Upgrade assistance / vendor?

[thefeeder]

When I first implemented my message board (IPS Community) several years ago, I was having issues with an upgrade. An IPS resource offered to handle the upgrade and did so successfully. Do they still offer that assistance?  If not, are there vendors who will do it. 

I'm technical enough to handle simple tweaks to my install, but the latest upgrade I need requires the install (or update) or several files. I tried to get that done, but was unsuccessful and I'm afraid I'll blow up my forums instance. 

[Jim M]

What is the issue that you’re having? If it is a software issue, we can assist you. If it’s a hosting issue or requires hosting intervention, that would need to be handled by you, your hosting provider, or a third party provider.

If moving files and hosting actions are not something you like or know how to do, have you considered our Cloud platform?

[teraßyte]

From which version do you need to upgrade? Based on your post you're probably still on a version that supports PHP 7.4 and need to upgrade to PHP 8.0+?

[Miss_B]

26 minutes ago, thefeeder said:

An IPS resource offered to handle the upgrade and did so successfully. Do they still offer that assistance?  If not, are there vendors who will do it. 

Do you remember who it was? 

You can find someone to help you with the upgrade at the Providers page. 

https://invisioncommunity.com/third-party/providers-directory/

[thefeeder]

47 minutes ago, Jim M said:

What is the issue that you’re having? If it is a software issue, we can assist you. If it’s a hosting issue or requires hosting intervention, that would need to be handled by you, your hosting provider, or a third party provider.

If moving files and hosting actions are not something you like or know how to do, have you considered our Cloud platform?

I tried copying all the files from the upgrade package to a test directory, rather than to the existing directory where my current files reside. When doing that, I noticed that I would frequently see upload issues. I wasn't sure if there was a permissions issue or something else. Given that some files were copying suggested that it wasn't a permissions problem. 

Because of that, I'm hesitant to simply copy those files into that directory for fear of blowing something up and killing my existing files. 

I'm running v4.4.10

39 minutes ago, teraßyte said:

From which version do you need to upgrade? Based on your post you're probably still on a version that supports PHP 7.4 and need to upgrade to PHP 8.0+?

I'm currently running v4.4.10

The upgrade is to v4.7.13

54 minutes ago, Jim M said:

What is the issue that you’re having? If it is a software issue, we can assist you. If it’s a hosting issue or requires hosting intervention, that would need to be handled by you, your hosting provider, or a third party provider.

If moving files and hosting actions are not something you like or know how to do, have you considered our Cloud platform?

Regarding the cloud platform option, I run the forum as a hobby. It's already a loss leader, so trying to keep costs down.  Not a great excuse, but it's also one of the reasons I don't upgrade with every new release.  I finally decided to take action on this latest version because I had overlooked a number of security updates, which I assume will bite me eventually. 

[teraßyte]

Ah, yes. Version 4.4.10 is quite old, indeed. You're not alone, I've done plenty of upgrades from it to 4.7 recently.

 

As Miss_B mentioned above, if you remember who it was you can try contacting them again directly. If you don't remember, or they're not available anymore, you can find someone new in the Providers list with the Upgrade Services badge. We are both on that list, too.

[thefeeder]

5 minutes ago, teraßyte said:

Ah, yes. Version 4.4.10 is quite old, indeed. You're not alone, I've done plenty of upgrades from it to 4.7 recently.

 

As Miss_B mentioned above, if you remember who it was you can try contacting them again directly. If you don't remember, or they're not available anymore, you can find someone new in the Providers list with the Upgrade Services badge. We are both on that list, too.

It was an IPS employee, but I don't recall who.  I think I upgraded a couple of years ago.  I'd certainly lean on IPS support if it's offered at no cost, rather than having to pay someone to do it. 

[teraßyte]

IPS used to do upgrades before, but they stopped at some point. I think it was around the time the function to auto-download the files was included in the ACP.

 

Your only choices are doing the upgrade yourself or hiring a 3rd party provider. 😔

[thefeeder]

1 minute ago, teraßyte said:

IPS used to do upgrades before, but they stopped at some point. I think it was around the time the function to auto-download the files was included in the ACP.

 

Your only choices are doing the upgrade yourself or hiring a 3rd party provider. 😔

Any idea what vendors charge for that service?

And how does the auto file download work. I looked through the ACP and don't see any such option?

Oh wait, please tell me it's as simple as clicking on this:

[teraßyte]

In your case, you can't use the auto-download from ACP because you also need to change the PHP version. You have to use the manual upgrade:

 

As for the Providers' prices, you'd have to contact them directly/privately about that. Depending on the provider, they may charge different prices based on what they'll have to do, etc. I can't really give you any kind of generic price.

[thefeeder]

1 minute ago, teraßyte said:

In your case, you can't use the auto-download from ACP because you also need to change the PHP version. You have to use the manual upgrade:

 

As for the Providers' prices, you'd have to contact them directly/privately about that. Depending on the provider, they may charge different prices based on what they'll have to do, etc. I can't really give you any kind of generic price.

As in, I need to upgade my PHP instance on my web host?  That's done automatically by my host if so. 

[teraßyte]

The process has a few more steps. Here's a rough list:

1. Disable all 3rd party modifications (applications & plugins) as some may be incompatible with PHP 8.
2. Manually upload the files from the ZIP package you download from the client area (ips_xxxx.zip)
3. Once the files are uploaded the forum will stop working and throw an error.
4. Switch the version to PHP 8 and run the upgrader from /admin/upgrade.
5. Once the upgrade is complete double-check if any modification has pending updates and then re-enable them 1-by-1 to check if they still work with PHP 8.

 

[Miss_B]

10 hours ago, thefeeder said:

As in, I need to upgade my PHP instance on my web host? 

That is correct. If you have cPanel you can also upgrade it yourself by going to the Php Selection area.