Tutorial: Upgrade your hacked board in less then 30 minutes
 

This tutorial is [high]vBulletin.org and yqed.com (why queued) copywrited[/high]. All rights reserved.
Please ask permission in this thread to copy the tutorial. If granted, post a link that points to this page.

We all have all kind of hacks installed in our boards, or else you wouldn't be reading this thread, right? ;)
Here is it my tutorial on how to upgrade your VB board in less then 30minutes.

TOOLS NEEDED
Araxis Merge (for more info, visit www.araxis.com)
I use the evaluation version for now, but this will be my next purchase. Is worth every penny.

PROCEDURE
[high]STEP 1[/high]
01. Extract your new zipped file that you downloaded from Member's Area to a unique folder and dispose the files in the same manner as you have them on your web server.
I named that folder [high]vbNEW[/high].
For example, you should have your folder tree like that:
02. Create a new unique folder called [high]vbOLD[/high] (your actual version that you want to upgrade from).
Copy there ALL your .php, .js files that you currently have (hope you alwyas keep the .zip file).
Your folder tree should look like that:
[high]STEP 2[/high]
01. Open Araxis Merge and press CTRL+D. It will start a new folder comparison.

02. Browse for folder location in each compare area. I selected the vbNEW in the left side and vbOLD in the right one.

03. Press the button Refresh. Araxis will start to compare the files one by one and show you the changes in colors.

[high]STEP 3[/high]
Let's see the changes that occurred in db_mysql.php file, for example.

01. Click on the db_mysql.php file name to highlight it.

02. Press CTRL+M to launch the file comparisons. A new window will open and Araxis will highlight all code changes.

03. Copy the highlighted code onto your actual vBulletin hacked file.
NOTE: Repeat this procedure for every code change that you see highlighted.

[high]FINAL STEPS[/high]
If you are not sure 100% of what you are doing, use the upgrade system provided by Jelsoft and reinstall manually the hacks again.
Araxis is a great tool for comparing the files ONLY.

Once done, test the new code on your test board. if everything is OK, upload your files to your live web site.
You are done. ;)

Thanx nakkid :) We may try it next time we upgrade our board ;) Good Job!!

Great, thanks for the tutorial.

Yes...very nice tutorial...thx!

thankyou for the tut, when vb 2.2.6 is available for us members, I will definetly give this a try

This should be listed as a sticky thread. A lot of new hackers will want this kind of information when things get upgraded, I wish I would have had this info a while back instead of discovering it myself, it would have saved me a lot of time.

I just purchased Araxis Merge Professional v6.0. Great program, i love it. :)

i will do it next week. damn lesane... you are always faster then me. :)

i use beyound compare, but im ganna download this and see if its any better ^^

i use beyond compare, an my update procedure is something else

i extract the unchanged vb i use (say 2.2.5) and compared it with the one on my server with the hacks.

so i'm sure i find every line i have changed.

after that i copy the changed lines into the new files.

it takes a bit more time, but you can be sure not to forget a line you have changed nor to overwrite some new code with the old code.

but a good tutorial nakkid, because it is very fast to update this way