Migrating to Joomla 1.5

Hopefully you noticed ... we finally migrated this site to Joomla 1.5.

It took two months of planning and then two weeks of solid work to do the migration. Why so long? The Joomla core team have done their job but third-party developers are terrible at explaining how to move their extensions from Joomla 1.0 to 1.5. Even those that bothered to write instructions still hide them as if it was their dirty socks.

So, in the hope it will save someone else sometime, here are the migration instructions you'll have a hard time finding elsewhere:

Joomla Core

We tried Mtwmigrator and it worked well for Weblinks, Newsfeeds and other core components but it made a mess of any articles that contained {mosimage}. The Joomla core migrator was much more successful.

JomComment

Solution found by digging through some old forum posts.

• Step 1: Export the Jomcomment database tables from 1.0
• Step 2: Install Jomcomment on the 1.5 site:
• Step 3: Delete the Jomcomment database tables on 1.5 and import the old tables from 1.0
• Step 4: Run the database query listed here.

Fireboard

Mtwmigrator worked great.

Community Builder

Tried Mtwmigrator but that didn't work at all well. Found the solution by trial and error.

• Step 1: Export the Community Builder database tables from 1.0
• Step 2: Download administrator / components / com_profiler / ue_config.php
• Step 3: Install CB on the 1.5 site:
• Step 4: Delete the CBt database tables on 1.5 and import the old tables from 1.0
• Step 5: Upload the old ue_config.php to administrator / components / com_profiler / ue_config.php

Elearningforce Comparison Chart

Solution found by contacting support.

• Step 1: Export the Comparison Chart database tables from 1.0
• Step 2: Install Comparison Chart on the 1.5 site:
• Step 3: Delete the Comparison Chart database tables on 1.5 and import the old tables from 1.0

iJoomla Digistore

No obvious migration route. Either you'll need to write your own script or hire the iJoomla devs.

Account Expiration Control

No obvious migration route. Either you'll need to write your own script or hire the AEC devs.

Moving Fireboard to phpBB3 and JFusion

• Step 1: Set up an empty Simple Machines Forum installation
• Step 2: Use this convertor to move Fireboard to SMF
• Step 3: Set up an empty phpBB3 installation
• Step 4: Use this convertor to move SMF to phpBB3

My thoughts on JFusion ... it works well but there are a lot of hacks and plugins needed to get the forum up to scratch and integrated inside your Joomla site (frameless mode). Hat tip to Vic from JCalPro for helping with a lot of these.

• Ensure dual login to phpBB3 and Joomla: Use this plugin
• Ensure the phpBB3 template doesn't break the Joomla template: Use this version of the Prosilver template
• Make sure emails aren't sent out with broken links: Go to your phpBB3 folder / language / en_US / email / and edit the email templates

There are quite a lot more hacks you may need to make depending on your situation, but I will say this ... the JFusion forums are remarkably helpful and there's nearly always an answer in there.

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Your Comments (10)

David Towers

March 10, 2009

Congratulations on the big move Steve! Some achievement considering all the content, comments and forum posts you had to move!

kesepian.ro

March 12, 2009

Finally an article about migrating as I wanted!

Ben F

March 17, 2009

Thank goodness for this post. I wonder why the 'dirty socks' approach is so prevalent? Anway - thanks for saving my sanity.

Steve Burge

March 17, 2009

Hi Ben

I suspect developers think it will be too much effort to support people who migrate.

There's quite a lot of work involved in any migration ... perhaps by providing migration instructions, they think they'll open a can of worms.

Mikes999

March 24, 2009

When u say delete . Do you mean to delete whats in the jos_communitybuilder fields. Or delete the hole community fields totaly in 1.5 in the data base?

And how about the profilpictures. Are the working this way too?

Steve Burge

March 24, 2009

Delete all the jos_ fields that relate to community builder.

Yes - good spot, I missed that. You'll need to move over your avatars folder

ruigato

March 31, 2009

Thanks for the article Steve.

I didnt understand one thing:
You said that mtwmigrator didint handle mosimage well, but you used it to fireboard. Did you run both core migrator and mtw? Can you explain please?

My site comes from a mambo migration, i have Mtree, CB, Azrul Joomcomment, Sef_advance and fireboard (migrated from SMF). And the cerry in the top of the cake is my portuguese latin characters like ??? that allways mess things in migration.

Core and component (specialy paid) developers shoul put more effort on migration scipts, there are hundreds of people in the same situation..

Thanks in advance

Chad Windnagle

April 12, 2009

Ruigato; both mtwMigrator and the core migrator have configuration options. MTW does it in a configuration tab where you can select what you'd like to bring in from the other site. (incidentally, I migrated a rather large 1.0 site and had only problems with the core migrator. mtw was a breeze, +5 to those guys). the core migrator has the ability to check off which items you'd like to move. They call them "ETL plugins". So yes, you can select different things from each component to use in the migration.

Dan Knauss

May 22, 2009

Glad I found this! Thanks for posting it. Could you turn on the article dates though? I'm guessing from the comments this is fairly recent, but as the information ages it will become helpful to know when this was posted.

bardoux2

August 26, 2009

Step 4: Run the database query listed here.

not available anymore ? azrul forum seems down ?

thanks a lot

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