It's time to ditch Joomla 2.5.x and with it, my old Joomlart template; and move to one of your new templates.
To do this, I might as well make a fresh start, so one of your quickstart options would be good (probably Base 3).
BUT I also want to use my existing data (dbase).
What is the best way to do this? (i.e. fresh start, but use existing dbase).
Perhaps export the old data, then import the tables into the new dbase? Would that work?
Or perhaps just give the new dbase (during installation of the quickstart) the same name as the existing dbase? Would that work?
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Nick

Hey Nick,

I wrote a blog post for this a while back actually.

www.joomlabamboo.com/blog/bamboo-blog/five-things-i-learnt-from-moving-this-blog-to-joomla3

Let us know if it helps.

Anthony

Sought of helped, thanks.
I knew it was going to be a big, complicated job (and you confirmed it).
Especially as I may not need K2 with the new site, but the old site was built around it.
I tried what someone had suggested - importing and renaming the database tables, but I got errors. I may try it again, but first convert the old 2.5 site to J3; then import that dbase into the new J3 site. This should maintain the dbase integrity and hopefully no errors.
There is a lot more to it that I originally thought. I might have to set up the site locally and have a play. I wish I was a plumber...
Regards, Nick

I would always want to migrate a site locally as it can go wrong

I would personally prefer to migrate the whole site rather than the db but then I'm not experienced tinkering with queries

Cheers
Paul

OK, can I ask a couple of questions about migrating locally because I'd like to establish a system to follow that will be almost fool-proof.

Procedure:
1. on live site: create full backup (Akeeba)
2. on local computer: download the backup and restore (create dbase etc.) so now it is live and functioning on local computer
3. On local computer, migrate from 2.5 to 3.x and ensure all working as expected
4. on local computer, install new template, extensions etc, so now functioning properly and updated.
5. on local computer, create backup (Akeeba)
6. on live site, move everything in public html to a subdirectory (site now off-line, but original site still available if things go wrong)
7. upload backup from local computer to public html on server
8. restore backup (create new database etc) on server
9. test that all is operating as expected
10. Go live

Would that be a logical sequence?
The only concern would be that I'd be running XAMP on win7 on my local computer, does the restore (Akeeba) work OK (e.g. with permissions) when restoring to the server after operating in Windows?

Looking forward to expertise and advice
Nick

Hi Nick,

I would add:

2.1 Make sure all installed extensions are compatible with the version being updated to or disable them.
2.2 Remove any extensions that are not being used.
2.3 Check the extensions -> database tab and make sure the schema is up to date.

Most update issues are usually down to 3rd party extensions. Turning error reporting to development in global configuration after installing the local backup can help to pinpoint any errors after trying to update.

If you create the akeeba backup using .jpa then you can extract locally using the normal kickstart file or their windows extraction program. It works in the same way as using it on a server.
Windows does not use unix permissions so unpacking back to the server, the permissions will be set by kickstart (or your server). I have never had a problem with permissions after uploading a backup from a windows machine.

Regards,

Rob