One of the team's primary goals is to make the upgrade process as simple as possible. We've tried to give admins the ability to make customizations that will survive the upgrade process. But, it is very important that you check the Template Changes page for each new version to ensure you keep your customized templates up-to-date. Also, check the What's New page for important update information.
Before you begin the upgrade process, make a good backup of your source files and your database. The upgrade process is generally very safe, however, there is always the possibility that something could go wrong and part of any good upgrade plan is a good back out plan.
Generally, the upgrade process is nothing more than uploading the new release and running the Upgrade Wizard. Some new releases may require that update a config file. These steps will be documented in much more detail below.
If you have questions or run into problems, feel free to post your issue in the glFusion Support Forums and we'll do our best to get it answered as soon as possible.
To ensure a smooth upgrade process and to prevent any problems after the upgrade, you will need to validate the following items:
Take extreme care to back up any files from your current installation that have any custom code in them, especially lib-custom.php (where all custom code should reside). Be sure to back up any modified themes and images from your current installation.
glFusion is distributed as a full installation and as an incremental installation. You can use the incremental distribution only if you are running the most recent previous version of glFusion. With the release of glFusion v1.1.8, the incremental release will only work for sites running glFusion v1.1.7.
If you are running an older version of glFusion, you will need to use the full distribution.
Regardless of the distribution used, all the files in the distribution archive must be copied to your web server. For detailed instructions on how to upload the files, refer to the following sections from the installation guide:
Once you have all the distribution files uploaded to your server, choose the section below that meets your environment.
If you are upgrading from glFusion v1.0.x, you will need to load the complete distribution archive for the latest version of glFusion.
You will need to manually edit the siteconfig.php file and implement the following updates:
If you are upgrading an existing glFusion v1.1.x site, follow the instructions below.
Upgrading from glFusion v1.1.7
If you are upgrading from glFusion v1.1.7, you can use the incremental distribution archive that only contains the files changed from glFusion v1.1.7 to v1.1.8. Copy these files to your server and then run the upgrade wizard.
Upgrading form glFusion prior to v1.1.7
You will need to use the full distribution archive of glFusion v1.1.8. Copy the entire glFusion v1.1.8 distribution to your server, overwriting all existing files.
Depending on the version you are upgrading from, you may need to make some adjustments to your existing siteconfig.php file. If you are upgrading from a version of glFusion prior to v1.1.3, please ensure you make the necessary changes to your siteconfig.php file.
Navigate to http://Your_glFusion_Site/admin/install/index.php
Select Upgrade an Existing glFusion Site as the installation option.
glFusion's update process should now make all the necessary changes to your database tables and upgrade all bundled plugins.
Be sure to review the template changes.
glFusion comes with the following plugins pre-installed:
If any of these plugins were already installed on your site, they were automatically updated during the upgrade process.
If some of these plugins were not previously installed prior to the upgrade, they were not installed during the upgrade. The files are on your system and are ready to be installed, but you will need to go into the Plugin Editor to manually install them.
This section details some of the changes and enhancements of all the glFusion releases and documents some of the items you need to be aware of when upgrading.
glFusion v1.1.2+ brings several enhancements that also required some major modifications to the core code and how themes are handled. As a result of these modifications, we want to ensure you are fully aware of the changes and how they may affect your site.
glFusion and the Nouveau theme are very tightly coupled. This does not mean you cannot use other themes with glFusion, but you may not be able to take full advantage of all the new glFusion features. If you are using an older, table based theme with your glFusion site, be sure to read and understand the required theme modificaitons you will need to make after your upgrade. See the Template Differences in glFusion page for more info.
If you use the Chameleon theme / plugin, the glFusion team has released an update that is compatible with glFusion v1.1.8 and newer. You should upgrade to Chameleon v2.1.7 when you upgrade glFusion.
glFusion supports the ability for you to create custom versions of the template files and store them in their respective custom/ directories so they will survive the upgrade process. If you have customized the htmlheader.thtml template file, be sure to upgrade your customized version for glFusion. See the htmlheader.thtml file that ships with glFusion and make the necessary changes in your customized version.
glFusion ships with a very rich set of plugins which have all been upgraded to support the new search integration available in glFusion v1.1.2+. We have also updated the DokuWiki Integration plugin to support the new search integration. If there are other plugins that you use that have not been updated to support the new search integration, please post in the glFusion Support Forum and we'll see about upgrading the plugin for better integration with glFusion v1.1.2+.
glFusion v1.1.0 has moved several files out of the public_html/ directory and into the private/ directory. To assist with removing the older copies after the upgrade, we've included a new utility called FileCheck. Please see the glFusion Directory Organization wiki page for full details.
glFusion v1.1.x supports several very cool JavaScript widgets. If you are upgrading, you will not have the default widget examples loaded (we feel making content changes during an upgrade is not a very good idea). To access the code used in the widgets, you can visit the glFusion demo site and login as admin and copy the widget code from the staticpage editor.
For full details of the new widgets and how to use them, see the glFusion Widgets wiki page.