AbleCommerce Shopping Cart Software

I originally installed AC 7.0.0 (build 10152) on SQL/Server 2000. Then in November 2009 I moved to a new server running SQL/Server 2008. I backed up the DB on the old server, restored on the new, and everything was working fine. Windows 2008, SQL/Server 2008, IIS 7, app pools, all configured and working fine. So our AC store was receiving orders ok, and all was well.

Today I tried to upgrade to 7.4 after following all of the pre-install steps. It prompted me for new 7.4 key, I entered it, then received the following error:

Running upgrade scriptso o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

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Server Error in '/' Application.
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Invalid column name 'CountryRuleId'.
Invalid column name 'ProvinceRuleId'.
Invalid column name 'ExcludePostalCodeFilter'.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Invalid column name 'CountryRuleId'.
Invalid column name 'ProvinceRuleId'.
Invalid column name 'ExcludePostalCodeFilter'.

I am 99% sure it is not a permissions issue. My DB is set as SQL/Server 2000 Compatibility Level. I've searched the forums and can't find any similar issues.

My store is currently unavailable in limo so I really appreciate any help you can provide. Thank you.

Did you actually run the upgrade script? Install/Upgrade.aspx. That is what upgrades the database.

Yes, that is the upgrade script that I ran. First it prompted me for the new License Key, I submitted that. Then it said the license key was updated OK and provided a button to 'Continue with Upgrade'. I clicked that button, it processed for a little bit (showing the expanding periods .........) then came back with the error above.

Did you follow these instructions from Able help. Yours was a multi step upgrade so you might have missed that step.
Locate the file App_Code/TaxHelper.cs file and delete it prior to accessing the Upgrade.aspx script.
If you do not remove this file, the upgrade script will display an error.

Yes, i did follow those multi-step instructions. The TaxHelper.cs file did not exist in my App_Code directory, but I removed the FCKEditor folder and followed the rest of the instructions. It seems that the error is somehow related to SQL/Server 2000/2005/2008. I originally installed on 2000, moved to a new server and restored to 2008. Compatibility Mode is still 2000. I wonder if the script somehow needs to be told what version of SQL/Server I'm on to create the tables correctly.

According to support I followed an unsupported upgrade path. I did a restore from MSSQL 2000 to MSSQL 2008, both while running AC 7.0. The crazy thing is that everything worked fine before and after the DB upgrade. But when I tried to upgrace AC to a later version the upgrades failed. I tried going to both 7.3 and 7.4.

So what I ended up having to do is back out my DB ugrade and go back to MSSQL 2000, then run the AC upgrade to 7.3. Then I upgraded the database to MSSQL 2008, then upgraded AC to 7.04.

Lots of undocumented hoops to jump through. Hopefully this will help someone else from making the same mistakes.