Magento Upgrade

Question

I'm looking to upgrade a themed/custom Magento from 1.3.x to Magento 1.9 Enterprise. So far, after multiple attempts at upgrading, I have failed. After the first upgrade, I uploaded the new Magento in a clean environment, copied the database to a dev database. Using this, the upgrade occurred with two errors: It appears Magento upgrades only support 1.4+ currently, and previous mysql upgrade scripts were not included. After the "install" of the upgrade, I couldn't access wither the admin, or the frontend, and there was no errors to tell me what gives.

Scrapping that idea, I tried a clean install: It worked fine. Then I tried importing all the products from a CSV export. Worked OK, but custom attributes such as images, sizes, etc. didn't transfer over. I have over 900 product, and entering everything manual would be a pain, and unfeasible. Scrapping that idea.

Now I'm at various upgrade configurations, upgrading from Magento 1.3. I'm going to try and upgrade 1.3 to 1.4, and then 1.4 to Enterprise, but has anyone performed such an upgrade successfully before and might be able to provide hints? Thanks, Bryon

Answer 1

Magento Enterprise Edition Upgrade Procedure for 1.9 to 1.9.1 Generally all Magento upgrades work by running the updated code with the old database. The differences will be detected and incorporated automatically on the next page request. Magento keeps track of every module's version number for this reason. This is not advised with this upgrade if you have custom code.

Disclaimer – if you have a lot of customization, the upgrade will break the system; it is best to do this on a new (temporary) site, compare, bug fix, then test, then cross browser test. Your general approach:

1. Close production server Backup all DBs and Magento installation Turn off all your custom extensions and themes

2. Delete from HDD: core Magento modules, their layouts, all standard themes and cache.

3. Get 1.9.1 EE, copy it into a fresh DB installation, then place custom code over the top.
4. File compare between OTB 1.9.0 and 1.9.1. Pay special attention to a list of core controllers which have been overridden and compare the difference between these controller in version 1.9.0. and 1.9.1.
5. Here is a list of known problematical issues which will cause rework in our custom code:

1) Google Analytics (does not work in 1.9.0 and to fix it, many changes are required to our custom code)
2) Flat Category
3) Searching by Attribute – (xml fix)
4) iFrame problem in CMS pages
5) Missing admin custom tabs (compare before and after)
6) Home page enterprise_home has to be renamed! (this is an example of a hidden pitfall undocumented and represents a warning to you to factor in time for such problems)

7) Check Mage/Community for new modules which

override modules which we need.

8) Anything which extends the customer entity should be rigorously tested.

9) JavaScript – be careful - the actual js templates may be the same, but the blocks and modules which call them may have subtle changes!

10) Custom Product Imports – do a test product import on 1.9.1 using dataflow method and see

what db fields are needed then add them into the procededural code for your custom code.

1. Check release notes documentation and update for your theme, whether it supports EE 1.9. Turn it on if it supports, otherwise you'll need another theme.

2. Check release notes documentation and updates for all your custom extensions - whether they support 1.9.1 Turn them on - one by one.

3. You will have problems upgrading all core DB data if it's made automatically, check which fields are missing/changed and add them.

4. Cross Browser testing - problems with your custom theme, and you'll need to check your custom extensions and upgrade their template files, skin css and DB data to fit 1.9.1.

5. Testing is the biggest task, walk through the application, notice errors and warnings, fix them.

Answer 2

You should go the route 1.3 to 1.4 , 1.4 to enterprise and switch to default skin while doing so. Skin/templates needs special attention later as the dom is quite different. Merging 1.3 templates to enterprise dom will take ~ 2-4 days experienced slicer who knows how to use diff tools

my usual workflow for this is:

1. add all three magento versions to git and tag by version , use your own magento installation as base and ignore your template folders and local/community extensions that are not installed by default
2. on your web directory , checkout your base version
3. git pull 1.4 to your installation and visit the website to get the upgrades
4. git pull enterprise to your installation and visit the website to get the upgrades

doing it in such order you also get rid of removed files that magento has removed from each version and you also get all changes and new files.

Answer 3

Byron, I feel your pain. I struggled with an upgrade from 1.3 to 1.4 a month ago.

Try the technique mentioned here: http://www.webshopapps.com/blog/2010/02/upgrading-magento-to-version-1-4-keeping-it-simple/ In the end it worked for me.

The thing that is sort of counter intuitive is the deletion of the database. I kept trying to skip that step, and that's what stymied me for a while. You have to delete the database and reload the data (it does something to the key constraints). In the end I was able to upgrade to 1.4 without manually moving anything.