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I want to upgrade to 6.3. BUT... I don't want to have to go through all of the modifications again. I've spent ALOT of time adding hacks to what I have and the thought of having to go through all of that again has put me off of ever upgrading again. Latest threads turned out to be my Holy Grail and when I got that one, I vowed to never hack again!

So is there a way to make upgrading less painful? How can I do it without giving up my latest threads and thinking clock and news fader and... and... and... ?

A lot of people swear by Beyond Compare. To both compare old modified files with new virgin files, as well as add mods to the new files.

Also pay attention to instructions on which files have been modified from the last version.

Incorporating both of these in your upgrade strategy will make your life a lot easier.

-Tacks

Ok, that sounds like it would be do-able.

But please forgive my ignorance here... if hacks need to be re-written/done each time UBB upgrades, will the hacks that I already have installed work on the new 6.3 files? (I don't think I'm wording this right.) If I modified a file on 6.2 for latest threads, do I modify the same file on 6.3 in the same way? or do I just not use the 6.3 file? Stay with the modified 6.2 file? How can I upgrade WITHOUT losing my Latest Threads? (for example)

Kel,

Unfortunately, when you upgrade, you lose all of your hacks.

The good news is that most (not all) of the hacks for the 6.2+ version of UBB are compatible with 6.3

The best advice I can give is this: set-up a test board. Do all of your hacks on that board--to get the bugs out, etc.

I love using Multihack; it makes hacking pretty easy (especially on a "virgin" board).

Beyond Compare is also a handy program.

Once you get your test board set-up the way you need it to be, you can upgrade your main board fairly easily.

You do the upgrade (i.e. upload all the necessary 6.3+ files -- except for the variables). Then, you upload your hacked files from the test site -- except for the variables.

For the variables, use Beyond Compare to make sure you don't zap a valuable piece of information from your main board.

[Kel, I should've mentioned that before I set-up my test site, when I upgraded, I had to shut down my main board for two days & pray that I didn't "muff it up." After I established the test board and discovered that I could transfer over the hacked files to my main board, I did all the work @ the test board ... it took a matter of hours to do the ugprade of the main board--and that's because I had to back up the main board.]

Sue,

Thank you! Your post actually makes sense to me!

This does sound like quite a project though so I'll need to put aside a weekend.

This will be my first upgrade. I've only been at this for just shy of 5 months. I guess this is called baptism by submersion!

Thanks again!

It's not advised to use Beyond Compare to upgrade from one version to a whole new level version. (Eg. 6.1 to 6.2, 6.2 to 6.3 etc.) Using Beyond Compare for versions on the same level (6.30 to 6.3.1 etc.) makes it a very handy program. I use it.

uhhhhhhhhh.... so what do you recommend?

If you're going to thrash one suggestion on me, can you please suggest another?

its not advised but it can be done, as long as your carful with what you do, DO NOT test this on your active board, simply download your active board in full, set it up as a test forum somehwere, and try a upgrade, if it works 100% go ahead and upgrade.

Beyond Compare is a good tool for this, i use Araxis Merge, it has a trail up for download, i also wrote a Tutorial for it witch can be found here

Make sure it's a test forum because some hacks may need little changes to be fully upgraded.

You're all correct. The biggest problem with major version modification (in my opinion) is new functions that change the hack standards, like 6.1.0 has ultimatebb.php, so all hacks have to use $ULTIMATEBB somewhere and cachey hacks have to support it; 6.2.0 has &WriteFileAsX, so all hacks with open(FILE, etc) had to be compatible with it; 6.3.0 has &Unlink, etc, so... hmm... same as 6.2.0. Another big difference is hacks that are already included, like if you upgrade 6.1.0 to 6.2.0, you have to uninstall WOL, anchor, bookie's title hack, and a few others...

"Minor" upgrades of bigger differences than same.same.same.different (ie. 6.2.0 -> 6.2.1 is bigger, 6.2.1 -> 6.2.1.3 isn't) also have some new features, like 6.2.1 has poll and 6.3.1 has mass move and blue arrow, but it's much less and almost no difference in the filehandle subs...

LK... I'm sorry, but your posts confuse and scare the HELL out of me! !!! This may be good for those of you who have been around for awhile, but this will be my first upgrade. I've only been at this for 5 months! I probably shouldn't even try it, but somehow I feel obligated to my members.

I think I have enough to get started. Step #1 - back up everything and set up test board. Once I get that done, I'll worry about the rest. Thanks all..

It means, that if you upgrade from 6.2x to 6.3, you have to:
1. uninstall 6.2 hacks that are included in 6.3, such as avatars.
2. replace "unlink" with "&Unlink" in all hacks.
3. replace 0777 with SEVENSEVENSEVEN, 0666 with SIXSIXSIX in all hacks.

etc

Changing all that is as worse as re-installing all of them.

Sue.. Thank you! Your post does give me hope that someday I'll know what the hell I'm doing...

I've got the hacking thing down now, for the most part. I've been able to do the things that I wanted. SSI took me awhile but that's because I didn't know that I actually had to CREATE an .htaccess file. No one had mentioned that and then no one would tell me how to do it and then no one would tell me where to put it.... although I'm thinking a few had a couple ideas...

I know I've mentioned this before but I think it bears repeating. I am not the one who originally set up this board. So I have absolutely no idea how to set up a board from scratch... much less set up a test board somewhere. I am not on speaking terms with the individual who set it up as that individual turned out to be a serious tweeker and flaked on me... I don't have time for freakin' tweekers. So that leaves me completely on my own... here... asking what must seem to you all to be REALLY stupid questions.

All I can do is my best and hope you'll continue to have patience with me. Thank you all again...

wrong topic..

Kel: just ask for help thats what we are here for . i cant tell you how many times ive acully gone onto someones ftp for them and fixed something

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Originally posted by tackaberry:

quote:

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i also wrote a Tutorial for it witch can be found here

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Not to be nit picky, but the word you are looking for is "which" not "witch"

I just recall seeing that in a lot of your posts, "which" just boggles my mind.

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i have broken english because i never learned the finner points of grammer , hell i dont even know subject verb agreement and im in the 11th grade! , its just something i missed out on. thru spoken word i have very good english or so people tell me, but as far as grammer gose im probbly on the same level as a 5 year old

I don't mind, I can understand you and not everyone is perfect.

I did it! I took the giant leap and created a test board (THAT took me two days to do... had to figure it out first... sub-domain, CNAME, .htaccess file... blahblahblah)... anyway, the test board is finally up and now I can start on the mods. I have to admit that this is somewhat exciting. Especially because I did without any help from anyone.

Did you find alot of bugs already?

Sue, I missed your post

-e -> &FileExists(rest here)
-d -> &DirExists(rest here)

For example: if (-d "$vars_config{MembersPath}/" && -e "$vars_config{CGIPath}/ubb_lib.cgi") { becomes if (&DirExists("$vars_config{MembersPath}/") && &FileExists("$vars_config{CGIPath}/ubb_lib.cgi")) {

What else.... I forgot

LD... so far everything is going fine. I've had to break more than I'd like to (that thing called life intrudes) so I only have three hacks installed so far. I hope to knock out a few more tonight.