Upgrage
Upgrade Guide
Upgrading both the template and the T3 Framework Plug-in was made easy by introducing the JA Extensions Manager for Joomla! 1.7. However, I will document the process of upgrading a T3 Framework Template with AND without the JA Extensions Manager.
The Classic Way
This stands as a comprehensive and complete guide on how to deal with
upgrade on any Joomla! 1.7 website, without JA Extensions Manager on a production live site or any other testing or development environment.
- Back-up a copy of your template (especially if you have made customizations).
- Go to Global Configuration and enable the Offline Mode (recommended if you have a production live site, you might not want your users to see layout breaks or critical errors while files are being replaced/copied or edited).
- Unset the template as default (Extensions menu - Template Manager - select another template and click Default).
- Uninstall the old version of the template ( For Joomla! 1.7 -> Extensions - Extensions Manager - Manage tab - select template and click Uninstall).
- Uninstall the T3 Framework Plug-in (if out of date).
- Install the new version of the template.
- Install the new version of the T3 Framework Plug-in (if new version have been released).
- Set the template as default again.
- Re-apply your customizations. You can use a WinMerge or BeyondCompare software to compare code
- Disable Offline Mode in the Global Configuration.
The Quick & Better Way
This method involves using the JA Extensions Manager and saves precious time if you don't want to manually uninstall and re-install the template and the core framework plug-in. Click here to download this extension and you can check the documentation here. The JA Extensions Manager is helpful as it can automatically back-up your extension while installing a new version, comes with a built in code compare feature to help you track code changes and you can also rollback to your previous setup (including all your customizations) with just a few clicks. OK, if you have downloaded & installed JA Extensions Manager, here are the steps to follow:
- Upgrading T3 Framework Plug-in
- In the back-end, go to Components menu and click JA Extensions Manager.
- Click the Plug-ins menu item in the left side menu to show the plug-ins installed in your website.
- Search for "T3 Framework" and when found, check the Service to be JoomlArt Updates in the right side column.
- Now click Check update link and wait a few seconds.
- If new version was found, click Upgrade now! link.
- No need to check for code changes, unless the changes affects your customizations. (You can still track code changes after upgrade)
- Upgrading The Template
- In the back-end, go to Components menu and click JA Extensions Manager.
- Click the Templates menu item in the left side menu to show the templates installed in your website.
- Search for "Template-name" and when found, check the Service to be Local Service for the template.
- Now click Check update link and wait a few seconds, the extensions manager will tell you there is no new version in the local repository.
- Click Upload now and browse for the latest version of the template.
- Now click Check update link again and then click Upgrade now link. Don't worry, your previous setup will be completely saved into JA Extensions Manager repository. For production websites, I recommend enabling the Offline Mode in the Global Configuration (see The Classic Way again) before this step.
- After the upgrade is finished, click Rollback so you can check the files with conflict (changed by both developer and user). A list of files will be displayed and you can click them to check code changes between the latest version and your previous setup including your customizations. This way you can reapply your customizations into the latest version.
- Click here to watch a video tutorial for this upgrade method.
