for comments. I'm not sure what you are looking for, though. Email notifications -- Subscriptions module and notify module are two that come immediately to mind. Have you looked at the several hundred contributed modules available? That's where the flexibility and power of Drupal can be seen without touching a bit of code. Laura
Thanks Laura - what I mean is this: Links placement - "add new comment | read more" -- I would like it to say "Continue reading storytitle | Add a new comment" Email notifications - tried it with 4.7 but it didn't seem to work correctly - I will try it again in 5 - If I remember, it emailed the entire comment - I just want a simple "click here to view Laura's reply" type message and a link. I love drupal don't get me wrong :) Thanks, Allen Laura Scott wrote:
On Oct 15, 2007, at 3:45 PM, Allen Stern wrote:
Frankly there are still a lot of things that frustrate me - how links are placed after a story, size of boxes, comment flow, no ability for people to get emails when comments are replied to, etc. Mostly nitpicky stuff but it has made me disappointed that my site isn't perfect (or even 90%).
Links placement -- Change it in theming.
Size of boxes -- Edit css.
Comment flow -- There are configuration options in the admin area for comments. I'm not sure what you are looking for, though.
Email notifications -- Subscriptions module and notify module are two that come immediately to mind.
Have you looked at the several hundred contributed modules available? That's where the flexibility and power of Drupal can be seen without touching a bit of code.
Laura
On Oct 15, 2007, at 4:21 PM, Allen Stern wrote:
Thanks Laura - what I mean is this:
Links placement - "add new comment | read more" -- I would like it to say "Continue reading storytitle | Add a new comment"
Look at the "Read More" module. (Not sure how it is for 4.7, though.) Or if you are comfortable with code, there are ways to do this on the theming layer alone. Check the php snippets area of the handbook. Laura
On Mon, 15 Oct 2007 23:33:38 +0200 Daniel Carrera <daniel.carrera@zmsl.com> wrote:
You edited the *core*? Wow.
If you are a pgsql user that may happen. I took the habit to keep *everything* under svn, so things should be easier. As a general rule I'd stay far from core and even modules and tune stuff in my own modules to provide a smoother upgrade path... especially in case of security problems when upgrades can't be delayed. -- Ivan Sergio Borgonovo http://www.webthatworks.it
I don't think that this has been stated, so: The key to making this as pain-free as possible is to create a separate site for your upgrade, then once everything is running swimmingly, you can cut over. At the time you cut over, you can load the latest data from your 4.7 DB and run update.php in 5.3. In other words: never upgrade a production site. 6 is imminent, however, if your site depends on contributed modules, there is no telling when, if ever, those will be released. I think that some of the sites we manage didn't switch to 5.x for four to six months. That said, the switch to 6, while not trivial, might be easier on module maintainers that the one from 4.7. Likewise, the theming system is changing, but it also simplifies the theming process, so upgrading your themes will be work, but not too bad. Thanks, Cary Cary Gordon The Cherry Hill Company http://www.chillco.com On Oct 15, 2007, at 1:56 PM, Daniel Carrera wrote:
Hello,
I have a production website that runs on Drupal 4.7. Should I move it to Drupal 5.2?
I'm concerned that migrating might be difficult, might be work, or might cause downtime for my users. On the other hand, I'm concerned about staying with an old software version that might become unsupported in the future, and that migration might be more difficult later.
My Drupal 4.7 site has several modules added on and I figure that these might not all work in Drupal 5. My understanding is that backwards compatibility is not a development goal for Drupal. So perhaps the best way to "migrate" is to essentially re-do the website from scratch and then copy all the content from the 4.7 site.
I'm generally happy with Drupal 4.7. Is there any page that briefly explains what's new and exciting in Drupal 5 that might make one want to move to it?
Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers, Daniel.
Even when 6 is released, it will take time before you are ready to move from 5, and you'll probably want to get to 5 before making the leap to 6.x in any case. Finish your move to 5.x. When you're ready, move to 6.x. It makes no sense to put off minor pain now in favor of major pain (4.7 to 6.x) later ;-). ari On 10/18/07, Cary Gordon <listuser@chillco.com> wrote:
6 is imminent, however, if your site depends on contributed modules, there is no telling when, if ever, those will be released. I think that some of the sites we manage didn't switch to 5.x for four to six months. That said, the switch to 6, while not trivial, might be easier on module maintainers that the one from 4.7.
participants (8)
-
Allen Stern -
Ari Davidow -
Cary Gordon -
Daniel Carrera -
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo -
Larry Garfield -
Laura Scott -
Neil: esl-lounge.com