Forgive me...I'm an EM noob! I have searched all the FAQs and Readmes and cannot find the answer to this question:
I know that it is possible to use EM to actually do the PHPBB upgrade...but I am interested in understanding a bit more of what goes on under the covers and making absolutely certain of "clean" upgrades.
If you don't want to let EM do the upgrade, what is the recommended way to get the upgrade accomplished given that EasyMod is "in the way" so to speak?
It would appear that the "safe" thing would be to:
1) Roll back any MODs that EM did
2) Uninstall EM
3) At this point (in theory) you *should* have a "clean" version of phpBB
4) Perform an upgrade with the "changed files" method
5) Reinstall EM
6) reinstall your MODs
Am I paranoid? Is this really not necessary? What does everybody else do?
Recommended procedures for PHPBB upgrade with EM in place
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Nightrider
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Re: Recommended procedures for PHPBB upgrade with EM in place
No, you can toss what you think you have to do. None of that is necessary. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by EM being in the way. EM is nearly standalone, so it isn't in the way of anything...
You can update without removing or losing any of your MODs. You might want to wait a while to install the Update though. The phpBB Developers have made a lot of mistakes in all but one phpBB Update since 2.0.18, so it is possible that the 2.0.21 release will have to be pulled and corrected at least once before they get it right. Being the first on your block to update could end up costing you a lot of time and energy to correct any mistakes introduced by the update...
You can download the 2.0.22 Update from the following once it is released. It hasn't been released yet though:
phpBB Installation & Upgrade Tools
I would wait several weeks before downloading this once it is released though. Just let the others debug the MOD for several weeks before you attempt the upgrade...
Once you are sure that all the phpBB 2.0.22 Update bugs have been ironed out, you can install it using EM or if you want to do it the hard way for whatever reason, you can install it manually without removing any MODs or EM. I can't imagine why you would want to do it the hard way though...
You can update without removing or losing any of your MODs. You might want to wait a while to install the Update though. The phpBB Developers have made a lot of mistakes in all but one phpBB Update since 2.0.18, so it is possible that the 2.0.21 release will have to be pulled and corrected at least once before they get it right. Being the first on your block to update could end up costing you a lot of time and energy to correct any mistakes introduced by the update...
You can download the 2.0.22 Update from the following once it is released. It hasn't been released yet though:
phpBB Installation & Upgrade Tools
I would wait several weeks before downloading this once it is released though. Just let the others debug the MOD for several weeks before you attempt the upgrade...
Once you are sure that all the phpBB 2.0.22 Update bugs have been ironed out, you can install it using EM or if you want to do it the hard way for whatever reason, you can install it manually without removing any MODs or EM. I can't imagine why you would want to do it the hard way though...
Re: Recommended procedures for PHPBB upgrade with EM in place
My concern is the following:
EasyMod installs itself into the ACP. At some point in time, it is conceivable (I *think*, anyway) that an upgrade to PHPBB might come along and "step on" the file(s) that "allows" EM to appear in the ACP. I understand that EM is "standalone"... and that's great, but there's always that linkage that may or may not be vulnerable in a future upgrade.
That's where I was coming from... an *absolute* "safe" method or process by which you should have a high degree of faith that you have started from a good, clean known point (an officially released set of files either by a fresh install or the "changed files" method) and then your applied MODs on top of that.
It just seems that you have a degree of risk (yes...I know there's risk with any upgrade...) when you do an inplace upgrade on top of a system that has MODs in place. Using the process I outlined above alleviates that concern. When you reapply your MODs and if one "chokes" you *should* know right away that there was some kind of incompatibility due to the fact that it did not install cleanly when it used to be just fine.
Opinions from the masses? It seems that there is a big hole in the FAQ or "manual" that should be addressed in regards to a "Best Practices" process for something like this.
EasyMod installs itself into the ACP. At some point in time, it is conceivable (I *think*, anyway) that an upgrade to PHPBB might come along and "step on" the file(s) that "allows" EM to appear in the ACP. I understand that EM is "standalone"... and that's great, but there's always that linkage that may or may not be vulnerable in a future upgrade.
That's where I was coming from... an *absolute* "safe" method or process by which you should have a high degree of faith that you have started from a good, clean known point (an officially released set of files either by a fresh install or the "changed files" method) and then your applied MODs on top of that.
It just seems that you have a degree of risk (yes...I know there's risk with any upgrade...) when you do an inplace upgrade on top of a system that has MODs in place. Using the process I outlined above alleviates that concern. When you reapply your MODs and if one "chokes" you *should* know right away that there was some kind of incompatibility due to the fact that it did not install cleanly when it used to be just fine.
Opinions from the masses? It seems that there is a big hole in the FAQ or "manual" that should be addressed in regards to a "Best Practices" process for something like this.
Last edited by RCurtis on Wed Dec 27, 2006 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Nightrider
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Re: Recommended procedures for PHPBB upgrade with EM in place
RCurtis wrote: At some point in time, it is conceivable (I *think*, anyway) that an upgrade to PHPBB might come along and "step on" the file(s) that "alows" EM to appear in the ACP. I understand that EM is "standalone"... and that's great, but there's always that linkage that may or may not be vulnerable in a future upgrade.
The only way a MOD or Update can "Step on" EM is if an included file named admin_easymod.php is uploaded to the admin folder, overwriting the current EM file. I don't imagine that any MOD author or phpBB Developer is ever going to create a file that steps on the EM named files. Like you specified, EM is nearly a standalone application that has very little risk of being broken by any MOD or phpBB Update...