Practical Guide to migrate from J1.5.xx to J3.x

[leolam]

Migrating from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 3.x is a Major Migration!

Preparations:

1. Backup the site and restore with Akeebabackup on a local server (we like Uniformserver due to its ease) or purchase a cheap domain (Namecheap is offering very cheap domain names) and copy it to that domain (preferred and most easy method if you are not familiar with settings of local hosts such as PHP/mySQL/Apache) and reinstall with Akeebabackup/Kickstart
2. Make a list of all your extensions: Templates/Components/Modules/Plugins and check which of those you want to keep using, if they have J3.x compatible extensions and/or select alternatives
3. Check your content and remove outdated content (note sections will be replaced in Joomla 3.x with a nested category tree)
4. Empty all trash (menu/content/modules/etc)
5. Update those extensions that are compatible with Joomla 1.5 and Joomla 3.x (examples CB, Mijoshop, Breezingforms)
6. Remove all Nonumber i.e (now renamed)Regularlabs/JCE/Akeeba Admin Tools/etc. extensions and all other extensions (check all plugins!) that are not compatible with Joomla 3.x including your (club) template (!). You can find non-core Joomla extensions in the Extension Manager--> Manage-list and check with the developer that the extension is compatible or has an alternate J3.x version. If not you need to replace the extension.

STEP I: Upgrade your Joomla 1.5.xx site to Joomla 1.5.26
Download, extract and upload this package from Joomla Downloads to your domain with ftp in binary mode and overwrite all files and folders
--> when done backup with Akeebabackup and download your backup

STEP II: Install Joomla 3.x in a sub-directory of your Joomla 1.5.26 installation (do not install sample data!!!)

STEP III: Get and Install in a subdirectory of your site SP Upgrade and update the settings in the Options/settings tab of the component. Component is well documented . SP Upgrade migrates fully automated without affecting your Joomla present live site!:

• Users
• Articles (along with their Sections and Categories)
• Contacts
• Web Links
• News Feeds
• Banners
• Images
• Menus
• Modules

It also migrates a lot of extensions (see documentation of SP Upgrade) For those extensions that are not supported by SP Upgrade check with the respective extension developer how the migration/upgrade should be preformed for that particular extension?

Most important with the migration is that you will keep the Same id's - Why is this so important ?

• Google ranking is not affected
• No broken internal links (e.g. within your articles)
• No broken external links. Those are links from other domains to your site

STEP IV:If all is set properly in SP Upgrade you can select 'all' and hit upgrade --> few minutes later your site is on J3.x

STEP V: Backup your site!(Akeebabackup) and download it to your computer

Now your site is on Joomla 3.x and you can add your new template, your J3.x compatible extensions, setup your navigation etc etc.

The extended documentation can be found at the Joomla documentation portal

Leo