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Questions about the scary task of upgrading
After reading through a lot of the questions and answers in these forums about upgrading, it is clear that upgrading from a long-standing VB4 install, with lots of mods, is not going to be for the faint of heart (I know enough about PHP and MySQL to be dangerous LOL). I have a few questions, and forgive me if some of these have been asked elsewhere.
The Big Question: Would it be feasible to do a "test" upgrade by making a duplicate copy of current VB4 install in a test directory that is inaccessible to the public (duplicte the files and duplicate the VB4 database) then try the upgrade there and work out any bugs before doing the upgrade on the live site? If so, are there any insights or has anyone documented the process on how to make a duplicate copy of VB4 to experiment with?
Other VB5-specific questions:
1. Can I still have Custom Usergroups and assign username HTML markup?
2. Does VB5 have built-in paid subscription function that can link to PayPal? (like VB4 does)
3. If answer to #2 is yes, will previous paid subscription data migrate over?
4. Can I create custom pages with VB5? (Does it have built in Custom pages functionality)
5. In one thread I saw, the staff said the highest PHP that VB4 runs on is 7.1x (which is what I’m using), but I read VB5 requires at least 7.2? (My server jumps from 7.1 to 7.3).
Question: If I was going to upgrade to VB5, do I need to get 7.2 running first or could I do the upgrade now then upgrade to newer PHP after the fact?
6. Do I need to remove all third-party plug-ins before upgrade or will the upgrade process take care of removing them?
7. I read that in VB5 profile pictures and avatars are now combined (whatever the profile picture is gets resized and used as an avatar. Does this mean that all my users who currently have avatars, but don’t have profile pictures (or different profile pictures) will either lose their avatar pictures, or have their avatar pictures now show up as whatever their current profile picture is?
8. Are there any concerns about attachments or images attached to posts in current VB4 being lost upon upgrade?
Devami...
The Big Question: Would it be feasible to do a "test" upgrade by making a duplicate copy of current VB4 install in a test directory that is inaccessible to the public (duplicte the files and duplicate the VB4 database) then try the upgrade there and work out any bugs before doing the upgrade on the live site? If so, are there any insights or has anyone documented the process on how to make a duplicate copy of VB4 to experiment with?
Other VB5-specific questions:
1. Can I still have Custom Usergroups and assign username HTML markup?
2. Does VB5 have built-in paid subscription function that can link to PayPal? (like VB4 does)
3. If answer to #2 is yes, will previous paid subscription data migrate over?
4. Can I create custom pages with VB5? (Does it have built in Custom pages functionality)
5. In one thread I saw, the staff said the highest PHP that VB4 runs on is 7.1x (which is what I’m using), but I read VB5 requires at least 7.2? (My server jumps from 7.1 to 7.3).
Question: If I was going to upgrade to VB5, do I need to get 7.2 running first or could I do the upgrade now then upgrade to newer PHP after the fact?
6. Do I need to remove all third-party plug-ins before upgrade or will the upgrade process take care of removing them?
7. I read that in VB5 profile pictures and avatars are now combined (whatever the profile picture is gets resized and used as an avatar. Does this mean that all my users who currently have avatars, but don’t have profile pictures (or different profile pictures) will either lose their avatar pictures, or have their avatar pictures now show up as whatever their current profile picture is?
8. Are there any concerns about attachments or images attached to posts in current VB4 being lost upon upgrade?
Devami...
