Is upgrading Joomla really this painful?

I've just gotten back into Joomla after some 6-7 years or so and have forgotten much about it. However, a new site I'm working on has to be upgraded. From the way it appears, according to the directions, they recommend that you never upgrade an existing site, but do it on a staging server first.

What???

This is totally inconceivable. So, if you have have a massive site up, you're expected to mirror it on a staging server, upgrade it (once a month or more??) and then move the entire thing over every time? Not only that, but all of the add-ons and components as well?

Can you simply go to Global Config and turn the site off, then upgrade, and turn the site back on? I'm still a little stunned at the recommendation of not upgrading a live site, unless it's due to plugins that might not work with a new version.

 

Yep, it's hell lol. Most people I know just export the database, then reinstall Joomla, then BigDump the DB back up. Much easier than messing about with two servers, but if you have a installation you have messed about with to get it just right, you have to start all over again...

 

Another weak point in Joomla. Just like adding embed code.

 

It's very easy.. Upload the upgrade zip pack in joomla root , and simply we need to extract

 

Yeap. And lose all your data by chance =)

 

ugh...wasn't aware of this Looks like this site will be a thorn in my side. It kind of makes me love Wordpress a whole lot more.

 

Migrating it not easy, especially if you have plugins with large data. Not all 1.0.x plugins will work with 1.5.x or 1.6.x . Wordpress is definitely simpler, but less powerful. It is a tradeoff.

 

If I'm not modifying any core files and I'm only running JomSocial, is there any risk on upgrading the live site at all? I'm still not understanding how there could be, unless these upgrade files aren't as stable as they're cracked up to be...

 

You can look and see if JomSocial runs natively in both versions. What you do is create a temporary folder and test it out to see if everything is okay. Here is the link if you want to have a look : LINK. I read it a bit more myself, and I think it would transfer ( migrate ) without problems.

Look at step four and see where they tell you to create a seperate folder and database.

Good luck.

 

Thank you, this is a big help.