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By Sam308 on
A simple and Fast way to both Install and Upgrade Drupal
This is the method I use for installing and upgrading Drupal.
I have used this method to install and upgrade over 20 Drupal websites.
(1) For a Quick and simple installation of Drupal, use the Fantastico Drupal Installation utility provided by your web hosting company.
(2) After installing Drupal via Fantastico, using an FTP program, create a subdirectory folder called rootfiles within the Drupal root directory.
(3) Move the following Fantastico and Drupal files from the Drupal root directory into the rootfiles.
CHANGELOG.txt
COPYRIGHT.txt
fantversion.php
INSTALL.mysql.txt
INSTALL.pgsql.txt
install.php
INSTALL.txt
LICENSE.txt
MAINTAINERS.txt
UPGRADE.txt
The Drupal root directory should now only contain the following files plus of course the Drupal installation folders:
.htaccess
cron.php
favicon.ico
index.php
robots.txt
update.php
xmlrpc.php
(4) As a Backup, download your entire website to your local computer via FTP. This would include all the files and folders within the root directory.
(5) Download a copy of your Database to your local computer. You can use the Free MySQL Database Backup Utility I wrote. It is available here: MySQL Database Backup Utility.
Upgrading
(6) To upgrade the Drupal installation, first login to your website as the administrator and navigate to the Modules page (Home » Administer » Site building). Now leave the web browser off to the side until step (9).
(7) Download the correct sequential Drupal upgrade zip file from this page: Drupal 6.x Upgrade - Files Only and unzip it on your local computer. If unzipped properly, you will have a new file folder, named for example Drupal 6.15 to 6.16 Upgrade on your local computer.
(8) Using your FTP program, upload the entire contents within for example the Drupal 6.15 to 6.16 Upgrade folder to your Drupal site thus overwriting all the old Drupal files.
(9) Switch back to your web browser and click on the update.php hyperlink located on the Modules page (Home » Administer » Site building) to upgrade the database.
(10) Run the cron function (run cron manually) hyperlink located on the Status report page (Home » Administer » Reports). Your site should now indicate that is up to date with the latest release.
(11) After you verified your site has been upgraded, move the Drupal update.php file and all other Drupal the text files to the rootfiles subdirectory. Do not move the robots.txt file.
(12) On your local computer, copy the all Drupal update files that you uploaded to your site, for example, the files within the Drupal 6.15 to 6.16 Upgrade folder, to your site's backup folder on your local computer. Your site backup was created in step (4) above.
(13) Download a copy of your updated Database to your local computer.
That's it, Your Done.
Note:
If your website happens to be behind 3 updates, for example your site is 6.13 and the latest version is 6.16, then you will need to do each incremental version update, for example, Drupal 6.13 to 6.14 Upgrade, then Drupal 6.14 to 6.15 Upgrade, then Drupal 6.15 to 6.16 Upgrade. Do not upgrade your site using Fantastico.
Sam Raheb (Sam308)
Comments
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"Fantastico" has, to put it mildly, a mixed record. (I wish I had a nickel for every "Fantastico" mess I had to clean up for clients.) You appear to have been quite lucky... so far, anyway. ;-)
Fantastico is fine for setting up a new site, not for Upgrading
Fantastico works well for installing a fresh new Drupal website. It's fast and easy.
I never had a problem with Fantastico installing new Drupal websites, I used it for about 30 new Drupal installations.
However, I Only use it for setting up initial Drupal installations and not for Upgrading Drupal sites.
Do not use Fantastico for upgrading a Drupal site. It will screw up your website during an Upgrade.
See the following comment about Fantastico Upgrades here: Don't Upgrade using Fantastico.
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For the record, and because there will be potentially many first time drupal users relying on the information in this thread, it must be made crystal clear that "Fantastico" can/can work well for installing a new Drupal site.
It does not, however, ineluctably follow that it will work well for same.
I am one of scores of drupal users who have had direct and indirect experience with the disastrous consequences of a "Fantastico" installation of drupal.
Your experience clearly has been different.
(Its a bit painstaking to install drupal manually, but that is half the fun, in my opinion.)
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I can second your comments and it only takes one site loss or corruption to swear off fantastico forever. Unfortunately, even though installing / upgrading drupal with cvs can take all of 60 seconds, avoiding fantastico seems to be a lesson that must be learned by personal experience.
Another relevant piece of info-- most people in the forums, me included, will either cease helping or require that drupal be reinstalled properly if they find out a post involved a fantastico install (even if the issue seemingly doesn't appear to be fantastico related.
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no to Fantastico
no to no backup of your database before an update nor putting your site in off-line mode and deactivating modules and switching to Garland.
Sure, you can do it your way, and it probably works 90% of the time, but ***, I wouldn't want to clean up the mess if it doesn't.
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Seriously-- fantastico is a disaster waiting to happen. Any one using a fantastico install on a live site is crazy, lol. The fastest and easiest way to install/upgrade drupal and contribs is with drush or cvs.
Modules
Did at you any point in time use contrib modules and deselect them BEFORE running upgrade.php?
Ade Atobatele
RE: Modules
Yes, I had many third party contrib modules installed and my upgrade method did not affect them. I did not need to deactivate (deselect) them, I just left them alone.
Everything went ok.
Upgrading from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6
We're considering an upgrade from Drupal 5 (I think 5.7?) to Drupal 6. From everything I've read it looks like a bit of a complicated process, so thanks for some great tips above.
How long should the upgrade take, in terms of actual developer time?
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you're very mistaken if you believe much in this thread is relevant to you.
An update from 5 to 6 is no easy task, so please refer to the official Drupal documentation on this, most of which can be found here: http://drupal.org/node/635460 - particularly http://drupal.org/node/340073
How long it takes depends on the modules you're using in addition to the core Drupal modules. Also, one of the first steps is to get Drupal 5 and all non-core, i.e. contributed, modules to the most recent version (and you're far behind in that case) also adds to the development time.