Admin Control Panel Items Missing

[alfuzzy]

Was looking at the vertical list of Admin Control Panel controls...and was also looking at the vBulletin online manual for vBulletin 4.2.3...and noticed some items on my Admin Control Panel were missing.

Notably:

+ vBulletin Blog
+ vBulletin CMS

Any idea why these are missing from my vBulletin 4.2.3 install? Are they add-on's of some sort?

Thanks

[MarkFL]

It sounds like you do not have the suite installed, only the forum.

[alfuzzy]

Cool...thanks for the reply Mark.

Any opinion if it's worth upgrading to the suite to get the CMS and Blog options?

Thanks

p.s. By the way wanted to add. I've never done an vBulletin upgrade before. Seems like it could be a scary undertaking. Don't want to break the site...and have to go thru all sorts of maneuvers to get it up & running again. Any thoughts on this (easy?...hard?...no worries?)?

Of course I will back up all files & databases.

[MarkFL]

Whether or not you get use from the CMS and Blogs depends on your community's needs. I added them to my site, but no one uses either. It's a math help site, and people are primarily interested in getting help with their coursework, and for that the forums alone work very well.

Upgrading from vB 4.2.3 to 4.2.5 shouldn't cause you any issues with the forum software itself, but of course making that backup is a great idea. The main advantage to using vB 4.2.5 is that it supports PHP 7, officially up to but not including PHP 7.2. In other words PHP 7.0.x and 7.1.x are supported.

If you upgrade your PHP, you may run into products that will need to be updated.

I recommend doing the update on a test installation first, to work out any issues, and once those are resolved then do it on your live site, to minimize any potential downtime.

[alfuzzy]

Thanks again Mark. Sounds like all the upgrading can be a bit of a minefield.

Upgrading vBulletin to 4.2.5 sounds like a good idea (since this upgrade has been out for quite a while & is very likely the last version of vBulletin 4 to ever be available). But then there's the PHP 7 part...and the possibility that other products may need to be updated (and maybe this is where the headaches may really begin).

Of course if someone needs a newer version of PHP...the I guess ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

I'm currently running vBulletin 4.2.3 with PHP 5.5.38. Is vBulletin 4.2.5 "happy" with this version of PHP?

--------------- Added [DATE]1534700223[/DATE] at [TIME]1534700223[/TIME] ---------------

I probably should ask this as well. In your opinion...what are the major benefits or improvements going from vBulletin 4.2.3 to 4.2.5?

Thanks

[MarkFL]

Originally Posted by alfuzzy

Thanks again Mark. Sounds like all the upgrading can be a bit of a minefield.

Upgrading vBulletin to 4.2.5 sounds like a good idea (since this upgrade has been out for quite a while & is very likely the last version of vBulletin 4 to ever be available).

Yes, vB 4.x is EOL, so 4.2.5 is the last version that will be officially offered. Security patches may be released as needed, from what I understand.

Originally Posted by alfuzzy

But then there's the PHP 7 part...and the possibility that other products may need to be updated (and maybe this is where the headaches may really begin).

What I suggest doing is visit the threads of all the products you have installed, and see if people have reported issues with PHP 7, and you will likely find solutions people have provided. I can tell you that any products I have published here will run without issue on PHP 7.

Originally Posted by alfuzzy

Of course if someone needs a newer version of PHP...the I guess ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

I'm currently running vBulletin 4.2.3 with PHP 5.5.38. Is vBulletin 4.2.5 "happy" with this version of PHP?

According to vBcom:

vBulletin 4.2.5 requires PHP 5.6.0+ and MySQL 5.5.8+.

Originally Posted by alfuzzy

I probably should ask this as well. In your opinion...what are the major benefits or improvements going from vBulletin 4.2.3 to 4.2.5?

Thanks

The main things are security and speed. I noticed a nice improvement in speed when I updated to PHP 7.

[alfuzzy]

Super Awesome...thanks again. I'm kinda new to this stuff...and I'm learning a lot. So I really appreciate the great replies!

When you say "products I have installed"...would these mostly be plug-ins? If yes & more...how or where would I look for all the products that are installed...so I can make a "master list"...and investigate each & every one?

Thanks so much for the great replies...and fast responses too!

[MarkFL]

In the AdminCP follow:

Plugins & Products -> Manage Products

And it will show you all of the products you have installed. This won't include plugins you have manually created that are not associated with a specific product. To see the actual plugins, you need to follow:

Plugins & Products -> Plugin Manager

I would focus more on the products, at first. Most will include a link to their support thread here (the title of the product will be underlined, indicating it links to the support thread).

[alfuzzy]

Cool...thanks again. Now I have some homework.