Considering Upgrade to 3.7 - advice please
 

I am considering taking my board to 3.7 but worried that many of the hacks/plugins I am running might not be compatible with the new version. Also worried about my skin breaking. Can anyone give advice on best practices for managing the 3.7 install? I'd like to hear how others who have gone through with the upgrade found the experience. What do you do to backup your site and then how do you go about handling making sure all the mods you have on your 3.6.x board still work? Thanks.

First of, I'd wait until 3.7 goes GOLD. See if the mods you have work on 3.7 by using your test board. You can make a snapshot test board of you live one with all the hacks ect, see this: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=252648

That will also enable you to see if your style works correctly with 3.7. I've been hearing that most styles do, and only need a few code edits.

Regards Jason :)

Honestly if you have to ask yourself this question, then it is best if you only run production versions and not a Beta/RC version.

Looking for advice from those who have gone before in order that I might get more comfortable doing this myself - if nobody asked questions nobody would learn.

My point is that if you are not familiar with backing up, not able to troubleshoot modifications yourself or to solve other (technical) problems yourself, you should stick to stable releases and not attempt to use a Beta/RC on a production board. Please also be aware that you might not even get support from Jelsoft in case of problems with a Beta/RC release as only stable releases are supported.

Gotcha. I did not mean to imply I was unable to do these - was just looking for advice on how others do it. The warnings are fair and taken to heart =) Thanks for a great product - can't wait to see what my community does with 3.7!