Upgrading a highly customized amember site

Discussion in 'Installation' started by jbround39, May 12, 2010.

  1. jbround39

    jbround39 aMember Pro Customer

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    I currently have amember 3.0.9 because I have many, many customizations to the site (some in the php files and I don't really use any of the templates).

    I have resisted upgrading because I am afraid of breaking my site, but so many 3rd party plugins do not work with my version that I am thinking I may need to just bite the bullet and upgrade.

    Has anyone done an upgrade of a highly customized amember site, and how difficult was it to get the site working correctly?
  2. miso

    miso aMember Pro Customer

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    Do it all the time...

    And nothing is difficult... it's just tedious. And it can take hours of sifting through the code, reapplying customizations to new templates, etc, etc. Depending on how heavily customized your current templates are it could take quite a while, as lot has changed since 3.0.9 ;)
  3. jbround39

    jbround39 aMember Pro Customer

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    Great to hear. I don't mind taking time.
  4. skippybosco

    skippybosco CGI-Central Partner Staff Member

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    @jbround39: You may also want to use this as an opportunity to see if your modifications can be a) abandoned b) integrated via template instead of .php c) integrated as plugin instead of modifying core code d) integrated as a feature in the upcoming v4 release.
  5. jbround39

    jbround39 aMember Pro Customer

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    Thanks Skippy, I'll definitely do that.

    One question:

    You mentioned about having them integrated as a plugin. Some of my customizations did relate to plugins. Do the core updates not affect payment plugins (like paypal?) If that's the case, then I'm not really as concerned, because I've kept a good list of changes I made to the core php files. It's the plugins I'm in the dark on because amember support made most of those changes, and they are the ones that could be very difficult for me to test/remember what they are.
  6. skippybosco

    skippybosco CGI-Central Partner Staff Member

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    There have certainly been changes to the PayPal plugin, but if what you have is working today I do not believe it is necessary to upgrade the plugin (be sure to test!)
  7. alexander

    alexander Administrator Staff Member

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    You can check what files will be changed on upgrade. Just download upgrade package for your version if have only modified files. Usually plugins are changed as well (bug fixes). For example paypal plugin was changed in latest upgrade.
  8. skippybosco

    skippybosco CGI-Central Partner Staff Member

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    I think the question was whether it was REQUIRED to update the payment plugin (if he has a highly customized one) which for PayPal at least, I do not believe is the case if it is currently working ok for him.
  9. alexander

    alexander Administrator Staff Member

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  10. jbround39

    jbround39 aMember Pro Customer

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    Just in case anyone ever has this question again, I purchased the upgrade, installed it on my site, and everything is working great. So I would recommend upgrading even if your site is highly customized.

    I did not update the template files I had customized except where changes to some code were necessary (for example, the country and states populate differently now on signup and CC pages), and I re-changed a couple of customizations to the amember files that support had helped me with.

    The support ticket log was great for tracking my prior changes that amember support had helped me with. So for anyone who has had customizations with assistance from amember, that's a great resource.

    About a total of 4 hours to upgrade 2 sites from 3.0.9 to 3.1.9, so I have to give great credit to the amember team, they make this really easy.

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