Greetings!
A couple years ago I designed a custom template and started this site, which was put on hold: www.newmexicoliteracy.org/

The client now wants to finish the site. I'm going to pitch updating to Joomla 2.5. I had a nightmarish experience using Jupgrade to update my own site, so I'm gun shy. Most of the problems were probably my own fault in terms of preparation, so I'm not blaming Jupgrade, but I think I'll use SP Upgrade.

I'm planning to follow your instructions first for the SP Upgrade and then I'll migrate the template using your tutorial: www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/update-a-joomla-15-template/

Sound good? I am fully backed up and I have my list of extensions, which are all available for 2.5.

I welcome any notes of caution!

YIKES.
-Hope

ADDENDUM TO MY QUESTION:
I just checked and there are 85 articles in the site.
I'm almost wondering if it would be easier to
1) Create a new, clean Joomla 2.5 installation
2) Install all the extensions
3) copy and paste the articles into the site and,
4) migrate the template.
Any thoughts?

Hi Hope,

Your original plan, i.e. using SP Upgrade, is a good one. It should be a breeze :)

Kind regards,
Nick

Hi Nick,
A breeze? Oh, that would be wonderful. I trust you've used SP Ugrade yourself, Nick, more than once?

thanks,
Hope

Hi Hope,

Surprisingly, I haven't. However, I have shown and helped a lot of people to use it and it's been a breeze for them :)

Give it a try. It shouldn't take long to test it out.

Kind regards,
Nick

Will do. I'll let you know what happens. Thanks, Nick!

You're welcome, Hope! Great, sounds good! :)

Kind regards,
Nick

Hi Nick,
I see from the tutorial www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/sp-upgrad...-15-to-17-migration/ that if the database is listed in Global Config as MySQL as opposed to MySQLi, we need to contact the SP Upgrade Team for instructions on how to remove the MySQLi prerequisite.

The database is MySQL, so I contacted them and I'm waiting to hear back. I googled and didn't find anything helpful.

Do you know if this complicates things much? I have held off buying the plugin.

thanks,
Hope

Hi Hope,

SP upgrade has reported that they fixed that and that it is no longer an issue. You should be able to ignore it and complete the upgrade.

Cheers,
Ed

Thanks, Ed!
I did hear back from them and they saidYou might want to modify your SP Upgrade tutorial to reflect the above.
I was able to figure out that the MySQL is version 5.1 and the PHP is 5.2, so I should be fine just choosing MySQLi.
Onward!
-Hope

Thanks for the update!

Keep at it!

Cheers,
Ed

Hi again,

I am following the steps in your tutorial, attempting to install the SP Upgrade component on my Joomla 1.5.26 site and I get this error:
I googled the error and found this answer on a SP youtube page:
You must install the component on a new created J16 without the sample data using mysqli.

I'm confused. I emailed SP. I am keeping you in the loop, and not expecting answers from you since I'm writing the developer.
thanks,
-Hope

That's usually a message you get when you are trying to install on the wrong version.

Are you trying to put SP upgrade on the old site or the new one? You should be trying to install it on the new one. You should install a clean 2.5 in it's own directory.

Ed

Oh wow. Yes, I was trying to install SP Upgrade on the old site.

I totally missed that step in the tutorial - to install J2.5 in its own directory.

In fact, I don't see it there now but I might be totally blind. Thank you Ed! I'll try that now.

OKAY, it worked. I like SP Upgrade!

Once the upgrade was done, I had to:

1) convert my homemade template to 2.5. I tried the OSTraining tutorial, but it was more appropriate for more complicated templates. This one is totally pared down. So I followed the advice in a Lynda.com tutorial and it worked like a charm.
2) find a new drop-down menu. After one time-consuming false start, I found swMenuFree, which is great.
3) buy an upgrade to the calendar component, Art Calendar.

Now I need to install the remaining extensions which I have already and finish the current state of the site as prep to finish building the site.

My new site is in a subfolder on the server. I will contact Bluehost to confirm the steps I need to take to replace the old site with the new one. IF you have any tips on that, I'm listening.

Thanks again for everything you do.
-Hope

Congrats, Hope! We're happy for you! :)

Overall, it was fairly easy, wasn't it?

Kind regards,
Nick

It was much easier than I thought it would be, yes, thanks to you and Ed!

You're welcome, Hope! We're glad we could be of help! :)

Kind regards,
Nick

Greetings! I'm back on this site. I think it's appropriate to ask this question here.

The site has a left menu with NM LITERACY SERVICES as a category list link:
www.newmexicoliteracy.org/spugrade/

When you click on NM LITERACY SERVICES it displays properly. But when you click on COMMUNITY DIRECTORY it changes to a blog layout.

If you follow the same steps on the original site www.newmexicoliteracy.org, the Community Directory displays properly.

When I look at the MENU ITEM, it is set as Category List.
Any thoughts?

thanks,
Hope

Hi Hope,

Would you post this new issue in a new forum topic please? Thanks in advance! That will allow us to keep things more organized and reply quicker.

Kind regards,
Nick

Will do.

Thanks Hope! :)

Kind regards,
Nick