Hi, all.
I’m in the process of updating a client’s site - www.cheapphonesonline.co.uk - from v2.0.14 to 2.1.2, but I’m struggling badly and would appreciate any advice on how to proceed.
The automatic upgrade process seems to work all right when it comes to core code…but it absolutely trashes the skin I’ve created for the site, to the point where it’s hard to know where to start fixing the problems. In many cases, comparing the code between the two versions merely reveals that entire chunks have changed beyond recognition, so that reintegrating small tweaks and bits of styling is nigh on impossible.
How does everyone else get through this? Am I going about it in the wrong way by using the automatic upgrade process? Is there a way of preserving the skin during the upgrade (which is surely the point of skins…) rather than letting it be destroyed?
At the moment, I’ve spent two days on it and appear to have several more ahead of me. CS-Cart have offered to do it for us, but will charge the preposterous sum of USD540…which rather indicates that even they know the upgrade process is absurdly time-consuming. Instead, I’m doing it for virtually nothing, on the basis that it’s my fault for choosing CS-Cart in the first place… 
Any help or advice will be very gratefully received. Many thanks.
I back up my skin especially style.css and images. After the upgrade I simply replace the files. Third party modifications would ahve to be reinstalled if compatible.
@iankgrant - Unfortunately, you modified files that were upgraded and may be subject to future upgrades.
I would suggest that you learn about how to use hooks and that you re-implement your skin based on a standard skin which is close to the layout/color scheme you want.
Did you make a complete new skin? Or did you modify an existing one?
[quote name=‘tbirnseth’]Did you make a complete new skin? Or did you modify an existing one?[/QUOTE]
Thanks for your reply! I modified an existing skin; I forget which one as it was nearly a year ago.
Obviously, I mainly made changes to the stylesheets…but even that doesn’t seem to be a satisfactory approach, as the upgrades have changed the HTML output so radically that many of the elements and style classes no longer exist in the same form. That seems like a deeply flawed system to me, I have to say.
There were a number of tweaks to the .tpl files too, which are completely obliterated by the upgrade. I’m meticulous in commenting my own changes, so I can find the updates that need to be restored…but again, the .tpl code has frequently changed so much that it’s impossible to see where to restore anything.
I appreciate the suggestion about re-implementing the skin in a different way, but I think that’d have to be a last resort. The client has no budget for any of this work, so I’m effectively doing it for free; going back and starting again isn’t a very appealing prospect, for obvious reasons!
[quote name=‘roban’]I back up my skin especially style.css and images. After the upgrade I simply replace the files. Third party modifications would ahve to be reinstalled if compatible.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for your reply.
I’ve restored the CSS files…but the changes that’ve been made to the .tpl files during the upgrade are so far-reaching that many of the styles no longer work, since the elements and classes they’re based on don’t exist in the same form. Do you reinstate the .tpl files from your old skin too?
Seems like the “diff” provided in the upgrade would pretty clearly identify your changes from the cart’s changes.
You can’t go directly from 2.0.14 to 2.1.2. While it may seem very tedious, I would merge changes at each version before going to the next.
Pretty easy to add custom stylesheets so you don’t end up with the conflicts. See: [url]http://www.ez-ms.com/docs/customizing_your_store.pdf[/url]. Written a long time ago, but the concepts still apply. You can simply do these in the my_changes addon if you didn’t want to use the ‘local’ addon described in the doc.
[quote name=‘tbirnseth’]Pretty easy to add custom stylesheets so you don’t end up with the conflicts. See: [url]http://www.ez-ms.com/docs/customizing_your_store.pdf[/url]. Written a long time ago, but the concepts still apply.[/QUOTE]
Thanks very much. That looks like an extremely useful overview.
It looks as if it might be best simply to abandon the upgrade and start afresh with v2.1.2, re-doing the skin based upon a rather more solid structure to make it easier to upgrade in the future. I’m guessing that might actually be quicker…