R8 Direct Database Upgrade

[sloDavid]

The R8 email announcement said that R8 supports "direct database upgrades going back to versions as early as 7.0.3." I'm unsure how to reconcile that statement with the upgrade instructions at http://help.ablecommerce.com/upgrades/a ... old_r8.htm, which say that I should first apply the incremental updates up to R7.

I have different projects that are 7.0.6, 7.0.7, and R3. All have been customized pretty extensively. I have production and staging copies. Even if go through the update process on the staging versions, I'm concerned about how long it will take to apply that update to live, because, of course, I can't just copy the files. Is that what the direct database upgrade is for?

Am I right to think that I'm supposed to go through all the incremental upgrades on staging, but that I don't need to do so on the production site -- that I can (basically) just copy my new staging R8, and when I log in, it will handle the database changes, and everything will be good to go?

[Katie]

For your 7.0.x installations, you will want to follow different instructions. They are posted here:

http://help.ablecommerce.com/upgrades/a ... o_gold.htm

For the R3 upgrade, it will be best to install the full version of R8 first, and merge your customized files. Then you can point to the R3 database and the upgrade will take care of itself.

Thanks,
Katie

[tripleW]

Katie,

Could you please clarify "point" to the database. Do you mean change the connection string in Admin or browse to ~/install/upgrade.aspx?

Thanks

[Katie]

You can change the connection string via the admin, and I think the upgrade will run automatically after logging out and then back in, but if it doesn't, then you can manually access the /install/upgrade.aspx page.

please remember to backup the database in case something goes wrong.

[jmestep]

We just did an upgrade from 703 to R8 and it went great. What a time and trouble saver to be able to do this!