Thread: How To Upgrade CP 1.X, 2.X to 3.3.1 STABLE

How To Upgrade CP 1.X, 2.X to 3.3.1 STABLE

Skill Set Required: Proficient in C-Panel, MyPHP Admin Panel, PHP File Edits, FTP. Estimated Time: If you're very nervous and careful like a turtle, 3 hours.

Steps:

1.) De-activate all plugins.
2.) Change Theme to default WP Theme.
3.) Upgrade to WP 3.6.1 (use latest version).
4.) Use MyPHPAdmin and "drop" (delete in sql terminology) all tables starting with wp_cp.
5.) Upload in themes directory via File Manager in C-Panel, new CP 3.3.1 STABLE zip file and extract.
6.) Delete all old CP plugins in plugins directory via File Manager in C-Panel.
7.) Upload all new versions of CP Plugins via File Manager in C-Panel, to the plugins directory and extract.**
8.) Go to Appearance, Themes in WP backend. Activate CP 3.3.1 STABLE Theme.
9.) Activate each CP Plugin one at a time. (WP will do this anyways, but depending on your server resources, if too small, can cause issues. Be safe, one at a time.)

Congratulations! Give yourself a pat on the back (applause). You now have a new shiny CP build. You will need to insert all your previous settings and save one panel at a time. This is your only drawback. It is required, because the table structures have changed and you cannot use your old tables. But you can use the data! See Tips Below.

** Please review the unzipped plugins locally. to be certain all the respective plugins are following WP Industry Coding Standards. Plugin files when unzipped should all be in their own main folder for each plugin. At the time of this writing, I have found one plugin which did not do this.

How to Correct Plugins:

1.) Make a folder with the name of the plugin. It must not have any spaces in the name. i.e. my-plugin-named-folder will work ( see dashes, no spaces).
2.) Copy all the files and folders from the plugin you unzipped locally. And place them in your new folder you just created.
3.) Zip the folder with a short name of the same as your named your folder.
4.) Repeat 7 above with your "fixed" plugin.

Tips:

Use any screen shot app you want.I use Jing. It's free, easy to learn in five minutes, and I can use it for alot of other things, like submitting support tickets to explain my issues and be better understood.

Take a snap shot or record a video (you can record up to 5 minutes at a time). Record or snap shot each settings panel of your old CP build and plugins. Then save locally. Review your video and make certain you can see everything you need to use for resetting your theme and plugin settings. Then when you go to set up your new CP Theme Build, you can just play and pause. And enter all yoru old settings without taking anymore time. This will save you tears and hours of additional documenting.

Why does this method work? Because data in a DB is "dead." It can't hurt you. On the other hand, scripts like php, js, ajax can ruin your life! They are alive when activated. And the functions within are called into action. As long as the old tables and old files from themes and plugins have been removed, your new WP install, theme and plugin activations will work just as if you have started a new fresh install from scratch. Any residue data in the DB not used by the newer versions of Themes and plugins will remain dead and buried. Don't worry, it doesn't even add up to more than few megabytes in most cases.

But this way, you have saved all your other plugin settings, still present in the database. You will see, when resetting your new plugins, almost all your previous settings will work the same way. This will save you days of work. Plus, if you have other plugins which are not CP plugins, these will also work and will not require any work at all.

Conclusion: I have restored approximately eighty-nine websites over the last fourteen months respective of CP builds. With nearly 1,900 hours of development work, I just did the above again. Not because I'm bored and there's nothing on TV. There's always something on TV with a pseudo PVR, lol. But because I am integrating modules, which are part of my product build and are outside the scope of CP. It is far more challenging work to integrate so many different developer "camps" onto one domain. Which leads me to throw away previous builds as many as four or five in a week. Hopefully, just a few more throw aways until the production product is fully tested.

So if you are nervous, back up and begin. The way to swim, is to put your hands near the keyboard, press the keys, move the mouse and follow the above steps. Here is a closing image of what you can expect to see: 2013-09-12_2051.jpg