Upgrading to Pixaria 2.0 and above

Before you upgrade

Please note that in Pixaria 2.0 there are many changes to the way the script works. In particular, search engine friendly URL support has changed and you will need a new or updated .htaccess file in order to continue to use search engine friendly URLs.

Important note about templates

Pixaria 2.0 has an entirely new look and feel which means that all of the templates in the entire script have changed since the Pixaria 1.5. When you upgrade, you need to be aware that you will have to start with the default new look and feel of the script and make customisations as necessary to get back to your preferred design.

Working with the upgrade package

When you recive Pixaria 2.0, the first step is to decompress the .zip file you were supplied with to get at all the changed PHP, template and image files. There are lots of utilities that can do this and if you're using Mac OS X, it's built right into the Finder.

Upgrading the database to version 2.0

The first step in upgrading Pixaria is to update the database that holds all of your image, gallery and sales information. This is a very important step but is easy if you have a web based database admin tool like PHPMyAdmin installed by your hosting provider.

To begin, open the folder 'resources/databases' in your unzipped archive and run the .sql update file corresponding to the version of the software you're currently using against your SQL server using either PhpMyAdmin or the command line MySQL tool. If you're a cautious type of person, you may wish to make a backup of the current database before you apply the upgrade.

If you're not sure which database file to run, the easy way to tell, is to choose the database file that has the same version in it's file name as your Pixaria installation. For example, if you're using Pixaria version 1.4.1, you would need to import the SQL commands in the database file named 'pixaria.update.1.4.1-current.sql'.

If you're using PHPMyAdmin or a similar tool to upgrade your database, be very careful to only press the button to submit the SQL update form once. If you double click this form button, you may apply the database update twice which could damage your Pixaria installation.

Backing up the current installation

Before you upload new PHP and template files, it's a good idea to up the PHP files and templates in your current installation - it's not essential but if something goes wrong, you'll be able to go back to the earlier version more easily.

Rename your configuration file

In Pixaria 2.0, the configuration file for the script has been renamed from 'psg.config.inc.php' to 'pixaria.Config.php' and you will need to rename your existing configuration file so it has the new file name before you upgrade.

Uploading new scripts

Next, using an FTP program, upload all the PHP files, images and templates in the Pixaria 2.0 package to your web server being careful NOT to overwrite the new pixaria.Config.php' file or 'library' of 'incoming' directories none of which should ever need to be modified.

Upgrading the database from 2.0 to the current version

Now that your database and PHP files, templates and images have been upgraded to the default version 2.0.0, you need to run the new upgrade PHP script to get your database version up to the current 2.x version.

To begin, locate the file 'resources/admin/admin.upgrade.php' in your upgrade package and upload this into the 'resources/admin/' directory of your website by FTP. Next, open this script on your site using your web browser. You may be asked to authenticate with your e-mail address and password and will then be shown a list of the database changes that have been applied and you can then proceed to the next step.

Completing the upgrade

Once you have upgraded the database and uploaded the new PHP scripts and templates to your server. You will need to log into the admin control panel and flush the Smarty cache (if you have template caching turned on.

You will also be prompted to run some additional database updates from the dashboard screen that you see once you've logged in. It is essential that you follow the instructions to update the database or else the new search engine will not work correctly.

Note about search engine friendly URLs

If you use search engine friendly URLs on your site, you will need to update your .htaccess settings to make use of them in version 2.0 as this feature has been changed.

Once this database update has run, you will be ready to begin using Pixaria 2.0.

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Created: Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Last edited: Sunday, November 4, 2007