Questions for upgrade from 4.3.6 to 4.6. (current update)

[MeMaBlue]

Hello, 

I have some questions regarding the issues that might occur if I upgrade from the 4.3.6 version to the 4.6. version. 

Can someone perhaps guide me into what I should expect ? 

I have some plugins, but not a ton, 

the theme is the normal one,  just with some minor changes.  (i.e. its not a custom theme)

I have 2 licences 

the one is 4.3.6 and the other is  4.4.2  

Is there a place where I can see how I can benefit if I do this upgrade?

  I know the more you wait with the upgrades the worse it gets with the changes that come with them...! 

So I want to convince myself to start the procedure. 

the 4.3.6 one is 800.000 pageviews 300.000 uniques per months

the 4.4.2 one is 400.000 pageviews 50.000 uniques per month,

I usually first upgrade the smaller one, and then go to the bigger one . 

As you can see, I did not follow up on that, so....  😞 .   Here I am. 

will be thankful for all input.....

[Jim M]

4.3 to 4.6 is a pretty large jump that will impact any third party applications/plugins/themes/language packs/etc... You will want to research to ensure that the authors have a compatible version to upgrade to, you may wish to disable these during your upgrade process of our core applications and then upgrade third party add-ons once the core is upgraded.

2 hours ago, MeMaBlue said:

the theme is the normal one,  just with some minor changes.  (i.e. its not a custom theme)

Keep in mind any modifications to theme templates or our core CSS (aka not in a custom CSS file you created) may result in issues when upgrading as the software will not touch those files. You will likely want to create an unmodified theme to upgrade your system and then once upgraded, change your theme to your custom theme to see if anything is broken. If anything is broken, you will want to compare your modified items to non-modified items to fix any errors or incompatibilities.

 

At the end of the day, staying current in releases is not only good practice for security / more stable, robust experience but typically, allows you to upgrade piece by piece instead of large efforts when you have major gaps like going from 4.3 to 4.6. Just food for thought for the future 🙂 .

[MeMaBlue]

thank you very much @Jim M

can you perhaps remind me where i can find something like a "best practice list of things" to do in the order that they have to be done,

to go through them with my  server admin  who has no experience in forum upgrades?

I think there is a to do list somewhere ...    I remember from other upgrades things worked pretty smoothly but just asking in case there is something new after 6 years of no upgrading 🙂 😬..

 

 

[Jim M]

7 minutes ago, MeMaBlue said:

thank you very much @Jim M

can you perhaps remind me where i can find something like a "best practice list of things" to do in the order that they have to be done,

to go through them with my  server admin  who has no experience in forum upgrades?

I think there is a to do list somewhere ...    I remember from other upgrades things worked pretty smoothly but just asking in case there is something new after 6 years of no upgrading 🙂 😬..

 

 

We have the following guide on how to perform upgrades: https://invisioncommunity.com/4guides/welcome/install-and-upgrade-r259/

 

However, there isn't really a best practice list outside of what I mentioned in my other post. I would recommend the below, seeing as you are so far behind in updates. Additionally, setting up a test install may be a good idea if you have a lot of customizations to test or simply want to test upgrading.

1. Before performing any core software upgrades, do some research of the third party applications/plugins/themes/etc... you have installed and see what is available for the most recent release. If you there are any that aren't mission critical, now is a good time to perhaps uninstall those.
2. When you're ready to perform the core update:
   1. Turn your community offline.
   2. Take a full backup (database and files).  (for those reading who are cloud, you're all set here)
   3. Disable all third party applications, plugins, and language packs.
   4. Create an unmodified theme and set it as the default theme (ensure your administrators who are helping with the upgrade use that theme)
3. Perform the core upgrade. As you are so far behind, it may be a good idea to perform a manual upgrade (see guide above for more details on that). If any issues with the core upgrade, please create a topic here and someone will help you 🙂 .
4. Have a look over your community to ensure things went well. This is a good idea for the next step.
5. Once the core upgrade completes, you will want to consider looking at getting your third party items in line:
   1. As you are coming from 4.4, you will want to setup the Marketplace integration and go through onboarding. There should be a notification to do this in the notification bell of the ACP (top right). This will step you through which applications/plugins/themes/language packs you have installed from the Marketplace or are custom (aka custom development you had done or installed from elsewhere).
   2. You will want to upgrade each application/plugin/theme/language pack independently and then test before moving to the next one. This will allow you to tell what may be breaking and causing that break.
   3. For third party items which have no compatible release with our core software you just upgraded to, be very cautious of enabling these but ultimately, enabling these independently of others is advised.
6. Done!

These "best practices" are really an extremely cautious approach coming from a rather old version. Point upgrades (e.g. 4.6.11 to 4.6.12), you likely would not need to be this cautious but I would stress item 2.2 (Backups) for any self-hosted client for any upgrade, no matter how small.

[MeMaBlue]

thank you so much for your detailed answer!!!! much appreciated. 

I know, smaller in between updates have always been superfast and a piece of cake   🤩

[MeMaBlue]

A question 🙂 Since its been many years I dont remember anymore. This change, which had been done when previously switching software platforms

previous topic link:

 /forum/showthread.php?t=49855

redirecting to the matching invision topic  :

/forum/topic/13855-epitychia-se-lagocheilo-kai-lykostoma/

will this continue to be working after the above update  / will it stay unaffected? 

I dont remember  where this change had been set up, I guess on server-level and not on the software itself?  Or am I mistaken?   

It might be irrelevant but I want to be better safe than sorry!

 

[Marc Stridgen]

If you still have the converters installed, it will indeed still work, yes