XF 1.5 Upgrade process from XF 1.5.18/21

[Floyd R Turbo]

I have 2 forums that have just been on autopilot for a while....not heavily used. Versions per title.

These have many various addons but at this point, due to the low site use (many factors there) I'm kinda considering just taking a "clean slate" approach. Meaning, bring in the content but just wipe off all the addons and update to a "vanilla" installation.

As I understand it, trying to maintain any possible future addon functionality would require updating those addons to the latest compatible version, then the XF1 > XF2 conversion would effectively disable any functionality of these, and then once the conversion is complete I could re-install them and regain the function. So, that means XF2 keeps various information through the conversion process. Correct me if that is wrong.

If that is correct, I'm kinda thinking that I don't want that extra info carried forward. I don't want it in the files, and I don't want it in the tables/database.

Is there a way to only import content and effectively ignore everything that is non-core XF?

I'm imagining that I would have to uninstall all 3rd-party addons, but then I think there would probably be some tables or files that would not actually get removed.

Or maybe I'm over-thinking it...any input appreciated

 

[Sim]

I've been testing XF 1.5 - XF 2.3 upgrades for one of my big sites while I finalise the new design. Hoping to be ready to upgrade within the next few weeks.

Any well-built addons should clean up after themselves during uninstall.

I suggest you do an audit of all installed addons - anything you want to keep and that has an ugprade path from 1.5 to 2.3, leave it installed - do the XF upgrade and then install the new versions of those addons and it should be fine. You'd want to check with the addon developers to confirm whether XF 1.5 to 2.x upgrades work or whether there is a specific upgrade sequence required.

Anything you don't want to keep or which doesn't have an upgrade path, uninstall it before you do the XF upgrade - that should clean up any new database tables and table alterations.

In general the upgrade process is:

1. uninstall any XF 1.5 addons you don't want to keep or which don't have an upgrade path
2. upgrade XF core - this will disable, but not remove any installed XF 1.5 addons
3. upgrade your addons - anything with an upgrade path from XF 1.5 will automatically take care of replacing the old addon

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Thanks @Sim I appreciate the advice!

At one point, a year or so ago, I went through and did this exact thing - evaluating upgrade paths, etc - but then didn't have the time to finish it due to work (real job).

In that time, these forums have essentially died off. So really my main goal is not to preserve functionality so much as to preserve content and maybe create a new path forward that might look a bit different. So I wanted to basically start "vanilla" and not be locked in to any previous layout or structure. A fresh start, so to speak.

So you did answer one of my questions: cleaning up tables/alterations. Uninstalling should take care of this, for the core.

Now, let's say I uninstall all third-party addons. This would ideally only leave the core information in the database, but I know that the file structure on the server often does not get removed. I know these files are probably not negatively impactful on the system operation, but they take up space and I'm also retentive about this sort of thing.

So, if I just run an "upgrade" on the existing installation, this will not remove any hanging chads. Is it feasible to perform a clean installation of the current XF2 and then "import" the old forum into the new one? I'm assuming that doing so would only bring over the core content and leave me with both a "clean" database and "clean" file structure. This is my goal.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Side note: I'll add that I bought a better URL a number of years ago, and eventually wanted to transition to that URL. It's a valuable acronym and I had the opportunity to buy it, so I go from something like "longwesbitenamebro" to "lwnb".

So, ideally, I would do the clean install on the new site and import the old site into it.

 

[Ricsca]

If you want to move everything to the new URL, it's even easier. You install a clean version of xf on the new URL and then import the two forums. You then have to take care of all the various redirects...
With import, you only import the content and not the add-ons, so there's no table that references the add-ons.

 

[Sim]

I know that the file structure on the server often does not get removed.

When you delete an addon the files should get removed. You could also just go and check each time you uninstall an addon - most of the addon files should be in the same location.

Once you've upgraded to XF 2.x and upgraded any addons you want to keep, anything that's left will remain in the library folder and can most likely be removed.

There is a legacy cleanup addon you can use to clean up any leftover core XF 1.x files after you upgrade:

XF1 Cleanup Command

Feb 5, 2018

Moves all known legacy XF1 files to a special _legacy directory.

• XenForo
• Other resources [2.x]

Side note: I'll add that I bought a better URL a number of years ago, and eventually wanted to transition to that URL. It's a valuable acronym and I had the opportunity to buy it, so I go from something like "longwesbitenamebro" to "lwnb".

Just change the URL of the site in the options - and then if you don't want to keep the old domain to do redirects (or even if you do), use the find/replace addon to search for all of the old domain in the content and replace them with the new domain.

Resource icon

Post Content Find / Replace

Oct 19, 2017

Allows an administrator to do a regular expression find and replace in the content of all posts.

• XenForo
• Add-ons [2.x]

 

[Sim]

So, ideally, I would do the clean install on the new site and import the old site into it.

I don't think that's the best way to do things, but if you insist - you should upgrade the old site to XF 2.3 first (no need to clean other stuff up) and then run the XenForo importer on your new XF2.3 site. You can download it from your customer area - there is a XenForo 2.x importer included.

Importing data from other software | XenForo

XenForo has the ability to import information from other forums, including users, forums, threads, posts and private messages, along with various other data.

docs.xenforo.com

 

[Suzanne O]

Or you could ask @MySiteGuy or @Slavik to do it for you if you're stuck

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I don't think that's the best way to do things

Can you elaborate on why this might not be a good idea?

I'm guessing that there is a possibility that things could get "reordered" or "compacted" if I had to use a similar reference. So if there were 2000 users but 30% of them had been hard-deleted, it might get rid of the spaces. Same for threads, forums, etc. the .#### in the URL changes, that kind of thing. However I thought there was an option on an XF to XF import to keep those as-is

I can't think of another reason why it might not be a good idea.

If you want to move everything to the new URL, it's even easier. You install a clean version of xf on the new URL and then import the two forums.

I'm not merging the 2 forums, just to be clear. I don't think that's what you were suggesting though.

You then have to take care of all the various redirects...

use the find/replace addon

Yup, at one point in time I got REALLY good with that addon, because I did a manual import from DotNetNuke on one of these forums about 12 years ago. Lemme tell ya...I don't EVER want to go through THAT again.