Re: SMF 2.0 Release Candidate 3 is out!

[holodoc]

Yes I know I said I am not going to install RC3 and wait for the full version but it was kind of hard to resist while looking at my RC1  :-[ So I decided to try and update it. I admit there were difficulties because the upgrader refused to upgrade my RC1 (the infamous step with database renaming was blocking the process). In brief I will just try to describe the required process which at the end yielded a fully functional RC3 version forum while preserving the previous data.

1) I exported my forum database data (data + structure) from the admin panel of the old RC1

2) After that I imported the RC1 dump into my local MySQL (on my computer)

3) I installed a brand new SMF 2.0 RC3 locally (on my computer) while using the imported database as destination (yes SMF complained about it but I ignored it)

4) At this point SMF worked however I kept getting a database related log error "Unknown column 'a.file_hash' in 'field list'".

5) I used the updateDatabase.php script from here (http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=369537.msg2528406#msg2528406) because the one earlier in that thread doesn't work ("No database selected" appears).

6) No more complaints about the hash thingy but I kept getting various errors in different parts of the forum, some of them fatal (there were some database errors still claiming that I have inconsistent database tables - like some of them are part of the SMF 2.0 RC3 Public and some just SMF 2.0 RC3)

7) I copied the whole upgrade package over the new installation and began the upgrade process (the DB renaming part now worked)

8) After the upgrade no more log messages but my forum data somehow got screwed and not displayed correctly (Serbian language characters) although the data inside the database itself was ok (no weird characters)

9) I entered the admin panel and used the "Convert HTML-entities to UTF-8 characters" option (Maintenance -> Forum maintenance -> Database) but instead of using the default ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8 conversion I used UTF-8 to UTF-8 conversion.

10) I copied all the new forum files to my web server and switched the online forum database with the one I used locally for the installation.

That's it. Now everything works fine and without incidents although I must admit that the whole upgrade procedure has become a real pain in the (censored) yielding too much unpredicted errors and requiring some brainstorming to solve them. Also I must admin that although as a PHP web developer I really don't like how SMF looks under the hood (I addressed that part once here) but as far as it goes for the functionality part I must say it really is a very good experience. A very stable and formidable piece of software... For now :)

Keep up the good work and congratulations once again hoping that the full version is still to become available soon  8)

[Arantor]

holodoc: If you use the upgrade procedure normally (i.e. large upgrade pack files overwritten on top of the old files and run upgrade.php, like the manual says) it would upgrade in a few clicks without any fuss...

[holodoc]

holodoc: If you use the upgrade procedure normally (i.e. large upgrade pack files overwritten on top of the old files and run upgrade.php, like the manual says) it would upgrade in a few clicks without any fuss...

Believe me I am not new to SMF because I have used it from the very beginning and I tried every possible solution I could think of while avoiding to use a complete new installation. Everything failed because of that part where the database fields are supposed to be updated. I even tried the old RC1 to RC2 upgrader (and I mean upgrader not updater) and it also failed, even on my local machine. The only solution that actually worked was this hack with the new installation.

Sorry but that is how things stand for now because I really would not consider myself a newbie when it comes to SMF

[Arantor]

So replacing the files in-situ, as opposed to exporting and playing with the database didn't work? Strange - worked just fine for me on multiple installations, going from RC1.2 to RC2 and RC3...

[holodoc]

So replacing the files in-situ, as opposed to exporting and playing with the database didn't work? Strange - worked just fine for me on multiple installations, going from RC1.2 to RC2 and RC3...

Unfortunately the proposed procedure involving copying the upgrader files over the original ones and running the upgrader didn't work even on a local machine. It simply stops when it comes to the part where database changes are supposed to be performed because the "Error retrieving information on step: Renaming table columns." appears (I perhaps didn't quote the exact message because I pulled it from my browser history in an attempt to be precise). In general everything except the upgrade of a fresh installation with an old database fails. If I had more time I would most certainly try to locate the problem but unfortunately considering my lack of time that is the best I could do for now. Of course being persistent when it comes to attempts to upgrade the SMF also doesn't do good to that lack of time

EDIT: Just a quick note...I don't use any kind of modifications on my forums (except some minor template changes) because I always try to avoid complications when it comes to upgrades etc. (now this must seem like a good joke )

[Arantor]

Hmm, what version of MySQL are you using?

* Arantor would love the moderators to split these posts off into a Bug Report because frankly this sounds like an install bug...

[holodoc]

Hmm, what version of MySQL are you using?

* Arantor would love the moderators to split these posts off into a Bug Report because frankly this sounds like an install bug...

Online server: Centos 5.4, Apache 2.2.3, PHP 5.2.10, MySQL 5.0.77 comunity version
Local server: Windows 7, Apache 2.2.15, PHP 5.2.13, MySQL 5.1.44 comunity version (this is a development machine running all servers separately - no XAMPP, WAMP etc.)

[Arantor]

Huh, very weird (I run all the servers separately and can't seem to reproduce)

[holodoc]

Huh, very weird (I run all the servers separately and can't seem to reproduce)

Tell me about it I just hope that similar problems are not going to appear during upgrades that are yet to come.