My website ViperAlley is an extensively modified version of 6.2.3. In each Threads release since, I simply took the parts of the new verison I liked and merged it into my site.

With 6.4 coming out and including built in Calender features, improved polls and some other nice-to-haves, I'm thinking of starting over with a 6.4 release (or just hacking in the mods I like, such as the "viewing" mod I added already). However, I'm not exactly sure how I should go about this.

Since I would want to test and migrate over when I had the basics done; what would be the best approach for doing this without risking much downtime?

First Question is are you KEEPING all your old posts are starting from Scratch? I have found a few things like Photopost has no issues with the upgrade but theres a few tables in threads that aren't in 6.4 until you add them like Pano.. and also a session? in the w3t_users table.. most has no issues and I had no issue upgrading but all my old polls don't work anymore so I had to rebuild them.. good thing my users rarely use polls.. well until 6.4 comes out and I start seeing Questionaers like Who is the Dopiest Website Owner

Well, I mean start rehacking from scratch... So, using the same database (upgraded), but with the 6.4 code as my base. Ideally, I'd want to hack the board up with all my mods first and then take it live.

IMO, you should duplicate your database and make another install. Upgrade the new install, hack it, then when you have all of the files hacked, upgrade your actual board, running altertables etc. Once the database is completely updated, edit your config file to point to the correct place and upload your hacked files. Then you can kill your dev board or leave it up for testing hacks and whatnot.

I've got my dev site in a password protected area so I don't have to worry about anyone messing with it. And as I understand the licsencse you are allowed to have a dev board.

I use to beyond compare my versions and I run a pretty hacked board. With 6.3 I put up a test site and hacked what I wanted in there and copied the files over when I was ready and everything was working right and ran the altertable script.

I will most likely do the same since 6.4 is going to be adding alot of things I will put up a test board ( already done ) and simply copy the final over and hack for a day or so. Double check to make sure its working and then copy files over to my production site.

well this is what I did this weekend.. I built a Linux Box at home and copied the threads board from the host to me then took it and used the 6.3-6.4 altertable on it after upgrading the files to 6.4b1.. this caused a few issues that I discovered like the pano tables and that session entry in the users table for pal ii, after i modded in iip and the panel generator it was working 100 percent and then I tried some mods.. only thing I need to look at is the polls because iip for 6.3.2 had em on entrance but polls in 6.4 are different and thus no poll on the entrance and all the polls in the threads didn't work anymore but new polls do..


I didn't need the birthday mod since 6.4 now has the calendar..

I did put in the spider hack and Quote Username 1.0, Game Arcade 1.1, Graemlin Panel, Online User Info for 6.4 so we can see my GoogleBots, Shortened URLs, took out the post counts from viewage.. And updated my stylesheets to 6.4...

But like I said after updating the 6.3.2 database to 6.4 I had to either drop the pano tabes but I chose to install panel generator and IIP instead..

Thats probably what I will do for 6.4 when I get the next beta or the release for my host.. I will backup the database and all files like stylesheets and images then just delete threads install threads 6.4x and then use the 6.3-6.4 altertable, then install the Panel Generator and IIP...

Heya Omegotron when you guys refer to Beyond Compare.. isn't Beyond Compare that Windows Software that compares files? or is there a Linux er Unix alternative?

www.scootersoftware.com

Scrounge I have yet to find something similar to Beyond Compare although I do prefer to boot up in my linux install.

Yeah I love linux wish there was a Linux version

I alway re-hack with each major version. It's easy enough to compare when there are minor changes..... but the major version sometimes affect most scripts and alter the functions around a bit...... and I find far less buggy behavor by starting from fresh every once in a while. Plus some of the hacks often need to be updated for the new version anyway.

I've never used Beyond Compare, but my Emacs does a helluva job to combine files. It's very intelligent in finding out what should be in the new version and quite easy to use as well. Usually it's only a matter of pressing one of three keys for every change, or if you're brave, only the ones where there's conflict.