General upgrade questions

[lurkalot]

Eventually I'm going to have to upgrade from Coppermine 1.4.27 to 1.5.4

My problem is, I'm also going to upgrade soon from SMF 1.1.11 to SMF2.  Just wondering what order I'll have to do this, and also will I have to un-bridge and re-bridge the two apps?  Coppermine and SMF currently run on separate databases if this is relevant.

I'm currently waiting for a version of cpmfetch or equivalent, to be released before I upgrade, but I would appreciate any help and advice regarding these upgrades for when the time comes.

[phill104]

with modifications to just one line of code CPM fetch will work with 1.5.x. I'm already using it on a site of mine.

[lurkalot]

with modifications to just one line of code CPM fetch will work with 1.5.x. I'm already using it on a site of mine.

Phill, care to share this little gem of knowledge?   I really want to try this on my test site please.

As for my other questions re: upgrading, I suppose best way would be upgrade coppermine to the new version, then un-bridge once working.  Then upgrade my SMF and re-bridge.  Is this the best way to go about it?

[lurkalot]

I'll take that as a no then Phill 

Back to my original upgrade questions.

So if I go ahead and upgrade my SMF from 1.1.11 to SMF2+ I assume I'll have to unbridge and then use the bridge app for SMF2?

It appears that I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place so to speak.  Reading the docs it says,

"Warning: If you already have users and custom groups in your coppermine database when you enable bridging, be aware that they will be lost. If your coppermine users have already created private albums and uploaded pics to them, they will be lost as well!"

So does this mean I can't upgrade without losing all my gallery contents?

Link to site, www.cameracraniums.com

[phill104]

It was not a no. I just have not had time to find it. Nibbler posted the fix somewhere on the cpmfetch board so you could try searching for it.

I'm on the road at the moment so am unable to access the machine I have my notes on until the weekend which is why I have not responded.

[Joachim Müller]

...and there's a strict "one issue per thread" policy as well...

[phill104]

Start a thread regarding cpmfetch and I'll post the details.

[lurkalot]

Start a thread regarding cpmfetch and I'll post the details.

Thread started Phill, thanks.

...and there's a strict "one issue per thread" policy as well...

Sorry Joachim.

[Joachim Müller]

Issue(s) solved then? If yes, do as suggested in Common policies: Resolve your threads. It is so frustrating that even frequent-poster who's first language is English don't care for board rules :'(.

[lurkalot]

Joachim, this issue is not solved, my question is related to upgrading.

No one has offered any advice yet.

[Joachim Müller]

Eventually I'm going to have to upgrade from Coppermine 1.4.27 to 1.5.4

My problem is, I'm also going to upgrade soon from SMF 1.1.11 to SMF2.  Just wondering what order I'll have to do this, and also will I have to un-bridge and re-bridge the two apps?  Coppermine and SMF currently run on separate databases if this is relevant.

Your question is invalid in the first place: we can not actually recommend anything regarding a third-party application like SMF. All we do is providing support for Coppermine. As far as Coppermine is concerned, the upgrade order doesn't matter, as we're providing bridge files both for SMF1 as well as SMF2. As Coppermine doesn't have any impact on SMF (it doesn't modify any third-party app that it get's bridged with), it's hard to think of anything that could matter SMF-wise, but again: we're not the SMF experts here - we're just SMF users, so we can't recommend anything in this aspect.
If you're paranoid, then unbridge, upgrade and finally re-bridge.

[lurkalot]

If you're paranoid, then unbridge, upgrade and finally re-bridge.

Thanks. 

It was reading the docs that got me worried, it says,

"Warning: If you already have users and custom groups in your coppermine database when you enable bridging, be aware that they will be lost. If your coppermine users have already created private albums and uploaded pics to them, they will be lost as well!"

Now as I'm using bridge for SMF 1.x.x then upgrading to SMF 2 I have to use the bridge for SMF 2.  Will I still retain all the contents of my gallery? or will I lose it all as stated in the docs?

[Joachim Müller]

It was reading the docs that got me worried, it says,

"Warning: If you already have users and custom groups in your coppermine database when you enable bridging, be aware that they will be lost. If your coppermine users have already created private albums and uploaded pics to them, they will be lost as well!"

You should read on, as that section explains that you actually don't lose anything, but only the correlation between user actions and user IDs. Once you turn bridging back on, everything will be back to normal again. You can toggle bridging off and on and off and on: as long as you return to the state that your gallery used to be when the database content was generated, everything will be fine. If there was a danger in upgrading whil being bridged, we'd warned you about that danger in the upgrading sections of the docs.

Now as I'm using bridge for SMF 1.x.x then upgrading to SMF 2 I have to use the bridge for SMF 2.  Will I still retain all the contents of my gallery? or will I lose it all as stated in the docs?

No, for Pete's sake: you won't lose anything, as the user IDs will not differ. Again: read the details:

Coppermine users, groups and pics uploaded by users are lost when integrating

Warning: If you already have users and custom groups in your coppermine database when you enable bridging, be aware that they will be lost. If your coppermine users have already created private albums and uploaded pics to them, they will be lost as well!

Detailed explanation:
As most community applications, coppermine stores everything that users (including the admin) do (like uploading pics, posting comments, rating files) inside the database. The reference to each user action is being kept using a unique user ID. The correlation between the user actions and the corresponding user profile is being kept by storing the user ID within each record in the database that determines the user action.
When bridging is enabled, coppermine's user management is being dropped in favor of the user management that comes with the application you bridge with. Subsequently, the user IDs from your bridging app (that differ from Coppermine's user IDs) are being taken into account.

Coppermine-user "Bill" has got the coppermine user ID "3". He used to upload several pics that went into the folder /albums/userpics/10003/. The URL of his personal gallery used to be http://yoursite.tld/your_coppermine_folder/index.php?cat=10003.
In the BBS application, the user "Linus" has got the user ID "3".
After enabling bridging, the URL http://yoursite.tld/your_coppermine_folder/index.php?cat=10003 points to the personal gallery of the user "Linus". All pics that Bill used to upload appear to be owned by Linus.

Summary:
Correlation between the actions that the unbridged coppermine users have performed and the "new" accounts from the app you bridged with is lost. Subsequently, you don't actually lose files that have been uploaded previously, but they appear to have been uploaded by a different user.

Bottom line: if you're afraid that something fishy might happen, then perform a backup both on file as welll as database level before you upgrade. This way, you can savely go back in case something goes wrong.

Please stop the discussion now: nothing bad will happen when upgrading!

[lurkalot]

Bottom line: if you're afraid that something fishy might happen, then perform a backup both on file as welll as database level before you upgrade. This way, you can savely go back in case something goes wrong.

Please stop the discussion now: nothing bad will happen when upgrading!

Thanks, that's all I needed to know.