XF 1.2 Best practice for upgrading my site

[Phases]

All,

I know this may seem like a dumb question but I've worked real hard on my site, and we are starting other sites with XF and converting one pretty large one (6 million posts) so, bear with me while I learn and verify and re-verify and tiptoe around upgrades. I'm sure this info is out there, and I'm looking, but in the meantime..



Alright. So, for the first that I'LL be upgrading... I've installed a style that I use as my only style. I've installed a fair number of add-ons, bold being what I consider required:

- Custom BBCode manager 1.3.4
- Most Online User 1.2
- Nodes as Tabs 1.2.2
- PHP Help Center Announcements Beta 2
- Registration Form Timer 2.0
- Respello 1.0
- Sitemap for XenForo 1.3.2
- Tapatalk 1.9.0
- Template Modification System 1.3.0
- Unread Post Count 1.1.3
- User Albums 1.0.0 b7
- [xfr] User Albums More 1.0.0
- Xenforo Resource Manager 1.1.0
- [8wayRun.com] XenPorta (Portal) 1.6.0
- [8wayRun.com] XenUtiles (Spam) 1.0.1
- [bd] Widget Framework 2.4.3
- [RT] Online Status Ribbon 1.3.7
- [Xen Media Gallery] Youtube Playlist BB Code Media Site 1.0.0

..and I've made a pretty good number of template edits in both the style template and plugin templates.

So, when I do this upgrade - what happens? Does it upgrade all but my custom edited templates? Will it overwrite my edited templates with new ones? Will it merge?

Am I to go into an upgrade knowing that any plugin may just break, and I'm better off waiting till I see verification or updates from each that they are compatible?

Thanks for any advice, appreciate it - love XF!

 

[Paul B]

My first suggestion would be to create a test site which is a duplicate of your live site and do the upgrade on that first.

Outdated template will be marked as such - you will be given the option of merging or reverting (and re-editing).

You will have to check each add-on and confirm which versions of XenForo they are compatible with.
Upgrading will more than likely be necessary for some of them.

Lastly, see this resource for upgrading from 1.1.x to 1.2: http://xenforo.com/community/resources/how-to-upgrade-to-1-2.2397/

 

[Phases]

Thanks for the reply Brogan. Letting it merge templates - what are your thoughts on that? Does it do a rather fair job usually when the very code being modified isn't something I've messed with?

Or by merging do you mean it leaves mine intact - as I see you said "or revert and reedit".

I like your first suggestion, good idea. Why did I not think of that.. that is the question here.

 

[Jeremy]

Templates are automatically merged if possible. If there are conflicts (ie, you edited a portion as well as XenForo), the auto-merge is aborted and you manually have to approve, reject, or modify a merge. So none of your changes are ever lost.

 

[Phases]

Actually. Since it's all the style edits not the master or default styles - would I assume this wouldn't hurt template edits all really, and I'd need to instead wait for a style update from the author?

 

[Paul B]

If it's a custom style, and the templates are outdated, you will need to get the latest version from the style author.

 

[Phases]

Great.

Thanks for your help guys.