Hi, I am trying to organise that we set up a version 5 test site so we can install it and understand it and get used to it before we then update our live site.


I see that we have to change our licence to a version 5 licence.


If I change the licensed version 5 licence, we still able to carry on using version 4?


Also, I feel nervous about even upgrading our test site until we know exactly what we are doing.


This means that we would be operating our live site, a test site – and also a version 5 test site – until we felt comfortable.
In other words, we would be operating three sites and I understand that this would be beyond the licensing terms. How can we manage this please

We have a huge forum. Over 5 million pages, 400,000 members, over 400,000 topics. It simply a volunteer service and any things to go smoothly as possible with as little stress as possible.

So I suppose what I'm asking is please could we run two test sites for a while – our existing version 4 – and an experimental version 5.

Thanks

 

If I change the licensed version 5 licence, we still able to carry on using version 4?

Yes, I think so. I've changed the license and I am still using Ipb 4.7.20.

 

Also, I feel nervous about even upgrading our test site until we know exactly what we are doing.

There is nothing to be nervous about this imo. If things don't go as planned you can start over again and again until you get things right as that won't disrupt your main forum at all. Regarding the upgrade process itself please see the Manual Upgrade section of the following link:

 

So I suppose what I'm asking is please could we run two test sites for a while – our existing version 4 – and an experimental version 5.

I don't think that this is possible, but let's see what the Ips stuff will have to say. Hopefully they will make an exception.

@Miss_B thanks for the installation link above – that refers to version 4. I need to find a link to version 5 I suppose

 

@Miss_B thanks for the installation link above – that refers to version 4. I need to find a link to version 5 I suppose

It's the same procedure for a manual upgrade to Ipb 5 as well.

Its not possible to run 3 sites, unless you run your test sites on localhost (you can use many test sites on localhost if needed, but has to be the localhost address). If you switch to the new license terms, you can indeed still use version 4

Thank you for this.


One further question, please. I notice that the version 5 download doesn't include converters et cetera which were necessary with version 4 because we came from a different platform.


Does that mean that converters are not necessary any more?

Thanks

 

Does that mean that converters are not necessary any more?

I think the reason the converters aren’t listed is because they haven’t been updated for v5 yet.

The above is correct. Converters have not yet been released for version 5

Thank you. I can take it from that then that version 5 could not yet be used for people who have migrated from a different system – even though this was now several years ago. We came over from vbulletin

 

Thank you. I can take it from that then that version 5 could not yet be used for people who have migrated from a different system – even though this was now several years ago. We came over from vbulletin

You can upgrade to Ipb 5 without an issue. That you converted from vb to Ipb several years ago will not have any impact on this. I'm saying this from personal experience.

Tank you - but I seem to remember that once we upgraded without converters and there was chaos

If you need to upgrade with converters, then feel free to await the converters for version 5 being released. There is nothing forcing you to upgrade right away :)

I'm just very keen to get a test version installed so I can take my time to see how it all works and see what work I need to do to configure it so it suits what we do.

 

I'm just very keen to get a test version installed so I can take my time to see how it all works and see what work I need to do to configure it so it suits what we do.

Since you are going to make a duplication of your main forum to a test folder and then upgrade that first to Ipb 5, you have nothing to worry about the converters or any other issues as it will not affect your main forum at all.

That said, sometime ago I upgraded a 4.7.20 forum for someone here who had converted from xenforo last year and the upgrade to Ipb 5 went through without a hitch. That's why I said that the converter will not get in the way of Ipb 5 upgrade. But you will see it for yourself as well when you do the test upgrade. If you are too worried about it you can always wait until Ipb 5 converters are released, as mentioned above.

Creating a test instance wont cause you any issues not updating the converters

Thank you.

What is the consequence of not having the converters if we install version 5 on the live site?

Edited March 24Mar 24 by BankFodder

It’s my understanding and I may be wrong once you convert a site from other forum software ie xenForo, phpBB, etc you don’t really need them anymore so if you have already converted your site to Invision then you should be able to just update to v5. Again I could be wrong but since you said you’re going to be doing this on a test install first then there really is no harm to try it.

The converters app is required to redirect old vB links to new ones (topics, profiles, posts, etc). You don't need it to test the upgrade on a copy, though.

 

The converters app is required to redirect old vB links to new ones (topics, profiles, posts, etc). You don't need it to test the upgrade on a copy, though.

But would they still need it if they’ve already converted their site to v4 or would the already redirected links quit working?

 

But would they still need it if they’ve already converted their site to v4 or would the already redirected links quit working?

It redirects old links posted. For example, an old post converted from vB might have a topic link from vBulletin. The converter app helps redirect that old link to the new format/ID. Without the converter app, all those old links won't work.

You also need it to login in case the user has never logged in after the conversion, etc.

Edited March 24Mar 24 by teraßyte
typo

The converter application processes redirects and allows for logins that were converted to use their old passwords (if they have changed password since its not an issue).