Vbulletin Upgrade Considerations?

[jl255]

This has been a struggle of mine for a long time and hope to get some good insights on this.

What are your considerations whether to upgrade your VB version? I have a relatively huge forum with lots of mods and plugins implemented. I'm currently using ver 3.6.8.

To upgrade, I will need:
- to check every single mod & plugin individually to see their compatibility. if not, i will prob lose that function.
- to check if my skin is compatible and to see what are the changes needed. Hire a coder to implement the changes necessary on the skin.

Just these 2 alone makes it such a daunting task. Am I right to say that? Do you guys upgrade your VB once a new version comes out? I love some of the new features in the newer versions but the immense work and effort required has always stopped me. Are these the same struggles you guys face? cause when i read the threads, it seems that many are so willing to upgrade their versions as though it is a piece of cake. Am I missing something here??

[vithorius]

Hi! I've got just the same 'problem' as you!

Guess what...? I'm an admin with a dramatic small ammount of free time per day (I have a job to work, a family to care, a home to manage, etc...) and this single task (to determine what is compatible and what's not) its just a huge task to do...

Some two (yeah, 2!) months ago, I started an online spreadsheet on my Google docs with every single hack that I have installed on my forum. I put on one column the hacks name, on other column the hacks URL and on another column my "compatible" or "not compatible" information, to help me later on the upgrade.

Then, when time 'arrives', I just go to the online spreadsheet (at home or at work) and will be visiting each hack's thread here on vBulletin.org, checking which hack is compatible and which is not...

Man... It's a huge task, yes it is, but I will only start the upgrade when my spreadsheet has every single hack reported, so I will know how hard it will be for me to upgrade or not (basically, I will know how many hacks I will have to pay more attention that others, as many hacks made for 3.6.x, work just great on 3.7.x)

(please excuse my poor english, as my primary language is portuguese)

[SEOvB]

1. I strongly suggest atleast staying up to date with the latest release in whatever tree your in currently 3.6.12 I beleive at the very least, generally plugins, and templates will work just fine thru these changes though you may have to implement CSFR protection which is some simple search and replacing in templates.

2. If you dont' need the features that 3.7+ is currently offering, then honestly there isn't much need or reason to upgrade.

[vithorius]

Originally Posted by FRDS

2. If you dont' need the features that 3.7+ is currently offering, then honestly there isn't much need or reason to upgrade.

Yes! I completely agree with this point of view! :up: :up: :up:

[jl255]

Originally Posted by FRDS

1. I strongly suggest atleast staying up to date with the latest release in whatever tree your in currently 3.6.12 I beleive at the very least, generally plugins, and templates will work just fine thru these changes though you may have to implement CSFR protection which is some simple search and replacing in templates.

2. If you dont' need the features that 3.7+ is currently offering, then honestly there isn't much need or reason to upgrade.

tks! good advice there.

[Infopro]

Originally Posted by jl255

This has been a struggle of mine for a long time and hope to get some good insights on this.

What are your considerations whether to upgrade your VB version? I have a relatively huge forum with lots of mods and plugins implemented. I'm currently using ver 3.6.8.

Once you're familiar with the best practices on upgrading, it's quite painless really.

Originally Posted by jl255

To upgrade, I will need:
- to check every single mod & plugin individually to see their compatibility. if not, i will prob lose that function.

Possibly. Disabling all mods is a good way to go on any major upgrade, and switching to a default theme, too, if yours is really customized a lot and you expect issues.

Some mods may be out of date, or not secure too, something to think about.

Originally Posted by jl255

- to check if my skin is compatible and to see what are the changes needed. Hire a coder to implement the changes necessary on the skin.

Possibly. I'll assume you know about the file compare tool built into VB, and also know that after the upgrade, VB will tell you what templates are out of date and need fixed/reverted. Some of the changes may be so small hiring someone to help you might be a waste of money.

Originally Posted by jl255

Just these 2 alone makes it such a daunting task. Am I right to say that?

IMHO, no. No disrespect, but don't be such a chicken.

Originally Posted by jl255

Do you guys upgrade your VB once a new version comes out?

Yes, always. Twice. Once on my testvb/ then onto my main forum once I know I'll be ok. With VB you can almost always be sure you'll be ok.

Originally Posted by jl255

I love some of the new features in the newer versions but the immense work and effort required has always stopped me. Are these the same struggles you guys face? cause when i read the threads, it seems that many are so willing to upgrade their versions as though it is a piece of cake. Am I missing something here??

Lots.


Got some free time and space on your server? It's not too awful tough to take a backup of you forums and move it to a testvb/ directory (pass protected according to VBrules).

Copy your database to a new database, edit the config file in the testvb/ to point to that new DB, overwrite all old vb files and directories with the new files (except images directory, although you will need a few out of the updates package I'm sure) and run the update script. Overwriting the main files is an easy way to go as then you're sure all your mods files are still where they belong.

If it goes south on you? Delete it and start over again, you lost nothing but some time, learning.

Meantime, your main forum is operating as expected.

I think most people you mention don't worry too much about staying up to date once they've done a few test runs and got comfortable with the task.

Here's one last tip about having a lot of mods. Before you enable them again one by one to test and make sure they still work, leave them ALL disabled (except vbadvanced if you use it, leave that enabled) and jump around your site to see how fast it is.

IMHO, lots of mods can really slow you down. During a major upgrade it's always a good time to reevaluate what your've got going on and see whats slowing you down. (and kill it)

Anyway, my 2.