Migrating Joomla 3 to 4 using new install Topic is solved

[nickza]

Hi there.
We have a project with a site that has the Latest Joomla 3, as well as Kunena forum component.
We are going to install a brand new template, as well as want to clear out old files as well as upgrade to Joomla 4 (in the process, component compatibility willing).

My thinking is this.
1. Install new Joomla 4 install
2. Setup new install with the new template
3. Install Kunena forum
4. Export the user, content, and other important data from Joomla 3 site into the new Joomla 4 site.

Question: Are the tables different in Joomla? Specifically the Users, content, etc (all the stuff I would need from previous install).
And does anyone see anything going wrong with this plan? Our aim is to keep all the current data, but on a fresh install. This site is the same site installed a very long time ago.

Looking forward to your replies

[pe7er]

Yes, there are small differences between Joomla 3 and 4 regarding database tables.

I often use the same approach with migrating to a higher version using a clean site/database.

What I often do:
Old J3 site

• create a copy of the Joomla 3 website
• install it locally (using a web environment like xampp or similar)
• upgrade it to Joomla 4 so the database tables will have the same structure

New J4 site

• Install a clean Joomla 4 without any content
• use phpMyAdmin to export the categories/articles/menu items (only data not structure)
  that I need from the upgraded J3>J4 site
• use phpMyAdmin to run those SQL export files to create the categories/articles/menu items
  in the clean J4 site

[sozzled]

You need Kunena v6 with J! 4. K 6 is not yet finished; still in beta testing. You may want to wait.

[nickza]

@sozzled - yes. you are 100% correct. I will have to wait a bit longer.

@pe7er, thank you. I think that is exactly what I am going to do, but after Kunena for J4 comes out.

THank you both

[pe7er]

You're welcome!

[strudel]

I upgraded my hobby Joomla! 3 site to version 4 and somewhere, somehow along the line caused some weird breakage to the system. The site is up and serving pages, but I've got weird problems like

* nested admistrator/administrator/ and components/components/ directories

* the extensions "discover" tool is finding what appears to be old leftover crap from Joomla! 3 stuff that probably should have been autoremoved, but is still there and breaks the site if installed.

I'm thinking that I'd like to do a brand new clean install of Joomla! 4 on a new server, then see about migrating my categories, articles and menus over if that's possible. I see from the quoted text below that it should be doable, but I'm not clear on the exact procedure or what is meant by exporting only the data but not the structure. Ideally I'd also like to migrate over the settings for my Joomla! 4 template and one or two extensions where I already spent some time customizing.

I want to try fixing this on my own if I can, since it's a hobby site and I don't have a budget for professional help, but at the same time I might know just enough to be dangerous. I know how to get into phpAdmin and export/import, and that it's the "content" table that has all of my article data, but beyond that I don't know much about how Joomla works under the hood. Any tips, suggestions, etc. would be appreciated.

Yes, there are small differences between Joomla 3 and 4 regarding database tables.

I often use the same approach with migrating to a higher version using a clean site/database.

What I often do:
Old J3 site

• create a copy of the Joomla 3 website
• install it locally (using a web environment like xampp or similar)
• upgrade it to Joomla 4 so the database tables will have the same structure

New J4 site

• Install a clean Joomla 4 without any content
• use phpMyAdmin to export the categories/articles/menu items (only data not structure)
  that I need from the upgraded J3>J4 site
• use phpMyAdmin to run those SQL export files to create the categories/articles/menu items
  in the clean J4 site

[pe7er]

I want to try fixing this on my own if I can, since it's a hobby site and I don't have a budget for professional help, but at the same time I might know just enough to be dangerous. I know how to get into phpAdmin and export/import, and that it's the "content" table that has all of my article data, but beyond that I don't know much about how Joomla works under the hood. Any tips, suggestions, etc. would be appreciated.

I usually export/import the records from:
#__content - articles
#__categories (only the categories for the articles) - the article categories
#__menu (only the front-end menu items) - the menu items
#__users - the users
#__user_usergroup_map - and the groups assigned to the users

In Joomla 4 you also need for every article (record in the #__content table) a reference in the #__workflow_associations table, otherwise you'll see the articles being counted in the Categories overview, but they don't appear in the Articles overview.

I do this stuff locally on my Linux computer with LAMP stack. On Windows or Mac I would use Xamp, Mamp, Wamp or some other LAMP stack. Working with your website(s) on your local computer is faster / easier than doing everything on a remote server.

[strudel]

is it possible to also migrate the "Custom" (text) type modules via phpAdmin? I'm seeing them in the joom_modules table but not sure if it's safe to move the ones I want. I see there's also a table called joom_modules_menu and am not sure what that does. Worried about breaking something still.